something to fret over

From the "every good idea has already been thought of" department comes the fretted violin.

Our friend, Tall Judy, was visiting from out of town, and wanted to get together with some friends of hers for an evening playing music. It was the first time I had met Bruce and Elena. It was a fun evening of conversation and music.

Anyway, Bruce and I got to talking about instruments. He was playing a viola, and we got onto the topic of frets. I play guitar, which has frets. The frets prove useful as a visual guide to finger placement, and they also create a certain latitude in terms of finger placement. Since violas and violins don't have frets, finger placement is much more crucial and more difficult -- a troubling combination.

Bruce mentioned the idea of a fretted violin, and talked of how he'd love to see them become a "thing." I immediately loved the idea. It would encourage people to take up the violin (or viola, as the case may be), and frets would serve as training wheels. I suppose that frets would hinder the well-trained, since there are probably things you can do without frets that you can;t do with. But there's still value in helping people who can't play at all. They can give up the aid once they don;t need it anymore.  One thing I didn't think of is the mandolin. Mandolins are the same size as violins, and have the same tuning. And, of course, they're fretted. Of course, they typically have eight strings (in four pairs). But four-string mandolins aren't entirely unheard of. But with mandolins existing and all, it should be a no-brainer to have fretted violins.

So I was going to write a whole blogpost about how freeted violins are such a great, original idea. But then I hit Google to see what I could find as an illustration. And I found that others have had the idea already. Not only can you buy fretted violins, but you can buy something called the "Fiddle Fretter" to put frets on your violin.

So, while I still feel that Bruce's idea was a good one, I have to admit that he's not the only one to have had it.

Now, if there were some way to help me learn the harp...