howtoviolin.com

Learning to play the violin is said to be a very luxurious pastime. Not all musicians know how to play it or even hold it properly. Anyhow, before you get that bow and attempt to play some musical notes, it is best to get to know first what it is that you are about to use. Get to know the parts and their roles in producing the sounds to complete the music.

As the owner of the instrument, you should know the right way of taking care of it. Most violinists have the most treasured instruments that have been passed on from one generation to another. Hence, the more careful they should be. If you are a beginner, you need to do the same thing. Thus, read on to know more about its basics and how you can effectively play this musical instrument.

The Parts of the Violin

Basically, the violin is made up of the body or the corpus, the fingerboard, the neck, the bridge, the tail piece, the four strings, and the bow. The body or corpus is usually made from the traditional materials of either the sycamore or the maple for the back, the neck, and the ribs. On the other hand, the belly is generally made out of spruce. The sycamore, maple, and spruce are usually the trees that are chosen for the materials since they gradually grow at elevated heights and they contain a tight cellulose structure. This therefore contributes to the generation of the good resonance.

The timber parts in the body of the violin can also be fairly distributed into the ribs, front plate, or sides of the violin. Add to it the back plate. The arched front and back plates are normally affixed to the garland of ribs by using the animal hide glue. The latter is being used up to now basically because of its characteristic of being safely and easily removed. This is an advantage especially when some repairs are needed.

The two “c” cutouts that look like an hourglass in the body are mainly crafted for good resonance and easy contact to the strings when the bow is used. Of course, the body also consists of the soundhole and soundpost. The soundhole is also referred to as the “f hole”.

The rest of the portion of the violin is made up of the characteristic scroll that is found at the end of the neck, the pegboard, the tuning pegs, the bridge, the fingerboard, tail gut, and tailpiece. The neck is mechanically strong partly because of the laminated fingerboard. At any rate that the fingerboard starts to come away, the four strings should be immediately loosened to prevent any further damage.

The Four Strings

The violin has four strings. They correspond to the keys of G, D, A, and E. Historically, they have been made out of the sheep’s intestines called the “catgut”. However, a lot of disputes came along. The contemporary violins are nevertheless made of the stranded synthetic core wound that feature different metals or steel core wound.

These are the basics that you should know prior to starting to learn the art of playing the violin. You can better appreciate this musical instrument if you know much about what comprises it and what they do in the production of sound.

Playing the violin may not be as easy as you think if you are not well acquainted with its basic parts. That is why, if you are trying to learn how to play the violin, you must first educate yourself with what its basic parts are. It may not be necessary that you learn it from a violin instructor or from someone who is an expert in playing it. You can simply get it from music books or by going online and search through various search engines using the keywords “violin parts”. But since you’re already here, you might as well continue reading on because below are the basic parts of a violin.

Now, think of the violin as similar to a human body. Why so? Because the parts of a violin are named just like some human body parts such as the body, neck, belly, back and ribs. The front plate, ribs, and the backplate are the timber parts of the body. These are often made from either sycamore or well seasoned maple for the ribs, neck, and back, while for the belly, spruce is used. Since these materials are grown slowly at high altitudes, these have tight cellulose structure which is just right in order to generate the necessary resonance.

But aside from the timber parts, the body is also composed of a soundhole, which is also known as F hole, and a soundpost. The F hole is named as such because its shape is like an F in Italics. Its main use is to allow sound to come out of the violin. The soundpost, on the other hand, is there mainly to support the pressure inside the violin.

After the body, let’s go to the remaining parts of the violin. These include the scroll, tuning pegs, pegbox, fingerboard, bridge, tailpiece, and nut. The scroll is the one you can see at the top of the violin. Its purpose is mainly for decorative and not for functional. The pegbox, on the other hand, is where the tuning pegs are inserted. These pegs are adjusted from time to time to make sure the violin is tuned. And just like the pegs, the fingerboard and the bridge also play a vital function to make the violin produce excellent sound. The former is a strip of wood on the neck of the violin where you can see the strings.

As you play the violin, you need to press down the strings to it in order to change the pitch. The latter, on the other hand, is important because it vibrates as the strings vibrate, creating quality sound. And speaking of strings, a violin is mainly composed of four strings, the G, D, A, and E. These strings are often made of stranded synthetic core wound with various metals and are tuned a fifth apart.

So, to sum everything, these are the basic parts of a violin: body, neck, belly, back, ribs, soundhole, soundpost, scroll, tuning pegs, pegbox, fingerboard, bridge, tailpiece, nut, and strings. Now that you know all these, you can start learning the basics of how to play the violin. Again, you can do your search online for how to’s if you want to learn on your own.

But if you are really serious about starting a career or something out of it, you might as well get professional lessons.