So today's a bit of an anniversary for me. I've had my new violin for a year now.

I played on the same inexpensive student violin from 13 to when I stopped playing classical violin at 16; and when I took up the instrument again as a fiddler 15 years later, this was the instrument I went back to. I loved it, it was made the same year I was, but there were limitations to it I couldn't even realize at the time, since it was the only full-sized violin I'd ever known..

A little over a year ago, I was looking for a baroque-setup violin, for living history demonstrations. Any instrument set up this way would be a professional grade instrument, and so would be better than mine. The typical starting price was $6k, which was a bit steep. Then I found one at my favorite online ethnic music shop, Lark in the Morning for $2k. I researched the maker, found that he was highly regarded, and said what the hell. Normally you'd want to try out a number of quality instruments before buying, but I went on a hunch.

I got the instrument, and it was gorgeous. Lightly flamed maple back, the bookending offset slightly to create a "backgammon board" effect. The spruce top was tightly grained, and the stain a wonderful dark amber. It was feather-light - the walls of the sound chamber were much thinner than my student instrument. It took me a while to get used to the baroque bridge and gut strings, but I settled in.

And the difference in the sound was amazing. This instrument was so fat, so rich, so wonderfully brimming over with harmonics and overtones I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And I wasn't the only one. Most who heard it commented glowingly on the sound. It was only then that I realized how thin-sounding my old instrument was.

You'll hear "a better instrument won't make you a better player", usually as an admonition against spending a lot of money in lieu of practicing and doing scales and etudes. But unlike most stringed instruments, the violin family is fretless. Good intonation requires precise finger placement, and learning it requires you to be able to hear when you've nailed a note, and when it's skunky. And one way you hear is to listen to ringing with the open strings. The second harmonic of any note is the perfect 5th, and the fourth a major 3rd, and the first and third harmonics are octaves. All but four of the 12 semitones, if you nail it, will cause sympathetic resonance with one or more open strings that happen to be the octave, 3rd, or 5th of the note you just played. The instrument practically sings.

A year ago, though otherwise a good player, my intonation was spotty, with occasional forays into skunkiness. I wanted to be better, but I just couldn't hear it. Part of that was my ear, and part of that was my instrument. On the old instrument, the harmonics are so thin and muted, they barely caused a quiver in the other strings, and I could never get that instant feedback. But suddenly, with the new instrument, I could hear when I got it right. And, between this and playing in more keys than the three most common ones a lot more, I did get it right much more often. It's like a little Pavlovian reward: when I have good intonation, my violin sings for me.

So a year on, this instrument has made me a better player. And it reminded me of that fact when I was playing it last night. The violin sang for me, over and over.