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Bass Bar
In a string instrument, the bass bar is a brace running from the foot of the neck to a position under the bridge, which bears much of the tension of the strings. Bass bars are used: * In the members of the violin family; * In the members of the viola da gamba family; * In some archtop guitars; and in many other string instruments. According to the ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' by George Grove:David, Paul. "Bass-bar", ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. George Grove Sir George Grove (13 August 182028 May 1900) was an English engineer and writer on music, known as the founding editor of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Grove was trained as a civil engineer, and successful in that profession, b ..., ed. References String instrument construction {{Composite-instrument-stub ...
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Violin Bout Cross Section
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular use. The violin typically has four strings (music), strings (some can have five-string violin, five), usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow (music), bow across its strings. It can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and, in specialized cases, by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow (col legno). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical music, Western classical tradition, both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras) and as solo instruments. Violins are also important in many varieties of folk music, including country music, bluegrass music, and ...
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String Instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, the musician presses a key that plucks the string. Other musical instruments generate sound by striking the string. With bowed instruments, the player pulls a rosined horsehair bow across the strings, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician cranks a wheel whose rosined edge touches the strings. Bowed instruments include the string section instruments of the orchestra in Western classical music (violin, viola, cello and double bass) and a number of other instruments (e.g., viols and gambas used in early music from the ...
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Neck (music)
The neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, banjos, ukuleles, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks. Necks are also an integral part of certain woodwind instruments, like for instance the saxophone. The word for neck also sometimes appears in other languages in musical instructions. The terms include ''manche'' (French), ''manico'' (Italian), and ''Hals'' (German). Guitar The neck of a guitar includes the guitar's frets, fretboard, tuners, headstock, and truss rod. The wood used to make the fretboard will usually differ from the wood in the rest of the neck. The bending stress on the neck is considerable, particularly when heavier gauge strings are used (see Strings and tuning), and the ability of the neck to resist bending (see Truss rod) is important to th ...
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Bridge (instrument)
A bridge is a device that supports the strings on a stringed musical instrument and transmits the vibration of those strings to another structural component of the instrument—typically a soundboard, such as the top of a guitar or violin—which transfers the sound to the surrounding air. Depending on the instrument, the bridge may be made of carved wood (violin family instruments, acoustic guitars and some jazz guitars), metal (electric guitars such as the Fender Telecaster) or other materials. The bridge supports the strings and holds them over the body of the instrument under tension. Explanation Most stringed instruments produce sound through the application of energy to the strings, which sets them into vibratory motion, creating musical sounds. The strings alone, however, produce only a faint sound because they displace only a small volume of air as they vibrate. Consequently, the sound of the strings alone requires impedance matching to the surrounding air by tra ...
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Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments such as the guitar, harp, piano (piano wire), and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material that a musical instrument holds under tension so that they can vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain", consisting only of a single material, like steel, nylon, or gut, or wound, having a "core" of one material and an overwinding of another. This is to make the string vibrate at the desired pitch, while maintaining a low profile and sufficient flexibility for playability. The invention of wound strings, such as nylon covered in wound metal, was a crucial step in string instrument technology, because a metal-wound string can produce a lower pitch than a catgut string of similar thickness. This enabled stringed instruments to be made with less thick bass strings. On string instruments that the player plucks or bows directly (e.g., double bass), this enabled instru ...
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Violin Family
The violin family of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the 16th century. At the time the name of this family of instruments was viole da braccio which was used to distinguish them from the viol family (viole ''da gamba''). The standard modern violin family consists of the violin, viola, cello, and (possibly) double bass. Instrument names in the violin family are all derived from the root ''viola'', which is a derivative of the Medieval Latin word ''vitula'' (meaning "stringed instrument"). A ''violin'' is a "little viola", a ''violone'' is a "big viola" or a bass violin, and a ''violoncello'' (often abbreviated ''cello'') is a "small violone" (or literally, a "small big viola"). (The '' violone'' is not part of the modern violin family; its place is taken by the modern double bass, an instrument with a mix of violin and viol characteristics.) Background The instruments of the violin family may be descended in part from the lira da braccio and the medieval Byz ...
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Viola Da Gamba
The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings. Frets on the viol are usually made of gut, tied on the fingerboard around the instrument's neck, to enable the performer to stop the strings more cleanly. Frets improve consistency of intonation and lend the stopped notes a tone that better matches the open strings. Viols first appeared in Spain in the mid-to-late 15th century, and were most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque (1600–1750) periods. Early ancestors include the Arabic ''rebab'' and the medieval European vielle,Otterstedt, Annette. ''The Viol: History of an Instrument. ''Kassel: Barenreiter;-Verlag Karl Votterle GmbH & Co; 2002. but later, more direct possible ancestors include the Venetian ''viole'' and the 15th- and 16th-century Spanish '' vihue ...
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Archtop Guitar
An archtop guitar is a hollow electric or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, and rockabilly players. Typically, an archtop guitar has: * Six strings * An arched top and back, not a flat top and back * A hollow body * Moveable adjustable bridge * F-holes similar to members of the violin family * Rear mounted tailpiece, stoptail bridge, or Bigsby vibrato tailpiece * 14th-fret neck join History The archtop guitar is often credited to Orville Gibson, whose innovative designs led to the formation of the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd in 1902. His 1898 patent for a mandolin, which was also applicable to guitars according to the specifications, was intended to enhance "power and quality of tone." Among the features of this instrument were a violin-style arched top and back, each carved from a single piece of wood, and thicker in the middle than at the sides; sides carved to shape from a s ...
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George Grove
Sir George Grove (13 August 182028 May 1900) was an English engineer and writer on music, known as the founding editor of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Grove was trained as a civil engineer, and successful in that profession, but his love of music drew him into musical administration. When responsible for the regular orchestral concerts at the Crystal Palace, he wrote a series of programme notes from which eventually grew his musical dictionary. His interest in the music of Franz Schubert, which was neglected in England at that point in the nineteenth century, led him and his friend Arthur Sullivan to go to Vienna in search of undiscovered Schubert manuscripts. Their researches led to their discovery of the lost score of Schubert's ''Rosamunde'' music, several of his symphonies and other music in 1867, leading to a revival of interest in Schubert's work. Grove was the first director of the Royal College of Music, from its foundation in 1883 until his retirement ...
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Paul David (musicologist)
Paul David (December 25, 1919 – April 5, 1999) was a Canadian cardiologist, founder of the Montreal Heart Institute, and Senator. Born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Louis-Athanase David and Antonia Nantel, he received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Paris in 1939 and his MD from the Université de Montréal in 1944. He specialized in cardiology in Boston at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1946 and in Paris at the Hôpital Lareboisière in 1947. Upon his return to Montreal, he worked at the Notre-Dame Hospital. He founded the Montreal Heart Institute in 1954. It was under his direction that the first heart transplant ever performed in Canada was carried out at the Institute, in 1968. In 1985, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the recommendation of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He sat as a Progressive Conservative senator representing the Senatorial division of Bedford, Quebec. He retired on his 75th birthday in 1994. His father, Louis-At ...
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