Violinist Andrew Bird answers the internet's burning questions about playing the violin. What is the secret to vibrato? Why are violins so expensive? Is there a trick to properly tuning a violin?

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are bringing us closer to understanding the musical experience through a novel approach to analysing a common musical effect known as vibrato.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived pitch of string vibrato tones. The authors used recordings of acoustic instruments (cello and violin) to provide both vibrato stimulus tones ...