Too Much Felt

[dsouthwood]

I have been getting very frustrated because I could not play high notes on the A string without a horrible squeaking noise. I tried different bridges, different strings, and really worked on my bowing. Sometimes I could get a smooth sound on the high notes, but it was rare. Any tune that had a note higher than the D octave note was an embarrassment to play. I am planning to play "Jasmine Flower" in an upcoming recital, but I felt that I had to resign myself to just sounding awful on the high notes.

At tonight's lesson the squeaking noise was prominent, so I asked my teacher if he thought it was just bowing technique. He took my erhu and played "Jasmine Flower" and got exactly the same noise on the same note. He then inspected the erhu, and removed the felt padding from below the bridge. He took scissors and removed a chunk of the padding, refolded it and replaced it. The squeak was gone--even when I played it.

In attempting to fix the squeak, I had added more felt to an already tight pad--in effect, trying to kill the noise by brute force. My teacher explained that the padding should press against the skin with just a gentle touch. Now I can get a smooth, pure note much farther up the string than I have ever been able to play before, and even the wolf tones on the D string seem to be tamed.

Sometimes it is frustrating that these instruments are so temperamental, but the silver lining is that they often can be adjusted to give the sound you want, whereas with many other instruments you get what you get and that's it.

[song]

Thanks for sharing that with us.

[annk]

This is really interesting, I've been wondering about how tightly the felt should be pushed in there. I think I may have been making the same mistake.

[dsouthwood]

The best way to describe the felt pad my teacher made is that he pulled it under the strings without loosening the strings or moving the bridge. I guess if you can't do that the pad is too thick.

[damien]

haha Thanks, my Erhu sounds better. I have been meaning to do this for a while now ;D

[pqleyr]

My erhu didn't come with any felt, so I've just got a bit of cloth in there. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference though, which is strange as it's meant to be really important. I've always had the problem with the high notes, with or without the "felt". I thought perhaps it was the erhu itself, as it is not a very good one.

[may]

Please don't laugh at this... But I use a piece of make-up sponge, the type used for applying foundation. It is denser than the regular sponge. I cut it to size and put that in place of the felt for one of my erhu that used to have a screechy super loud sound, and now it is smoother and actually sounds quite decent. Worth a try!

May

[song]

sounds like an interesting thing to try. Whatever works for you!