
TMX Violin Selection Methodology for Professionals
The perfect violin or instrument for a collection or musician and player is indispensable for anyone’s musical development. Whether you’re a student or adult who is just starting out, or an instrumentalist midway through a long and complex musical journey; whether you’re a budding professional at the cusp of your professional development, or a seasoned musician at a firm place of maturity in your career and now seeking that special pizzazz, special edge, or je ne sais quoi to your already finely-honed music playing, choosing or selecting the proper or best instrument for you at just the right stage of your musical journey can provide just right starting point, lynchpin, or point of perfection to cap or consolidate your musical career. Here, Master Luthier Tong Ming Xi provides a few helpful hints, tips, pointers, and all-round good advice for all on this musical road. Here, we provide answers to those seeking them to some age-old questions regarding how one is able to choose the best string instrument for oneself.
How does one choose a good violin or string instrument for you?
Here, at the Tong Ming Xi Gallery, we advocate the three-pronged ‘Hear-It’ method for instrument selection. Selecting a violin based simply on these three basic premises can help you a long way. The three buzz words in this method are, quite simply, ‘Sound, Stage, and Sense’. Let me extemporize briefly on them all:
1. Sound

2. Sense

- The price is sensible for you
- The sound of the violin is evenly aligned enough for you
- The name of the maker, or else the origin, provenance, and nationality of the violin resonates with you
- You are thinking of making, as a collector or otherwise, a long-term investment in the violin or string instrument
- The violin is visually and acoustically strong and is also well proportioned and well built
- The finishing and design of the violin fit your style
All these are essential components to the concept of ‘sense’ that we at the TMX Gallery urge you to consider our violin selection methodology.
3. Stage

- Graded Examinations or Examination Studios (ABRSM Music Examinations, Trinity College London Music Examinations, Australian Music Board Examinations, for students from Grades 1-8, or else for school or O-level, A-level, and IB-level music performance examinations)
- Leisure (Rooms, Small Chambers)
- Diploma Examinations (Recital or Concert Stages)
- Competitions (Youth Music Competitions)
- Degree Programmes (Range of Locations)
- Competitions (University-level)/Recitals/Auditions for Jobs
- Orchestral Positions and Concert Halls
- A recording studio
- Instrumental Teachers and Educators
- A mix of the above, or a range of movable locations that may require both projection and a sense of chamber-music type quietness or intimacy from an instrument.
Before or while you are at the violin gallery

Firstly,

- Fast passages that involve clarity of sound, strength, and articulation
- A passage that consists of melodious and expressive passages
- A passage with a spicatto section
The TMX string instrument selection methodology recommends coming with all three passages as illustrated above.
Secondly,

Thirdly,
you should feel prepared to rank these pieces according to your individual liking. Even better yet, we suggest that you bring a friend, teacher, colleague, or parent along, so that you can get them to hear what the instrument sounds like from the edges of the room, as opposed to just simply from under your ear. It makes a huge difference to test, acoustically, for how an instrument would sound at the end of a hall, as opposed to simply close to you. Test for all these effects. And in the company of good friends. At the TMX Gallery, we are your friends, helpful assistants, and consummate artists and experts at this process. We are also ever pleased or happy to help you with helpful advice or assistance, and ever able to balance considerations about sound, beauty, aesthetics, form, function, suitability, or even price, if such may be an issue for you. We will do our best to match you with the perfect one or two instruments that are the very best for you. Come to the TMX Gallery personally and ‘Hear-It’ for yourself!
