Opening up. Musical instruments improve with playing

As I learn about music, I keep running into the theory of Opening Up.  It's the idea that a string instrument (and possibly all analog instruments) improves with playing.

Some people say this is baloney, it's not the instrument that is improving, but the player.

It seems that far more people believe Opening Up to be a real thing that happens.  Vibrations settle into the instrument somehow, and the sound it produces improves.  Some makers even have a machine to stroke the strings, giving a new guitar 100 hours play time before selling it.  A lot of top musicians won't buy new instruments because they like the sound of an opened up instrument better.

In this video she plays two sister guitars. They are made at the same time, from the same wood, using the same tools.  The only big difference is that one has hundreds of hours of play time, the other, maybe a dozen.



There also seems to be the idea of waking up an instrument that has been idle.  I learned about this while investigating an old mandolin .   When first played after along rest, the sound is said to be dull.  But brightens and resonates better after about two weeks of daily playing.

What a wonderful idea.

I'm going to choose to believe this idea to be true,  it appeals to me.

But can I speed things along?

Opening up can be hastened by resting the instrument in front of a good speaker and playing appropriate music at moderate volume for several hours

source

Ah ha!  If I play music at my instruments, they will improve.   I like that.

And, if it doesn't work, everything I've read about learning how to learn music suggests that the most important thing is to listen to good music as much as possible.  

It's worth a try.

So, most people probably know this and why and stuff, but I just found out and think it's the coolest thing.

I was listening to the stereo and a really good song came on.  So I sat on the couch and enjoyed it.  Next to me, the guitar started humming along to the song.  I didn't know they did it and it was like both me and guitar were enjoying the song together.

That is nice! Another thing it means is the guitar is in tune.

One of the ways sitars, hardanger fiddles, and other instruments sound so interesting—they have a number of sympathetic strings that are not played, but mostly just ring along with the main melody string.



I’m currently considering ways to do this with my hollowed out willow log instrument, but not 100% sure just how at this point.

Instruments most certainly "open up" when they are played. They are living things, of a sort, made of living things. When properly humidified and played, the sound depth and resonance increases in a noticable way. A good instrument is "happy" when played regularly.