Stringy performance

I went to the Asian Civilisations Museum auditorium today to watch a string quartet perform on stage. The band was made out of people from London and Ireland who met together and formed a band. They played two violins, a viola and a double bass. They were singing songs on stage, playing their instruments and clowning around as well!

There was also once, the double bass player invited one of the audience to come on stage to play the double bass. He selected a small boy from the crowd and invited him. The boy did not know how to handle the bow, so he did a sawing action on the light wood and horse tail hair bow! The audience giggled and squealed in delight. After the boy got tired of 'sawing' the bow on the strings, he dropped it and ran back to his parents.

There was another part of the show that the double bass player took out a toy bird with flapping wings. He kicked it towards the violin player. They must be having football with the bird. The violin player then accidentally kicked the bird to the foot of the steps. The audience giggled again. The troubled usher had to pick the bird up and put it back.

I had learned something today that would be useful in the future. The violin player taught us that the bow was made out of the horse's tail hair and light wood from Brazil. The hair, when looked under the microscope, the user can see many little spikes on it, and that is the spikes that play the violin, viola and the double bass. Interesting, isn't it?