We have been on a heat wave since May. It seems the city gets hotter each day. Even the breeze that comes from the sea is hot. That doesn't help at all. Studying with your instrument might get sticky from time to time if you sweat a lot. One of the must important things to consider is the humidity of the environment. The other is how the contraction and expansion of wood affects the strings.
Truth be told, I have not broken a lot of strings while playing. I used to have the money to change them when needed. That's back when I started playing mandolin. With the Venezuelan Cuatro, this has been even better. These strings don't break that much unless you're playing everyday of the week like a madman. I'm one but I do other stuff. However, the times when it has happened had been when I tried different tunings and strings order.
Today, as I was preparing to record my cover for the week, this happed:
Sure, it was just one string. But it's the most important string for the style I play as it is the treble of the instrument. The worst part was not having a single replacement. I guess that saying about a smith having a wooden knife at home makes a lot of sense now. I only have complete sets of strings. And changing them would mean having to wait to record until the new set stretches out and holds the tuning.
At first, I was kind of mad at this. I blame it on the weather since it's hot outside and I can't be moving the instrument from the AC in my room to the hot living all the time. That's bad for the wood! But the strings had been on the Cuatro for quite some months now. So, I guess it was time for a change.
So, I stopped what I was doing.
No recording taking place today.
And I set my sights into the act of changing the strings. Not having a set of the same I had before meant I needed to see if the ones I available where of my liking. Both are very different in sound, but since my instrument has a bright sound, I decided to go with strings that boost that sound.
It was an ordeal to do this outside. The weather made it worse. But as I was complaining about this. The gentle breeze that brings water came by. I heard the wind chime making the sounds that usually get in my recordings. And for a moment, I didn't feel like melting.
There goes Embla with a new set of strings. This is one of the less glamorous parts of being a musician, but hey at least these ones I can change. It isn't like this is a piano and I need to call some trained professional to do it.
Just poking fun at @mipiano. But I don't know if she knows how to change a piano string.
And now that this minor issue has been solved, it's time to play a lot to get those strings in shape for the solos and the fast rhythms of Venezuelan music and everything else. I think that changing the strings, regardless of having one broken or not, is one of the most intimate moments a musician share with their instrument. It's certainly one that is very close to the construction process. I have installed sets of strings a lot of times. Even more now that I make the instruments myself. But there's something magical about. It feels like a kind of parental relationship. Your child is hurt or sick and you do something that magically makes everything better. It might be a stretch to put it that way, but those who have changed a string even once in their life will related to the feeling.
Like an injury or disease, the healing process isn't something that happens in one second. That's the same with the strings needing time to stretch and being ready to play without loosing their pitch.
Maybe I'm just a helpless romantic idealizing the act of changing strings... But who could tell?
- Photos📷: @bertrayo (Redmi Note 8)
- Editing 🎬: @bertrayo, made Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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