Archive for August 10th, 2009
The Versatile Violin
The violin is a four-stringed instrument that is played in a wide variety of musical genres, including classical, jazz, folk, and rock and roll. In fact, a fiddle is actually just a violin being played as a folk instrument. The violin has long been one of the most important instruments in classical music because its tone stands out above other instruments, making it optimal for playing the melody. It is also extremely agile when played by an expert, allowing him to execute rapid and difficult sequences of notes.
Unlike a guitar, a violin has no frets to stop the strings, so a player must know exactly where to place his fingers on the strings to play well. If youâre a beginner, you can use tape or white-out on the fingerboard to mark proper finger placement. However, this is sometimes discouraged because it trains the player to play based on sight rather than sound. Also unlike the guitar, the violin is played with a bow that usually consists of a stick with a ribbon of horsehair strung between opposite ends. Rubbing the horsehair over the strings makes the noise you hear when the violin is played.