Violin at First Glance

Violins are performed in varies musical genres, jazz, country, pop and classical music.  It composed of four strings G D A E (from low to high). Violin shape looks like a hollow wooden box which built from different kind of woods. Violin is played by pressing the strings against the fingerboard while rubbing a bow across the strings.

String

Vibrating of strings depends on four factors.

    * Thicker, more massive strings vibrate more slowly so the strings are thicker as (on a violin) you go down from the E to A to D to G strings, even though the length of the string doesn't change, and its tension does not change much.

    * The frequency can also be changed by changing the tension in the string using the tuning pegs: tighter gives higher pitch. This is what the player does when s/he tunes up.

    * The frequency also depends on the length of the string that is free to vibrate. The player changes this by holding the string firmly against the fingerboard with the fingers of the left hand. Shortening the string (stopping it further up the fingerboard) gives higher pitch.

    * Finally there is the mode of vibration. When you play harmonics, you induce the string to produce waves which are a fraction of the length of those normally produced by a string of that length.

For more about strings and their motion, including harmonics, see Strings, standing waves and haromonics. For their interaction with bows, see the section Bows and strings.

The strings themselves make hardly any noise: they are thin and slip easily through the air without making much of disturbance - and a sound wave is a disturbance of the air. An electric violin or an electric guitar played without an amplifier makes little noise. It is the bridge and body of the acoustic violin that transmit some of the vibration of the strings into sound in the air.

The bridge stands on the belly between the f holes. These holes have two different functions. One is to connect the air inside to the air outside, and we talk about this below. The other is a result of their length: the part of the belly lying between the f holes can move more easily than can most of the wood of the body.

The soundpost and bass bar

The treble foot of the bridge (the one under the E string) is quite near the soundpost, which is a small post connecting the relatively flexible belly plate of the violin to the much stiffer back plate. This post prevents the belly from collapsing under the vertical component of the tension in the strings, and it also couples the vibrations of the plates. This connection to the stiffer back plate restricts the motion of the treble foot considerably. The bass foot of the bridge is much easier to move up and down. (Press gently with your fingers and you can feel this difference.) As a result, when a string is driven from side to side by the action of the bow, the bridge tends to pivot about the treble foot, highlighted in yellow in the sketch at right. The bass foot moves up and down a little, moving part of the belly with it.