General Information About String Instruments
Bow Holds
picture from violinonline.com
Methods of holding the bow are important to instrument playing as it will allow more control with a good bow hold.
- Violin and Viola. The violin and viola holds are the same with the index finger extended, the middle and ring finger together, pinky curved and extended, and the thumb below all the fingers.
- Cello: Cello bow holds are more complicated and there are many different styles. One of them is the upside down bow hold. The steps are:
Place your round thumb between teh beggining of the hell and leather with the nail pointing to the tip. Next place your middle finger opposite of the thumb on the metal. Than let the other fingers take a natural place wrapping around the bow and the last finger, the pinkie should be on the frog of the bow.
- String Bass: There are two types of bows that can be used for the string bass. Each bow has a different hold. French viol bows are similar to violin and is held overhand similar to the violin. German bows have a larger frog and are more comfortable held underhand.
Chin Rest and Shoulder Rest
The chin rest combined with the shoulder rest is used to give a more comfortable playing position. Different shoulder rests can also affect the tone and sound quality of a violin or viola. Sponge chin rests are comfortable but muffle the sound. Chin rests that do not touch the back of the violin provide much better sound and projection. Chin rests are only important in comfort. If your chin rest is uncomfortable you will develop jaw pains or arm pains.
Making a Violin
Making a violin is tedious and hard but in the end it may pay off to hear a beautiful instrument. Below are links that show steps to make a violin.
http://www.fritz-reuter.com/storyboard/step1.htm
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~jsedlak/violin/ViolinPage.html
String Quartets
String quartets are a combination of 2 violin, a viola and a cello. Below is a list of repertoire and string quartet composers.
- Juan Crisostomo Arriaga - wrote 3 brilliant quartets before his abrupt death at age 19. Early 19th century Spanish composer.
- Milton Babbitt - wrote five abstract, densely serialistic quartets in the mid-20th century.
- Béla Bartók - wrote six string quartets widely regarded as being the finest quartets of the first half of the 20th century.
- Ludwig van Beethoven - wrote sixteen quartets regarded as among the finest quartets by any composer.
- Alban Berg - wrote one String Quartet plus the Lyric Suite for string quartet, which influenced Bartók.
- Alexander Borodin - wrote two string quartets (1879 and 1881).
- Johannes Brahms - wrote three string quartets, the first two in 1879 and the final one in 1881
- Benjamin Britten - wrote three numbered string quartets (1941, 1945 and 1975) plus two early unnumbered ones (1928 and 1931) and a number of other works for string quartet (such as the three Divertimenti, 1933).
- Anton Bruckner - wrote one string quartet (1862).
- Elliott Carter - wrote five string quartets in the second half of the 20th century.
- Claude Debussy - wrote just one string quartet in 1893.
- Frederick Delius - wrote three string quartets (1888, 1893 and 1916).
- Antonin Dvorak - wrote fourteen string quartets, with number twelve, the American, the best known.
- Edward Elgar - wrote one string quartet (1918).
- Morton Feldman - wrote two string quartets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the second being over six hours long.
- César Franck - wrote one string quartet (1889).
- Gabriel Faure - wrote one string quartet (1924)
- Karl Goldmark - wrote one string quartet, Op.8 (1860).
- Edvard Grieg - wrote two string quartets, the second being unfinished
- Joseph Haydn - wrote sixty-eight string quartets (some of which he called Divertimenti), the last incomplete, plus Die Sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze (The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross), a sequence of eight slow movement plus a brief, rapid, finale (originally written for orchestra, but probably better known in its version for string quartet).
- Charles Ives - wrote two string quartets (1896 and 1913), the first entitled "From the Salvation Army".
- Leosˇ Janácek - wrote two string quartets, known as "The Kreutzer Sonata" and "Intimate Letters".
- Paul Hindemith - a violist, wrote seven string quartets.
- Bohuslav Martinu - wrote seven string quartets.
- Felix Mendelssohn - wrote six numbered string quartets, plus a number of other works, none of them among his better known pieces.
- Darius Milhaud - wrote eighteen, the fourteenth and fifteenth of which may be played as an octet.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - wrote twenty-three string quartets, including the six so-called Haydn quartets (1782-85), generally reckoned to be his best.
- Carl Nielsen - wrote four string quartets.
- Sergei Prokofiev - wrote two string quartets (1930 and 1941).
- Max Reger - wrote six string quartets.
- Maurice Ravel - wrote one string quartet (1903).
- Camille Saint-Saëns - wrote two string quartets (1889 and 1918).
- Alfred Schnittke - wrote four string quartets.
- Arnold Schoenberg - wrote four numbered string quartets, the second of which includes a part for soprano. Also composed an early, unnumbered, string quartet.
- Franz Schubert - traditionally acknowledged to have written fifteen string quartets. The "Death and the Maiden" and "Rosamunde" quartets are particularly well known.
- Robert Schumann - wrote three string quartets (opus number 41), not among his better known works.
- Dmitri Shostakovich - wrote fifteen string quartets, often seen as being as significant, but more "private", works than his fifteen symphonies.
- Jean Sibelius - wrote three youthful quartets (1885, 1889 and 1890) and his much better known quartet "Voces Intimae" (1909).
- Bedrich Smetana - wrote two string quartets, with the first, "From My Life", the best known.
- Richard Strauss - wrote one string quartet.
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky - wrote three string quartets (in 1871, 1873 and 1876), of which the first is the best-known.
- Michael Tippett - wrote five numbered string quartets plus two unnumbered youthful works.
- Ralph Vaughan Williams - wrote two string quartets (1921 and 1944).
- Giuseppe Verdi - wrote a single string quartet (1873).
- Heitor Villa-Lobos - wrote seventeen string quartets between 1915 and 1957.
- William Walton - wrote two string quartets (1922 and 1947).
- Anton Webern - his String Quartet was composed using the twelve tone technique.
- Hugo Wolf - wrote one string quartet (1884).
Types of Strings
All string instruments use strings but each type of string produces a different sound.
Below is an annotated list of string types.
String Cores are the inside of the string. After the core is the winding which is the outside layer of the string. Below are the different core types.
- Gut Core Strings: These strings produce the richest and deepest tone, but it is also most fragile. It is a fiber so it will react to temperature changes as well as humidity. Response with this type of string is slower than usual.
- Synthetic Core Strings: These strings are meant to be similar to gut core strings but with more advantages. They are more stable and durable and not as reactive to a change in temperature or humidity. The sound is brighter than gut core and has a faster response.
- Steel Core Strings: Steel core are brighter in tone and more responsive than both synthetic and gut core strings. These strings are not reactive to changes in temperature and will last much longer.
- Rope Core Strings: These are brighter than steel core and is similar except the core is made of small strips of steel. It has the fastest response of all.
Winding Materials
- Gold: The softest of the winding materials and the deepest in tone. This is usually used for the violin E string.
- Silver: Silver winding makes a richer and rounder sound compared to those of aluminum or chromium. The response is slightly slower than aluminum.
- Aluminum: Has a bright sound and minimal surface noise.
- Steel: Has a fast response and brighter tone.
- Chromium: Has a fast response and a little brighter than aluminum but less than steel.
- Titanium: Has a bright sound and strong projection.
- Tungsten: It has the brightest tone of all and is usually associated with a Rope Core String on a cello.
String size makes a difference in the sound. Your strings can either be thin, medium, or thick. Thick strings have a slower reponse but give a stronger sound and project more. Thin strings have less tension and faster response while medium leans in the center of both. How you choose your strings can change the sound of your instrument greatly. A good combination in strings is important, so experimenting will give you what you want.
