7. Stringed Instruments

Rosin

A tacky substance musicians use on their bows to increase friction on the strings.

Bowed instruments

Most of this classification of instruments have four strings. When a bow is drawn across the strings, sound is produced. Examples of these instruments are the violin, viola, bass, and cello.

Using a bow

Stringed instruments are played by plucking or strumming the strings with the fingers, striking the strings with a hammer or this.

Pickups

Electric guitars have this that changes the vibrations of the guitar strings into electric impulses.

Frets

Guitars have a fingerboard that has divisions which represent the position of a specific note or tone.

Plucked instruments

Instruments such as the guitar, banjo or mandolin are plucked to be played, therefore, they would be classified as this.

Banjo

The origin of this instrument can be traced to Asia or the people of western Africa who were brought to America as slaves. It has goatskin or calfskin stretched over the head on one side.

Length of the strings

The pitch of a string is affected when this is changed by the musician such as on a guitar.

Soundboard

There is one componentof most stringed instruments that acts to resonate the tone of the instrument.

Chordophones

This category of musical instruments produces sound by vibrating strings.

Bow

This device is used to play stringed instruments such as the violin and the cello.

Dulcimer

This instrument can have as many as seventy strings. Sound is produced by using hammers to strike the strings, or by plucking or strumming the strings.

Zither

This instrument is a musical instrument that has the shape of a flat wooden box. There are more than 30 strings on top of the box. It has a fingerboard that has five strings and frets similar to those of a guitar. It is used to play folk music and is popular in Germany and Austria.

Mandolin

This instrument is a pear shaped instrument that is similar to the lute. It usually has either four or five pairs of strings. It was used in classical music but it is mostly used to play popular music today.

Cello

This instrument is part of the violin family. It is shaped like a violin and is appproximately four feet long.

Lute

This instrument is pear shaped with a fingerboard that has frets similar to a guitar. Variations of this instrument were used in civilizations throughout history, including Egypt, Greece, and Rome and was brought to Europe in the 800s AD by the Moors.

Harp

This instrument is played by plucking the strings. There are 47 strings on it. The musician sits with this instrument between the knees and uses the fingers and thumbs of both hands to play it. It first appeared in Europe in the 700s.

Lyre

This instrument is similar to a small harp. There are from four to ten strings, which are either plucked or strummed with a plectrum. It was an important part of the music of ancient Greece.

Ukelele

This instrument is similar to the guitar only smaller in size. The Portuguese brought it to Hawaii, where it has been an important aspect of Hawaiian music.

Harpsichord

This instrument is similar to the piano but is somewhat smaller. It may have either one or two keyboards.

Violin

This is a four-stringed instrument played with a bow or by plucking the strings. It first appeared in the 1500s. Those produced in the 1500s and 1600s by the Amati family were famous for their quality. Antonio Stradivari created the design for the modern version of this instrument.

Viola

This is a member of the violin family that is similar to the violin, only larger. Its pitch is lower than the violin, yet higher than a cello or a bass. Origins trace to the 1500s.

A luthier

This is a person who repairs stringed instruments.

Guitar

This is a versitile musical instrument used to play popular, folk, and classical music. The Spaniard Francisco Tarrega developed the modern version of these in the late 19th century.

Plectrum

This is another name for the device used by the musician to "pick" the strings.

Clavichord

This is another of the struck instruments. Pressing keys activates a metal blade that strikes the strings. It was popular in the 1400s and was eventually replaced by the piano.

Bass

This is the largest of the instruments in the violin family and also has the lowest pitch. The musician either plucks the strings or uses a bow with one hand.

Tone

This refers to any sound made on a musical instrument.

Manuals

This term is sometimes used as a name of the keyboard of a piano or harpsichord.

Pitch

This term refers to the highness or lowness of the sound that is heard by the listener.

Piano

This was the first instrument to use hammers to strike the strings. The German Henry E. Stienway brought the improvements of the 1700s and 1800s together in 1855.

Octave

Tones, also called notes, are arranged on a scale in a rising or falling pitch and are assigned the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. These letters are repeated on the eighth note which is known as this.