Violin

Great Per­cus­sion­ists
to Check Out

-Sarah Chang
-Andre Rieu
-Yehudi Menuhin
-Joshua Bell
-Izthak Perl­man

Vio­lin Toolbox

-Metronome
-Musi­cal Dic­tio­nary
–Vio­lin Worksheets

There are many parts to the Vio­lin,
these are some of the basics:

• Parts: A vio­lin typ­i­cally con­sists of a spruce top (the sound­board, also known as the top plate, table, or belly), maple ribs and back, two end blocks, a neck, a bridge, a sound post, four strings, and var­i­ous fit­tings, option­ally includ­ing a chin rest, which may attach directly over, or to the left of, the tail piece. A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of a vio­lin body is its hour­glass like shape and the arch­ing of its top and back. The hour glass shape com­prises two upper bouts, two lower bouts, and two con­cave C-bouts at the waist, pro­vid­ing clear­ance for the bow.

• Pitch Range: The com­pass of the vio­lin is from G3 (G below mid­dle C) to C8 (the high­est note of the mod­ern piano.) The top notes, how­ever, are often pro­duced by nat­ural or arti­fi­cial har­mon­ics. Thus the E two octaves above the open E-string may be con­sid­ered a prac­ti­cal limit for orches­tral vio­lin parts.

• Tun­ing: The tun­ing G-D-A-E is used for most vio­lin music. Other tun­ings are occa­sion­ally employed; the G string, for exam­ple, can be tuned up to A.

The stan­dard mod­ern day tun­ing for the Vio­lin G-D-A-E as you can see below…