Hot answers tagged string-instruments
13
Guitarists especially are known for putting on fresh strings just before a performance. Orchestral strings generally do not, but they do make sure to follow good maintenance practices and change strings when they are due.
If the instrument is in an appropriate playable condition, you shouldn't have strings breaking totally at random. Perhaps in your case ...
11
Strings can break for several reasons:
Excessive force: Often times playing live results in playing harder. You may be digging your pick in more than normal and therefore applying more force than usual, resulting in breaks.
Improper string installation: Strings should be stretched during installation (just bringing them into tune doesn't stretch them ...
10
The wood type in any stringed instrument matters a great deal, especially on acoustic instruments. Some parts of the violin contribute more to the overall tone quality than others, but all the parts make a difference.
A stringed instrument is a case study in engineering trade-offs. After all, how does a violin produce its sound? To begin with, note that ...
9
Just to elaborate and clarify, there are a few different types of pizzicato:
There is the standard "pizz." which is done with the flesh of the finger on the bowing hand;
A pizz with fingernail, which gives a more crisp attack;
A "Bartok" or "snap" pizz where the performer pulls the string away from the fingerboard and releases to produce a harsh snapping ...
8
The simple answer is to leave it to the experts. Strings are sold in packs, with a sensibly chosen set of gauges, for most common instrument configurations, whether you have a 4 or 5 string bass guitar, a 6 or 12 string guitar, a mandolin, or whatever.
Even if you don't want to buy a full set, you can look at the gauges supplied in a set, and buy an ...
7
You won't find anything with a short neck that plays guitar notes, because the range of available notes is a function of the length of the neck.
I would suggest a mandola, a mandocello or a bouzouki but they are not necessarily designed to offer as much sustain as a guitar- if you listen to music designed for those instruments it tends to be based on very ...
7
All pianos benefit from being in very stable environments, not too dry, not humid, and a static temperature. This will help to keep it in tune for longer. Realize though that playing the instrument will knock it out of tune and the more you play the faster it will happen. Also, if the pin block is shot, it will go out of tune fast no matter what you do, ...
6
That's definitely not the sound of a real violin (to me it sounds more like an oboe!), which may cause some confusion. It also has some kind of vibrato which will make tuning even more difficult. It should be able to help you get close, though, since the pitch is the correct E.
Now, if your instrument has never been tuned before (or in a long time), it may ...
6
My guess is that you neglected to stretch the strings properly. That would account for the general difficulty you're having with getting and keeping the strings in tune.
See the answers to this question for how to do this. There is an important point made that quality strings don't actually stretch when you do this, but the action pulls the windings tighter ...
5
If you are a new violinist, your ear is the the weak point. Part of what you'll be doing is training it to recognize pitches, because you aren't there yet. Get it out of the loop. Use an online tuner that uses your computer's mic, like this one (Not really a an endorsement, because HTML5 programmers are starting to write these things as an exercise, so ...
5
The screw plays several roles:
The hair can (and should) be loosened when not playing so that the bow is not constantly subjected to hair tension. It's the same reason some people recommend loosening guitar strings when storing a guitar for a longer period of time, except a guitar neck has the advantage of a stiff metal rod inside it, which the violin bow ...
5
The man at the store is right: the smaller violin can play all the same notes as the larger violin. The difference is that the smaller violin won't be as loud and it will be better suited for smaller hands and fingers—if you are a normal-sized adult, you'll find a smaller violin to be more challenging to play simply because your hands will be too large for ...
5
A Norwegian artist, Solveig Leithaug Henderson, is known to often break strings - several times during a concert! It has to be something with her playing style or something, I don't know... Anyway - this has made her very fast on changing stings on stage, and do small talk through it to keep it entertaining...
5
On a fretted instrument shifting is much easier for a beginner as they don't need to be that accurate- as long as they are close behind the fret the note will be in tune.
Also, on a guitar you wouldn't want your fingers touching the string (except behind the fret) unless you were damping the note.
Having said that, a more experienced player will spend lots ...
5
There isn't too specific a rule, most of the time. I see your point, but my response would be that the all fretted notes means that each note is muted when done, while yours leaves a potentially sour A ringing, unless you mute it.
For some music, and the example that comes to mind is Segovia and classical guitar, switching strings changes the tone of the ...
5
The sound variance of violins is surely greater than the difference in their optical appearance, so I assume different shapes are possible. Note, that the viola da gamba family, which also has a soprano member (not sounding sooo different) sports C-shaped holes, and baryton has nearly unregular ones so the effect of hole shape seems very minor.
I found a ...
5
The shape also has to do with structural integrity. A violin would be of no use if it were built in a shape that would not support the high tension of the strings, thus causing the violin body to collapse after being used for some length of time. Instruments in the violin family, among all musical instruments, are notoriously durable; there are individual ...
4
Yes, you are on a fool's errand, but you might learn some new ideas while you are on it.
Why not consider a 4-string tenor guitar? Those are tuned in 5ths like a banjo. The lowest pitch on the tenor guitar is the C above the E on the regular guitar. But there is an alternate tuning for the tenor guitar where the lowest pitch is the G above the low E on the ...
4
An oud usually has 10, 11 or 13 strings, in six or seven 'courses'. A course is a grouping of strings. The lowest is usually a single string, and the rest are doubled. For a 5 string oud, it is tuned GADGC, C being the lowest and the other 4 pairs of strings are tuned in unision in the same octave. A six course oud, or 11 string, is tuned to DGADGC, with the ...
4
The reason you would want to play more than one note per bow stroke is to give it articulation. An example of two different sounds an articulation could make are: making the notes sound more separated or making them sound smoothly connected.
The technique in general is called bowing. You can find a list of many of these here.
4
I remember breaking my first string :) Almost hit my eye.. And I was super afraid to tell my parents.. (I thought I broke the whole instrument because I believed that the string was as much a part of the instrument as the neck or fingerboard)
I'd like to address your question by answering a few you didn't explicitly ask..
1. Why do strings break?
Obvious ...
4
You can get a climate-control system installed in the piano. Dampp-Chaser is one brand. It has both a water system to increase humidity and a header to decrease humidity, and works automatically to increase or decrease as necessary. In addition to helping the instrument stay in tune, it will help prevent sticking keys. The cost is several hundred ...
3
As Reina mentioned, it's all about articulation. Think of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Try singing it, while completely stopping your breathe between notes, "Taa Taa Taa Taa Taa Taa Taaaa", then "laa laa laa laa laa laa laaaa", and then do both again each in one breath. (Seriously, no one's lwatching/istening, just do it ;P ) The range of that "sharpness" ...
3
If you just have one or two, remove it. The best approach is to cut it at the loose bit, then pull the hair away from the rest of the bow and cut it carefully at both ends, right up against the frog and the tip.
You can do this many times before the bow needs restrung.
Remember, using rosin diligently reduces breakages, thus increasing the lifespan of your ...
3
A jarana has many of the same characteristics as a ukulele. Since ukuleles are so popular, I would recommend searching for information about amplifying ukuleles.
One option is simply to point a directional condenser microphone at the sound hole. This works well if sound levels aren't too high on stage, and the player is not moving around.
You can also get ...
3
In addition to ecline6's answer: In very dry places (large appartment houses typically), you can place couple glasses of water into the piano to keep the humidity at a bit higher level. You obviously have to add water to the glasses from time to time, it usually lasts about a month.
There are 3 reasons:
Wood in general doesn't like too dry places.
During ...
2
How do you know if you need new guitar strings?
For Acoustic and Electric guitars, a couple of questions to answer:
Have you had the same strings on for over 2 months?
Are your strings rusty?
Are your strings rough?
Do your strings sound dull?
Had a string break recently?
If you answered yes to any of the above, its probably time to replace your ...
2
No problem if your Nick Harper... just change the string during the performance.
2
There are two reasons why we need to be so careful about shifting technique: the first applies to all fretless instruments, the second is quite specific to cello or at least to strings.
First. This is quite obvious: after shifting, we need not just be somewhere in range of the correct frets, but exactly at the right position. There is no way to find this ...
2
some links to pictures of Turkish and Arabic scales on neck of oud are on:
http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/makamlist.html
http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/maqamlist.html
some explainations of notation used are on http://www.oud.eclipse.co.uk/makamlist.html
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