Video: How to Get Cello Tones on a Violin with Octave Strings

If, like Rebecca Faber, you find yourself envious of the sonorous tone and repertoire that cellists get to play, you may have wished you could approximate the tones of a cello with your violin.

While it may not match the real thing, with just some dark rosin and a set of D'Addario Helicore Octave Strings can get you close to the depth and richness of the violin's larger cousin.


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L’Opera Rosin
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D'Addario
Helicore Octave Violin String Set
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The octave strings featured in our latest video are made especially for violin, just an octave lower in register. As Faber explains, there are a few tricks you'll need to know when tuning them. But with the addition of dark rosin, a stickier rosin preferred by cellists, and the adoption of some cello-like bowing techniques, you can get rich, lower-register timbres from your relatively diminutive violin.

Faber—no stranger to exploring past the traditional boundaries of the instrument—has been in the Reverb studio before, having taught us how to run a violin through guitar pedals and EHX POG pedals in particular.

Be sure to watch the whole video, and check back for another imaginative violin video coming up with Faber in a few weeks.

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