How many types of string instruments are there?

Worldwide, there are more than 300 different instruments that are considered part of the string family. These range from the single-stringed diddly bow, which originated here in the United States and contributed to blues music, to the 88-stringed piano, which is considered both a string and a percussion instrument.

What are the 4 string instruments?

The strings are the largest family of instruments in the orchestra and they come in four sizes: the violin, which is the smallest, viola, cello, and the biggest, the double bass, sometimes called the contrabass.

What are the two types of string instruments?

Read on to learn more about the different types of string instruments.
  • The Violin. Let’s start with an instrument most people are familiar with, the violin.
  • The Viola. Do you like how the violin looks but the high-pitched sounds it produces irk you?
  • The Mandolin.
  • The Cello.
  • The Guitar.
  • The Harp.

What are the string instruments?

Some string instruments are mainly plucked, such as the harp and the electric bass. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, and bouzouki.

What are the 5 main string instruments?

The most common string instruments in the string family are guitar, electric bass, violin, viola, cello, double bass, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, and harp.

What instrument has only 3 strings?

Balalaikas in all sizes. Bass balalaikas, domras with 3 and 4 strings.

What is a 5 string violin called?

They are simply called “five-string violins” in the English language, and usually combine the viola and the violin’s ranges. Other stringed instruments that have 5 strings are generally of the viol family, e.g. the pardessus de viole which could have 5 or 6 strings, or the quinton which specifically has 5 strings.

What is the oldest string instrument?

The earliest surviving stringed instruments to date are the Lyres of Ur, plucked chordophones, which currently exist in fragments that date back to 4,500 years ago. The first bowed chordophones were probably developed in central Asia and were the forerunners of an Indian folk instrument known as the ravanastron.

What is the smallest string instrument?

The violin is the smallest and highest pitched member of the string family. The sound of the violin is high, bright, and sweet. There are more violins in the orchestra than any other instrument. There can be as many as 30 or more violins in an orchestra!

What instrument is the loudest?

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the loudest (and largest) instrument in the world is the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ. This pipe organ was built by the Midmer-Losh Organ Company, and is housed in the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

What is the hardest instrument to play?

The 5 Hardest Instruments To Learn (And Why)
  • The French Horn. Learning to play the french horn is renowned for being extremely difficult but very rewarding to learn to play.
  • Violin. The violin is hard to play, I know this from first hand experience.
  • Oboe.
  • Piano.
  • Drums.

What is a tiny violin called?

The pochette is a small stringed instrument of the bowed variety. It is essentially a very small violinlike wood instrument designed to fit in a pocket, hence its common name, the “pochette” (French for small pocket). A pochette shaped like a violin is called a “kit violin“.