Stringed instruments form a diverse and captivating family within the world of musical instruments. At their core, they all share a fundamental principle: sound is produced by the vibration of stretched strings. This vibration can be initiated in various ways, creating a rich tapestry of sounds and playing styles. From the familiar strum of an acoustic guitar to the resonant draw of a violin bow, or the percussive strike of a piano hammer, stringed instruments offer an incredible range of musical expression. They are one of the five primary instrument families, alongside percussion, woodwind, brass, and keyboard instruments, each contributing uniquely to the orchestra and countless musical genres.
Delving into the Different Types of Stringed Instruments
The world of stringed instruments can be broadly categorized based on how their strings are set into motion. This leads us to three primary types: bowed, plucked, and hammered stringed instruments. Each category encompasses a fascinating array of instruments, each with its own distinct sound and history.
Bowed Stringed Instruments: The Symphony Orchestra’s Heart
The bowed stringed instruments are the backbone of the Western symphony orchestra, providing a rich and expressive tonal foundation. This group primarily includes the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. These instruments, in their modern forms, evolved from earlier instruments like the viol or viola da gamba, which were popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, originating in Spain in the 15th century. The violin itself emerged in the early 16th century, and its larger relatives, the viola, cello, and double bass, followed, each offering progressively deeper and richer tones.
Above: Renowned violinist Hilary Hahn performing Bach, showcasing the expressive capabilities of bowed stringed instruments like the violin.
Modern bowed stringed instruments typically feature a hollow wooden body, known as the soundbox, a fingerboard, and four strings made from materials like steel, nylon, or gut. Sound is produced by drawing a bow across the strings. The bow itself is a carefully crafted wooden stick strung with horsehair or synthetic alternatives. A crucial element in producing sound with a bow is rosin. Rosin, a sticky resin derived from tree sap, is applied to the bow hair to create friction. This friction allows the bow hair to grip the strings, causing them to vibrate consistently and produce a clear tone. Players apply rosin by rubbing a hardened cake of it onto the bow hair, creating a fine white powder that enhances grip.
Playing technique involves holding the bow in the right hand and using the left hand to manipulate the strings on the fingerboard. By pressing down on the strings at different points along the fingerboard, the player changes the string’s vibrating length, thus altering the pitch. Violins and violas are held under the chin, while cellos and double basses, due to their size, are positioned upright against the player’s body, anchored to the floor by a metal spike. Beyond bowing, players can also pluck the strings with their fingers, a technique known as pizzicato, offering a contrasting percussive sound.
Plucked Stringed Instruments: From Guitar to Harp
Plucked stringed instruments create sound when the strings are plucked, either with fingers, thumbs, or a plectrum (pick). This category is incredibly diverse, encompassing instruments like the banjo, ukulele, guitar, harp, lute, mandolin, and the sitar from Indian classical music. For guitar players, this category holds particular interest as it includes the guitar family itself.
Guitars, banjos, ukuleles, and mandolins share a common playing posture: the instrument body, often a hollow wooden box in acoustic versions, is held in the lap when seated or against the abdomen when standing. The right hand is responsible for plucking or strumming the strings, while the left hand frets the strings to produce different pitches. A key difference compared to bowed instruments is the presence of frets on the fingerboard of many plucked instruments. These metal frets act as precise guides for finger placement, making it easier to produce accurate notes and chords, especially for beginners learning guitar.
Above: Héloïse de Jenlis performing Debussy on the harp, illustrating the elegant and resonant sounds of a plucked stringed instrument.
Guitars exhibit a wide range of string configurations, from four to as many as 18 strings, although six-string guitars are the most common. Banjos typically have four to six strings, and ukuleles are characterized by their four strings. The harp stands out as another significant plucked stringed instrument, easily recognized by its triangular shape. Each harp string is tuned to a specific note, and the strings are arranged in order of length, from short (high pitch) to long (low pitch). Modern concert harps, used in orchestras since the 19th century, often have around 47 strings and feature seven foot pedals. These pedals allow players to change the pitches of the strings, enabling them to play in various keys with ease. In contrast, Celtic or folk harps are smaller, arched, lack pedals, and are designed to be played on the lap, offering a more portable and intimate playing experience.
Hammered Stringed Instruments: The Piano’s Ancestry
Hammered stringed instruments create sound when strings are struck by hammers. While the piano, a ubiquitous keyboard instrument, might not immediately come to mind as a stringed instrument, it fundamentally belongs to this category. Inside a piano, pressing the 88 black and white keys activates hammers that strike strings of varying lengths, much like a harp’s arrangement. Releasing a key causes a damper to stop the string’s vibration, ending the sound. Pedals at the base of the piano allow for sustain, holding dampers off the strings for prolonged notes.
The hammered dulcimer is a more direct example of a hammered stringed instrument. It consists of strings stretched over a resonant soundboard. Players use small, spoon-shaped mallets, one in each hand, to strike the strings. Hammered dulcimers and related instruments have rich traditions in various regions, including Iraq, India, Iran, Southwest Asia, China, Korea, Southeast Asia, Central Europe, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. Variations include instruments like the salterio, hackbrett, cimbalom, santur, yangqin, and khim, each with regional characteristics and playing styles.
Acoustic vs. Electric String Instruments: Amplifying the Sound
Stringed instruments can also be classified as acoustic or electric, referring to how their sound is projected and amplified.
Electric Violins and Guitars: Modern Innovation
Just as acoustic violins and their relatives form a family, so too do electric bowed stringed instruments exist, equipped with electronic outputs for amplification. Often constructed from modern materials like carbon fiber, Kevlar, and glass, electric violins typically have solid bodies. Instead of relying on the natural resonance of a hollow soundbox, their sound is amplified electronically through an amplifier. Acoustic violins can also be adapted for electric amplification by fitting them with pickups to capture and boost their natural sound.
Electric guitars operate on a similar principle. Pickups convert string vibrations into electrical signals, which are then amplified and reproduced through loudspeakers. The electric guitar emerged in 1932 and initially gained traction among jazz guitarists. However, its popularity exploded in the 1950s and 60s, becoming a cornerstone of pop music and various genres, from rock and country to blues. The electric guitar is particularly iconic in rock and heavy metal music, serving dual roles as rhythm guitar (providing chords and riffs) and lead guitar (carrying melodies and solos).
Above: Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi performing a guitar solo, demonstrating the dynamic and powerful sound of the electric guitar in rock music.
Today, the solid-body electric guitar with six strings is the most prevalent type. The bass guitar, a lower-pitched member of the electric guitar family, features a longer neck and typically four to six strings, providing the essential bass frequencies in many musical ensembles.
In conclusion, stringed instruments encompass a vast and fascinating world, ranging from the delicate sounds of the harp to the powerful resonance of a guitar and the orchestral grandeur of the violin family. Whether bowed, plucked, or hammered, acoustic or electric, these instruments continue to shape and enrich music across cultures and genres, offering endless possibilities for musical exploration and expression for musicians and listeners alike.
