An Introduction to the Violin

Violins are among the most versatile musicalpainted to look like ebony. Traditionally, violin strings
instruments, evidenced by their use in many differentwere made of gut, but they are usually made of
musical genres. Some types of music that commonlymetal now.
feature violins are classical music, pop, bluegrass,The violin is played by pressing the strings against the
country, and jazz.fingerboard with the left hand while rubbing a bow
A violin is the smallest of the stringed instruments.across the strings with the right hand. The bow is a
Other stringed instruments include the viola and thelong wooden rod with stands of horsehair tied to
cello. It has four strings, tuned, from low to high, G Deach end. A violin bow looks similar to a bow used to
A E, each note being a perfect fifth of the oneshoot arrows, but is much smaller. Violinists usually
below it. A violin looks like a hollow wooden box withplay one note on one string at a time, but they can
a long neck protruding from one end. The body ofplay chords by holding down and bowing more than
the violin is usually made of a couple of differentone string at once. Some pieces of music require the
types of wood. The top of the violin, also called theviolinist to pluck the strings with the fingers of the
belly, is customarily made of spruce, which is a strongright hand rather than bow them, producing a short,
type of softwood. The sides and back are made ofstaccato sound.
maple, which is harder and more durable than spruce.Violins have been in use for many centuries and are
Ebony is most commonly used for the fingerboard,still common is contemporary music. The sounds
but sometimes ivory is used. Some less expensiveproduced by a violin can compliment many other
models have other types of wood that are merelymusical instruments and enrich a piece of music.