A Treatise on: The True Art of Making Musical Instruments

A Practical Introduction to the Forgotten Craft of Enhancing Sound Click here for a Sound Sample This is a treatise in the very old fashioned, as in 18th century, sense of a treatise. That is, every aspect of the craft is treated as completely as possible. It is the only book of its kind and will likely be the only one ever to tackle this subject in precisely this way. That way being one in which most of what is considered important in the science of acoustics from the physics point of view is almost totally ignored. Why is this? All of the greatest musical instruments had been built before that science came into its own during the later half of the 19th century. Therefore none of that science is relevant to making a sound that is wonderful to hear. This book deals only with what is relevant to that which is required to create a sound that is wonderful to hear. All of its contents have been tested and proved in my instruments. Everything which proved useless to creating a glorious sound can not be found in this book. If you trust your senses and are perfectly acquainted with my instruments, you will hear for yourself that I know what I am doing. Had I not this confidence, I would not have bothered to trouble myself to write this book in the first place. This treatise is as clear an articulation as I can muster to discuss in detail all that I consider important in the business of creating a delicious sound. If I have been less than clear from the reader's point of view, it is not for the want of trying...sound, along with music, is one of the most difficult subjects to write about. Words pale in the presence of a single sound. If a picture is worth a thousand words, one glorious sound is worth 84,000 words...the length of this book in its present form. Table of Contents Chapter One Part 1- A Defining Moment...In this chapter, the words Music, Tone and Timbre are defined very precisely. The inability to think clearly about acoustics, in my experience, arises exclusively from muddled thinking relating to these three words. When they are defined, a lot of confusion about sound begins to lift. Part 2- How to Judge the Sound of Musical Instruments Here is a discussion of 41 different characteristics which most great musical instruments share in common. Chapter Two — Thirteen Tonal Principles This chapter offers a brief description of the 13 Acoustical Principles that must be applied to create a sound which feels wonderful to the ear and the soul to hear. The Principle of Harmonic Proportions The Principle of Pitch Related Timbre The Principle of Multiple Acoustic Function The Principle of Driving Points The Principle of Harmonic Integrity The Principle of Mechanical Intensity or Crown The Principle of Balanced Force The Principle of Anti-nodes The Principle of Acoustic Inflection The Principle of Energy Dissipation The Principle of Acoustic Density The Principle of Spiritual Proportion. The Principle of Empirical Design Speaking of Principles Chapter Three — Acoustics Experiments for Beginners Described in this chapter are several simple acoustical experiments which anyone can learn something from. How you react to the experiments will determine how successful you will be in mastering the Art of Acoustics. Chapter Four—On the Art and Science of Tuning Tuning is at the heart of the Art of Acoustic Enhancement. I discuss this business in great detail to provide every possible opportunity for readers to profit from knowing about the Principles. The Tuning Process Phase One: Deciding what to do Phase two : Method for Tuning Phase Three: Perfecting the Tuning Tuning: the Perception Chapter Five — The Sources of Pitch Used in Tuning Listening clearly is difficult for everyone. There are 15 different sources of sound energy present, when tapping on a soundboard of any kind, to confuse even the most careful of listeners. Knowing what each source is and learning how to isolate or ignore each or all of them is essential to success in mastering the Art of Acoustics. Chapter Six— The Problems of Tuning Most of the problems related to mastering Tuning stem from the emotional reaction to confusion. Sound is exceedingly complex. Knowing what the pitfalls are before you encounter them should lighten the burden of learning to master the complexities. Chapter Seven— Tricks and Techniques Every true Master in any field developes novel techniques or "tricks" to make what they are doing both easy and efficient. The greatest masters have the largest bag of tricks to make them as efficient as possible. In this chapter, I discuss my tricks as they relate to Tuning. Chapter Eight — Tuning Related Phenomena Principles are Causes. The resulting Sound is an Effect. When one or more principles are combined, the effects they produce are sometime perplexing and need to be understood in order to avoid being putoff by them. This chapter discusses these effects which arise from applying certain combinations of principles. Chapter Nine — Tuning Systems The ancient makers had one thing in common...The culture they lived in required them to pay close attention to the acoustics of their instruments. To not do so would mean they couldn't run their own shop...according to the rules of the Guilds. Since peoples from earlier times traveled at great risk and discomfort to themselves, most instrument makers were obliged to develop their acoustical craft regionally. All the makers in a given city would do things similarly. Makers from different cities did things quite differently. And makers from different countries did things completely differently. But they each did their utmost to enhance the sounds of the instruments they made to the maximum degree of which they were capable. It was easier then because they did not have to unlearn modern physics of acoustics. The result was that they developed regional tuning systems and national tuning systems. Each system produces sounds of differing characteristics, but they all work. Chapter Ten — Bloom The phenomon of "Bloom" in a sound is what makes a sound appear alive. This chapter is devoted to explaining how bloom happens and how it can be modified or removed. Chapter Eleven— Driving Points This chapter discusses Fry's discovery. However, there are 5 other driving points of which he was unaware. Chapter Twelve — Anti-Nodes Anti-nodes are nothing new except as they relate to objects which are not of uniform shape, density, structure, or stiffness. This chapter discusses this subject as a principle. As such, the principle guides decision making in almost every aspect of instrument making. Chapter Thirteen — Matters of Acoustics that Influence Design Inventing a new design for a musical instrument is usually a notional business. By knowing what affects what acoustically, the business of design can be made more direct and purposeful rather than notional. Chapter Fourteen — How the Principles Apply to Actions The ancient makers applied the same acoustical attention to the making of their actions as they did to the instruments themselves. This chapter reveals how to bring the acoustical principles to bear to improve how an action functions and how it improves the sound of an instrument. Chapter Fifteen —The Little Things and the Differences They Make Its the little things that can have a profound influence on the sound, way out of proportion to their apparent value. This chapter focuses on those little things. Chapter Sixteen— How the Principles Apply to Violins Chapter Seventeen—How the Principles Apply to Guitars and Chapter Eighteen— Selecting Wood I use 15 discreet criteria for selecting wood for use in my instruments. Most commercial selection processes use as their criteria for selection of wood a simple "visual fault" based system. My system starts where their system leaves off. Knowing what to look for and what to avoid means that every instrument has a better chance to turn out splendidly rather than dismally. I am reminded almost daily that every right idea, such as you will find in this treatise, has required at least 25 - 30 years to be accepted...meaning that it will be at least the year 2020 before the contents of my treatise become accepted by enough instrument makers that it can't be ignored. That is because every right idea always goes through the same cycle leading to universal acceptance: first comes the DISMISSAL stage (the preoccupied mind dismisses what isn't in the zone of its preoccupation), followed by the RIDICULE stage (what the preoccupied mind fails to understand, but which it must somehow confront, it ridicules), then comes the ANTAGONISM stage (when a few people take a second look at the new idea it usually causes all minds to divide into two distinct camps--those who find it useful and those who feel threatened by the building support and take action against the new idea in the form of active and passive resistance and antagonism to it), as the support for the new right idea builds and those who are working with the idea see how good and useful the idea is, everyone is forced to deal with the new idea...like it or not...this stage is the ACCEPTANCE stage. Finally, as all minds get beyond the feeling of threat and accept the idea to the point that they think that everyone who disagrees with the idea is an idiot, even to the point that they no longer associate the new idea with the person who came up with it and instead think that is was their own idea in the first place...I call this the I KNEW THAT!!!!??!!! stage. Right now, my treatise and Area Tuning idea are right in between the RIDICULE and ANTAGONISM stages. And, as more instrument makers realize the value of the work I do based on these ideas, to the point where they can't blame the quality of my results on some mysterious talent thingy, because the result are so consistently high and appealing to musicians, those makers who are antagonistic to the ideas will soon find themselves to be considered backward, ignorant, and acoustically incompetent. As soon as that happens, those makers will be forced to learn to use an idea which their brains have treated badly for years and years. Such a brain can't easily learn anything right in the first place, and they will (like Salieri in the play AMADEUS) watch themselves decline in reputation and esteem. The truth is, you are either always improving or you are deteriorating relative to those who are improving because you aren't improving enough, fast enough, or enough in the right direction. This is all in the nature of ideas and things. Producing something of extremely high quality has nothing to do with talent...it is just a choice we make. Those who choose to go after quality will always produce higher quality results than those who don't. Quality does not exist in the thing itself or the flawlessness of the execution of the thing. My authority is Sir Joshua Reynolds who said, "Everything good is the result of the application of a principle or principles. And nothing good can be repeated except that it was the result of some principle or principles having been applied." Nowhere is this more true than in the making of a musical instrument, because no matter how well executed the workmanship is, the sound is the result of the application of true acoustical principles. And those who apply those principles, even to the slightest degree, will always make better sounding instruments than those who decide not to apply them. And, it is the nature of the market in musical instruments that the best musicians always decide to buy the best sounding and playing instruments, just as mediocre musicians buy musical instruments with their eyes and not their ears. Interestingly, Leopold Mozart, in his violin playing Treatise wrote that musicians who bought a musical instrument with the eyes instead of the ears, and those instrument makers who catered to that trade, were, as he called them, "living wig stands"...also known as blockheads...his term not mine. That is why I repeat, producing something of extremely high quality has nothing to do with talent...it is just a choice we make. If you are interested in owning a copy of this book, I publish it as needed...one of the few great benefits of living in our time. I have never deluded myself that there was a potential large demand for this type of book. My one attempt to get it published as written was motivated by the impulse to officially bring it to a conclusion so I could move on to other projects. You should know, however, those who have read the book for its contents have reported that they felt empowered to understand how acoustics in musical instruments works. That was the effect I was after. Contact me if you wish to own a copy. Beware, though, the price is very high. However, if you wish to wait until I am dead and some musicologist gets it published as part of his or her doctoral dissertation, be my guest, as the price will be a lot cheaper then. By that time, my opinions will not seem so abrasive or caustic nor my theories and ideas about acoustic enhancement so unsubstantiated as some do appear to be. Nothing so sweetens one's personality or renders one's ideas tempting than to be 50 years in the grave. Rather than require you to needlessly contact me to inquire about the price of my book, for those interested, the price is $2500 per copy. At the modest price of $100 per year for each of 25 years, the time it took me make enough experiments building more than 250 instruments in order to compile the ideas, concepts, discoveries, techniques, and understandings found in my Treatise, an instrument maker can spare himself or herself at least 20 years of building uninteresting instruments and get down to the business of learning to master the right information immediately. Of course, if you prefer the pleasure of reinventing these things yourself, you have my blessing...your going to need it...because I know how hard you are going to have to work to learn this stuff.