I read this about subharmonics in the New Scientist -

"Mari Kimura, a New York-based violinist, can go even lower without retuning her instrument. From the violin's bottom G string she can produce sounds a whole octave lower - a G with a pitch of 98 Hz - as well as everything between that and 196 Hz. It is the sort of note that you can normally only hear on a cello or a double bass."


She has a web page here - http://homepages.nyu.edu/~mk4/subharmonics.html


I thought it was fascinating. I've never heard of this before.

Wow, never even heard of such a thing. Will have to check out the soundfiles when I get broadband back...

Have you listened?

Fascinating but in the same sort of category as that guy's 5-octave voice - freaky and not at all pleasant sounding.

It reminds me of the Hardanger fiddle - and like the Hardanger it's probably the sort of thing that would get banned from churches.

Hehe. Was trying this out while practicing earlier. It's not that difficult if make sure you're bow has plenty of rosin on.

The way I did it was to apply a lot of pressure on the bow and use an extremely slow stroke while imagining that the bow is hooked to the string and is pulling it quite strongly. After a while you can control it a bit better.

I was able to make notes an octave lower and was even able to produced a bottom C. That is, the bottom string of a cello. And it even works on the A and D strings (although I wouldn't try on the E string if I was you).

It sounded terrible of course with the tiny body of a violin and as far as I can see serves no useful purpose in terms of making pleasant sounds, but it's still fun to know that your violin could double up as a viola/cello if there isn't a viola/cello player available.

Hehe. I'll have to try sometime!

I don't think it will work on a flute

even with lots of rosin

Ditto good one, sneekymum

*Cancels viola*