stringed instrument

Introduction
The production of sound
Types of instruments
- Lutes
- Zithers
- Lyres
- Harps
The music of stringed instruments
- Solo uses
- For accompaniment
- Ensembles
Social and cultural associations
Artistry in instrument making
The development of stringed instruments
- The harp
- The lyre
- The zither
- Plucked lutes
- Bowed lutes
- Electronic technology
The violin family
- Morphology
- Tuning
- Playing positions
- Violin
- Viola
- Cello, or violoncello
- Double bass
- Other violins
- The bow

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Luthier inspects a violin body at a workbench beside a microscope and shelves of varnish jars. Overlay arrow points to the violin with a text box: “$1 million!”

Watch and hear a person playing the sarod, a stringed instrument of Hindustani music

Watch a man playing a Brazilian musical bow called Berimbau

At a Glance

stringed instrument summary

Quizzes

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)

Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz

Gong. Closeup of a khong wong gong circle chime. Thai classical musical instrument, part of piphat ensemble. (percussion, music)

Music Quiz

Musical Instruments

Related Questions

How are stringed instruments used in Maghrib classical ensembles?
How are the curved sides of a violin or guitar made?
How did bowing spread across Eurasia?
How did electronic technology change stringed instruments in the 20th century?
How did the Arab ʿūd influence the European lute?
How did the pipa and biwa spread across Asia?
How do frets help guitar players produce notes?
How do movable frets help musicians play different musical modes?
How do overtones affect the tone color of a stringed instrument?
How do stringed instruments produce sound?
How do sympathetic strings change the sound of a sitar?
How do thicker strings change the sound and pitch of an instrument?
How does a piano produce sound when a key is pressed?
How does a soundboard make a stringed instrument louder?
How does a string quartet divide its instruments?
How does a violin produce sound when played with a bow?
How does feedback alter the sound of an electric guitar?
How does string length affect the pitch of a musical instrument?
How does the mouth change the sound of a mouth bow?
How does the place where a string is plucked change its sound?
How does wind make an Aeolian harp produce sound?
How is a lute different from a zither?
How is a lyre different from a harp?
How is the koto used in a Japanese sankyoku ensemble?
What happens when violin strings are played pizzicato?
What role does the electric bass play in a rock band?
Where may the idea of playing a stringed instrument with a bow have originated?
Which stringed instruments are used in Hindustani classical music?
Why are humidity and dryness harmful to wooden stringed instruments?
Why are violin, viola, cello, and double bass played in families of different sizes?
Why can electric guitars be played in noisy venues?
Why can pressing a string against a fingerboard make a note slightly sharper?
Why did string sections grow larger in 19th-century symphony orchestras?
Why did the violin family become more important than the viol family in Europe?
Why do instrument makers use seasoned wood for soundboards?
Why does a piano sound different from a harpsichord?
Why does a viol have frets while a violin does not?
Why is rosin used on a violin bow?
Why is the harp a national symbol of Ireland?
What is an electric guitar?
Who invented the first true electric guitar?
How does an electric guitar work?
Who are some influential electric guitarists?
What is a bass guitar?
Who are some influential bass guitar players?
How did the electric bass originate?

Entertainment & Pop Culture Musical Instruments

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External Websites

IndiaNetzone - String Instruments
Physics LibreTexts - Stringed Instruments
LiveAbout - String Musical Instruments: A Gallery
Oregon Symphony - The String Family
Pressbooks Create - Understanding Sound - Vibrating strings
Smithsonian - Origins of Stringed Instruments

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

stringed instrument - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
stringed instruments - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Koto A Japanese musician plucking the strings of a koto with the right hand to generate a pitch and pressing the strings with the left hand to alter the tone.

stringed instrument

Also known as: string instrument

Written by

Theodore C. Grame

Author of Folk Music; America's Ethnic Music.

Theodore C. GrameAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

stringed instrument, any musical instrument that produces sound by the vibration of stretched strings, which may be made of vegetable fiber, metal, animal gut, silk, or artificial materials such as plastic or nylon. In nearly all stringed instruments the sound of the vibrating string is amplified by the use of a resonating chamber or soundboard. The string may be struck, plucked, rubbed (bowed), or, occasionally, blown (by the wind); in each case the effect is...

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