A similar, but more complicated instrument is the zither. This is a folk instrument from northern Europe that has thirty to forty strings stretched across a flat, hollow sound box. The four top strings are used for playing the melody, while the rest of the strings are plucked and strummed to provide the accompaniment. The right hand plucks and strums, and the left hand stops the melody strings against the frets of a guitarlike fingerboard.

When Johann Strauss composed his famous waltz Tales from the Vienna Woods, he included a charming solo for the zither in the orchestral score. (More…)

dodoFolk Music, Guitar, Jazz, Music Box, Popular Music10 Oct, 20082 Comments

Folk music is music of the common people. Created by someone who has a story to tell rather than composed by a trained musician, it is simple and easy to understand. Folk songs have easy, singable melodies, use simple harmonies, and (unless the song tells a sad story) have rhythms that are fun for dancing. The instruments of folk music are the instruments people happened to have around at the time. Sometimes inventive people built their own instruments if no others were available. (More…)

dodoDrums, Electric Guitar, Folk Music, Guitar, String Instruments, Violin10 Oct, 20082 Comments

Even though the tone of the trumpet is very brilliant, it is capable of playing beautiful melodies. When its sound is blended with that of other instruments, new and exciting sounds are created. As with all brass instruments, the tone of the trumpet can be altered by placing a mute in the bell. This is a cone-shaped device usually made of metal or fibreboard. A muted trumpet has a soft, faraway sound and is often used to represent an echo of the sounds of other instruments. (More…)

dodoBrass, Jazz, Music Equipments, Trumpet3 Oct, 20082 Comments

Horn parts are written in treble and bass clefs without key signature, accidentals being written in as they occur. The horn is a transposing instrument and sounds a fifth lower than written in the treble clef but a fourth higher in the bass clef.

In his book on the French horn Morley Pegge described the sound of the instrument as ‘the most refined and poetical voice in the symphony orchestra’. Its emotional range certainly covers the moods from martial to melancholy. (More…)

dodoBrass, Piano23 Aug, 20083 Comments

The harpsichord has a shallower cabinet than that of the piano, and the legs are prettier. If historical accuracy has been observed in its making it will have no foot pedals but instead hand stops placed in the right and the left of the keyboard. Very likely there will be two manuals or keyboards which are stepped. Harpsichordists sit very still as they play. As the strings are plucked by means of tiny quills, no additional volume is to be gained by exerting force or using arm weight. Only a rapid, almost plucking action of the fingers is necessary. No changes of volume are possible, but alterations of timbre are, and these are achieved by a combination of the hand stops. The hand stops engage additional ranks of strings, or alter the point at which they are plucked. The number of ranks of strings and hand stops vary according to the date and make of the instrument. (More…)

dodoPiano31 Jul, 20084 Comments

The part for the double bass is written on the bottom stave of the score. The notes sound an octave lower than written. Unlike any other member of the violin family the strings are tuned in fourths — GDAE; this is because with strings of such length and thickness the intervals between the stopped notes are very wide and if they were tuned to the usual fifths there would be insuperable physical difficulties in fingering. The greater length of thicker string gives a smaller, not wider, compass on account of the notes being so widely spaced. The compass is about two and a quarter octaves. (More…)

dodoMusic Equipments, Popular Music, String Instruments, Violin15 Jul, 20085 Comments