Daughter has put off taking Grade 8, until she is really confident. She is aiming for a good distinction. She now hopes to take the exam in this session. The problem is that she has a wolf note on her violin and it is very obvious, when playing her C List piece. I assumed that an examiner would realise and take this as just an inherent part of the make up of the instrument. However her teacher says that she wonders whether this is the case, as there is not guarantee that the examiner would be a string player.

Should I make enquiries about it with the Associated Board? Should I try to find another violin for the howling piece??

Violinma

Can I ask which not, which string, which piece?

It is the high B flat on the G string.

Is it the Czardas??
If so, I can see the problem as it is a longish note. It may be that you can improve it somewhat by playing it as a long note while tweaking finger pressure and bow speed/placing. I have certainly seen improvement in duff notes on violins by doing this, although it will never be perfect. Mine is the C just above, by the way!
Also careful handling musically of how the note is played may help you get away with it - ie. not trying to hit it too hard, or tailing the note off with plenty of vibrato.
Obviously, the AB would not be concerned with it in the least, it's not their problem so they'd say pick another piece, just like picking pieces on the piano that fit smaller hands. Also, although it's a shame, and typical it's that particular note, if the teacher is determined she should keep the piece, it won't fail her for one note.

Thanks Miffy,
Yes, it's the Czardas! She does have another C List piece ready, but it's not as good.
Daughter is aiming for a good distinction, so every point counts.
We may postpone the exam until the summer and see if anything can be done about the note.
I will pass on your suggestions and see if it makes a difference.
Violinma

I can understand your anxieties if you are aiming for distinction. Weather-depending, I am going to the music shop owned by my luthier on Saturday so I'll try and remember to ask him if there is anything that can be done, perhaps bridge, strings or soundpost. I don't really know scientifically what causes them, so I suppose in theory, if you could move it, it might pop up in a different place instead, even more inconvenient!!!

My daughter had a similar problem with a cell a few years ago. Her teacher adde a wolf tone eliminator between the bridge and where the string attached to the instrument. It didn't cost much and was fitted pretty quickly. Further info below from Wikipedia. Hope this helps

Wolf tone
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This article is about artificial overtones in musical instruments. For similar sounding terms, see wolf tone (disambiguation). For the Irish Republican, see Theobald Wolfe Tone.
A wolf tone, or simply a "wolf", is produced when a played note matches the natural resonating frequency of the body of a musical instrument, producing a sustaining sympathetic artificial overtone that amplifies and expands the frequencies of the original note, frequently accompanied by an oscillating beating (due to the uneven frequencies between the natural note and artificial overtone) which may be likened to the howling of the animal. A similar phenomenon is the wolf interval, usually between E flat and G sharp, of the various non-circulating temperaments.

[edit] Stringed instruments

A brass wolf tone eliminator typically placed on the G string (second string from the left) of a cello, between the bridge and the tailpiece. (The black rubber piece on the D string (third from the left) is a mute.)Wolf tones are usually only noticed on bowed instruments, most notably the cello and surrounding violin family, since the tones produced are played for much longer periods, and thus are easier to hear. Frequently, the wolf is present on or in between the pitches E and F?.

A wolf can be eliminated with a piece of equipment called a wolf tone eliminator. This is a metal tube and mounting screw with an interior rubber sleeve that fits around the offending string below the bridge. Different placements of this tube along the string influences or eliminates the frequency at which the wolf occurs. It is essentially an attenuator that cuts down on reverberation.

An older device on cellos was a fifth string that could be tuned to the wolf frequency; fingering an octave above or below also attenuates the effect somewhat, as does the trick of squeezing with the knees.

Lou Harrison was said to have written a piece (evidently reworked as the second mvt. of the Suite for Cello and Harp) that exploited the wolf specific to Seymour Barab's new cello.

Hi Violinma,
Had a word with my luthier today, he said to take it in and have the soundpost played around with. If you tell your luthier which note it is, he will know what he's trying to eliminate.
Hope that helps.x

Thanks Miffy & Taxidriver,
Yes, the luthier said that he would need to have do something like that. However he also said that he would have to be very careful, as sometimes fiddling with it just moved it from one place to another, possibly worse place!

Violinma

Yes, I did ask my luthier that - could you end up moving the note to a worse place and he just laughed evily
But he said it's the best first thing to try if you have someone with patience you can trust.

That's quite a common problem. Your daughter's teacher should be able to suggest musical ways of playing the note to minimise the howling.

Take the instrument to a good luthier by all means but don't expect a miracle cure, especially if the setup works in all other respects. Cellos have wolf notes so frequently that it is common to fit a wolf note eliminator on the string concerned to dampen the specific vibration causing the problem, however I have not come across one for the violin. Using a different make of string can sometimes help. Other tricks/cures that I have come across are fitting a sliding mute across the D and G strings (rather than between D and A), and also a blob of blutac on the G string!

Good luck!

I agree. I said in my original post she should be able to be shown how to get round it musically, but you've put it much better than me!
I've had many pupils over the years who have had a dud note on their violin - and of course you only usually discover it when you need it - and we've worked round it/with it and not had it commented on by examiners or adjudicators.

Good luck from me too!

The other option would be to write a short note to the examiner explaining the situation. I have no idea if they would then take this into account, but it can't do any harm to try.

It's a kind thought, but quite honestly, he wouldn't be able to make an allowance for it, it's quite simply what he hears on the day is what he will assess - it may even make him notice the note more! His view would be, there are plenty of pieces on the C list without that note, in the same way as someone on the piano performing a piece with chords or pedal they can't reach.

If the wolf note really is bothering her that much (I know how much these things can become an issue out of frustration), she would be better off choosing another piece, or her teacher showing her techniques to get round it, there's usually a sneaky way

Thanks Alison,
She has worked on this with her teacher. I think that the wolf note is actually next to one of the notes she plays, but it sometimes resonates if she is fractionally too close.

She played the Czardas in a music festival on the weekend and won the class, so hopefully it will be ok.

Violinma

Well done!
This will boost her confidence too.

Thanks Miffy!
I hope so. It sounded fine to me. I know it is there and wait to hear if it appears!!! Her teacher showed her a way to silently slide up to the note and this seems to have worked.

Violinma