My treatise on The True Art of Making Musical Instruments—A Practical Guide to the Hidden Craft of Enhancing Sound is now published and available on Amazon.com. Here is the link for that page.
There has never been a book written that covers the craft of enhancing sound until now. Indeed, most books written about sound are based on the physics of sound. In the 47 years I have been making musical instruments, I have never found it either necessary or useful to know anything about the physics of sound. My reason for this total disregard for such knowledge is that ALL the greatest musical instrument makers from 1400 to 1840 including Stradivari, Guarneri del Jesu, Amati, Ruckers, de Zentis, Blanchet, Taskin, Cristofori, Stein, Hubert, Walther, Graf, Schnitger knew nothing about the physics of sound. That is because all such knowledge wasn’t discovered yet. What these makers knew was vastly more important and valuable, that is, the science and craft of enhancing sound, all knowledge of which, unfortunately, was secreted away only in their instruments.
Now, some people quibble with what I have just written, so in response I would like to have proof where researchers in the area of the physics of sound have figured out how to increase the clarity of the sound of an instrument, increase the immediacy of the sound of a violin, increase the depth of sound, increase the intensity of sound, increase the carrying power of the sound of an instrument, increase the vocal property of a sound, increase the evenness of sound from bass to treble of an instrument, increase the ease of recording quality of an instrument, increase the responsiveness of color flexibility while playing the instrument, increase the ability of the sound to bloom in an instrument, increase the perceptibility of pitch in an instrument, increase the ability of the instrument to reflect the intentions of the player, and last but not least, increase the ability of the sound to capture the listener’s attention. Each of these qualities are what the ancient instrument makers knew how to build into their instruments and it is precisely these qualities that remain beyond the ken of scientists and makers who fancy themselves as acoustical scientists. It is these qualities the knowledge of how to build them into a sound that is secreted away in their instruments. The only scientist I know of who made some progress in tackling these qualities was Jack Fry, but he succeeded by the same approach I myself used for the last 45 years.
My attitude when I began making musical instruments in 1972 was to restrict myself to only that knowledge available to those great musical instrument makers. That body of knowledge, which was acquired over a period of 350 years, had as its foundations the teachings of Pythagoras. Based on his ideas of the musical ratios, makers of all kinds instruments developed the craft of enhancing the sounds of their materials to make their instruments sound as beautiful and as resonant as possible. Then, towards the end of the 18th century, with the development of modern scientific methods and attitudes, all that lovingly acquired ancient Pythagorean based knowledge was put aside and immediately forgotten. Even Conrad Graf in the beginning of the 19th century had to relearn that body of knowledge to produce the sounds of his pianos. But little of what Graf had learned was acquired by apprentices in his workshop. Recovering all that lost knowledge was my goal.
This treatise is meant to preserve this knowledge of how the greatest instrument makers in history thought about sound and how to enhance it.
What follows is a review one reader posted on the webpage for the Treatise…
“Here is my review of this treatise, to speak colloquially, WOW!! Although I continue to browse, in bits and pieces via an admittedly somewhat random roaming of various topics, I have already been blown away by the treatise -- much in the same way as the effects on me of those harpsichords / violins /violas da gamba and a double bass by Keith Hill which I've been privileged to hear.
From the standpoints of content, organization and clarity of expression, the book is a masterpiece. The visuals are also terrific. Like so many of Mr. Hill’s instruments, the treatise will assuredly stand as his legacy into the indefinite future ("indefinite" because I am not sure how much longer humankind will exist on this earth . . .).
Frankly, I did not expect the treatise to be SO easy to read and absorb. In that respect, I have in fact been positively startled. The writing in the treatise is totally direct. Its approach comes across as no-nonsense, objective, fair and -- just as important -- the voice of someone generously urging seekers to find their better selves. Hill is a fabulous coach.
I can only hope that serious instrument builders worldwide learn of, and embrace, the teachings in this treatise. For those of us who just "like to know how things work", it is a treasure house. I look forward to spending many instructive hours with this work.
