Explore the world of musical instruments

• String instrument

String instrument A string instrument (or stringed instrument) to be held by a strolling player, include the is a musical instrument that produces sound plucked autoharp, the bowed nyckelharpa, and by means of vibrating strings. In the the hurdy gurdy, which is played by cranking Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument a  rosined  wheel. classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string Steel-stringed instruments can be played instruments in Western music are those in the using a magnetic field. An E-Bow, for violin,  piano  and  guitar  families. example, is small hand-held device which can be used to excite the strings of an electric Types  of  string  instruments guitar. String instruments are usually categorized by String  length  or  scale  length the technique used to produce sound. In order for a string instrument to produce sound, its This is the length of the string from nut to string or strings must vibrate. There are bridge on bowed or plucked instruments and three  common  ways  to  initiate  vibration. ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For Plucking example, a double bass with its low range needs a scale length of around 42 inches, Instruments such as the guitar, oud and sitar whilst a violin scale is only about 13 are plucked, either by a finger or thumb, or inches. On the shorter scale of the violin, by some type of plectrum. This category the left hand may easily reach a range of includes the keyboard instrument the slightly more than two octaves without harpsichord, which formerly used feather shifting position, while on the bass' longer quills (now plastic plectra) to pluck the scale, a single octave or a ninth is strings. reachable  in  lower  positions. Bowing Contact  points  along  the  string Instruments like the cello and rebec are The strings of a pianoIn bowed instruments, usually played by drawing a bow across the the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to strings. All instruments in the viol and the string, at a point half way between the violin  families  fall  into  this  category. end of the fingerboard and the bridge. However, different bow placements can be Occasionally instruments which are normally selected to change timbre. Application of the bowed are plucked (this is known as bow close to the bridge (known as sul pizzicato) instead, and instruments normally ponticello) produces an intense, sometimes plucked are also bowed (for example, Jimmy harsh sound, which acoustically emphasizes Page of Led Zeppelin sometimes played the the upper harmonics. Bowing above the electric guitar this way using a violin bow, fingerboard (sul tasto) produces a purer tone and more recently Jón Þór (Jónsi) with less overtone strength, emphasizing the Birgisson, singer and guitar player of the fundamental, also known as flautando, since Icelandic band Sigur Rós has made use of it  sounds  less  reedy  and more flute-like. the technique). It is also possible to hit the string with the wood of the bow (col Similar timbral distinctions are also legno), a technique used for special effect. possible with plucked string instruments by A more detailed list of bowing techniques is selecting an appropriate plucking point, available  here. although the difference is perhaps more subtle. In keyboard instruments, the contact point Bowing  techniques  pig along the string (whether this be hammer, tangent, or plectrum) is a choice made by the Striking instrument designer. Builders use a combination of experience and acoustic theory The third common method of sound production to establish the right set of contact points. in stringed instruments is to strike the string with a hammer. By far the most In harpsichords, often there are two sets of well-known instrument to use this method is strings of equal length. These "choirs" the piano, where the hammers are controlled usually differ in their plucking points. One by a mechanical action; another example is choir has a "normal" plucking point, the hammered dulcimer, where the player holds producing a canonical harpsichord sound; the the hammers. The piano is often considered a other has a plucking point close to the percussion instrument, since sound production bridge, producing a reedier "nasal" sound through struck blows defines this instrument rich  in  upper  harmonics. family; the proclamation that the piano is a percussion instrument has at times served as Production  of  multiple  notes rhetoric for composers who relished sharp percussive  effects. A string at a certain tension will only produce one note, so to obtain multiple notes A variant of the hammering method is found in string instruments employ one of two methods. the clavichord: a brass tangent touches the One is to add enough strings to cover the string and presses it to a hard surface, range of notes desired; the other is to allow inducing vibration. This is a very the strings to be stopped. The piano is an inefficient method of sound production, example of the former method, where each note yielding a very soft sound. The maneuver can on the instrument has its own set of strings. also be executed with a finger on plucked and On instruments with stoppable strings, such bowed instruments, where it gives equally as the violin or guitar, the player can soft results. Guitarists refer to this shorten the vibrating length of the string, technique  as  "hammering-on". using their fingers directly (or more rarely through some mechanical device, as in the Other  methods hurdy gurdy). Such instruments usually have a fingerboard attached to the neck of the The aeolian harp employs a very unusual instrument, providing a hard flat surface method of sound production: the strings are against which the player can stop the excited  by  the  movement  of  the  air. strings. On some string instruments, the fingerboard has frets, raised ridges Some string instruments have keyboards perpendicular to the strings that stop the attached which are manipulated by the player, string at precise intervals, in which case meaning they do not have to pay attention to the  fingerboard  is  called  a  fretboard. the strings directly. The most familiar example is the piano, where the keys control Modern frets are typically specially shaped the felt hammers by means of a complex metal wire set into slots in the fretboard. mechanical action. Other string instruments Early frets were cords tied around the neck, with a keyboard include the clavichord (where still seen on some instruments as wraps of the strings are struck by tangents), and the nylon monofilament. Such frets are tied harpsichord (where the strings are plucked by tightly enough that moving them during tiny  plectra). performance is impractical. The bridges of a koto, on the other hand, may be moved by the With these keyboard instruments too, the player, occasionally in the course of a strings are occasionally plucked or bowed by single  piece  of  music. hand. Composers such as Henry Cowell wrote music which asks for the player to reach The middle Eastern string instrument the inside the piano and pluck the strings qanun is equipped with small levers called directly, or to "bow" them with bow hair mandal that allow each course of multiple wrapped around the strings, or play them by strings to be incrementally retuned "on the rolling the bell of a brass instrument such fly" while the instrument is being played. as  a  trombone  on  the  array  of  strings. These levers raise or lower the pitch of the string course by a microtone, less than a Other keyed string instruments, small enough half step. 1 A B C D E 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 117 118 119 120