List of PULSED STRING instruments

One of the most special characteristics of music is the variety and diversity. It is thanks to these qualities that we can obtain an immensity of options to be able to create new and interesting things. From this concern to innovate also comes the need to manufacture means that help us achieve our ideas, this is in fact the definition of an instrument. In this article by a TEACHER we will talk about one of these types of objects that help us create music: plucked string instruments.

As in music we classify musical instruments by the technique used to produce sound, we take the essential elements to define it. One of the big categories in music are string instruments.

In this case, the plucked string instruments, just as the name indicates, are those instruments that have strings that when played with the fingertips or with a pick (a flat, thin and firm piece) with slight pressure and then being released, they produce vibrations that we perceive as sound. Instruments with strings are also called "Chordophones".

The beginning of the mechanics of the strings to produce sound lies in tensioning a rope at both ends. The sound changes depending on the length of the string, the material it is made from, and the amount of tension with which it is held. The thinner, shorter, and taut a string is, the higher the sound is. On the contrary, the thicker, longer and looser a string is, the lower the sound will be. This is in fact a principle studied by the Greek philosopher and mathematicianPythagoras, approximately in the year 500 aC.

Under the plucked string principle we find the following instruments:

Guitar

It is perhaps the best known plucked string instrument. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and materials. In general, guitars are made of wood. The strings are 6 on the standard guitar and can be made of nylon or metal. For the lower strings, a wound is used, usually made of copper.

A very popular variant is the electric guitarInstead of using the body as a natural sounding board, it uses electrically connected microphones to transfer sound to an amplifier.

The different types of guitar change their forms and their parts mainly due to the style or musical genre. There are interesting variants such as double neck guitars or double string guitars (12 strings).

Under

The banjo is another major plucked string instrument. It has only 4 strings (in the standard version) and tends to have a longer neck. The tessitura of the bass is much lower than that of the guitar. Although it is capable of creating melodies and chords, its main musical function is to provide the harmonic base with the basses (the lowest notes of the chords). Of this we also have two variants. The acoustic version and the electric version.

The acoustic and classic version of the bass is the double bass, which is originally a rubbed string instrument. When using the plucked string technique ("pizzicato”), The double bass changes its sound and can be used with another type of sound. The double bass is frequently used for jazz and blues ensembles.

Banjo

It has 4 to 10 strings, is smaller than a guitar and its circular body is covered by a plastic or leather patch. It has a very particular and easy to distinguish metallic sound that is used mainly for genres of the dixieland, bluegrass and country. Its origin is American.

Ukulele

It resembles a guitar, very small in size. It is the main instrument of Hawaiian music. It has only 4 plastic strings and its sound is sweet and a bit sharp. There are variants defined by their tuning.

Lute

The lute is also another of the most popular plucked string instruments. Its origin is Arabic and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is one of the direct ancestors of the guitar. Unlike the guitar, its body is not flat but domed. The lute was used with greater popularity during the Middle Ages.

Up to this point we have named instruments of the guitar family, however plucked string instruments also include other instruments such as the following:

Harp

It is a large instrument with a number of strings that rises to 47. The strings are placed in a large frame that the musician places between his legs while seated, to be played with both hands (all 10 fingers can be used, as on the piano). The harp has pedals that can be pressed to change the tuning of the strings by half tones, since it does not have frets to press as is the case with the guitar. Mainly, the harp is used in symphony orchestras.

Lira

It is a very ancient instrument of Greek origin. Like the harp, it is played with both hands. The Lyre is considered as the ancestor from which all the instruments that we have mentioned above descend.

Harpsichord or harpsichord

And we end this lesson on plucked instruments to talk about the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument with a mechanism similar to the piano, but instead of the strings being struck with hammers, they are struck by a plectrum metal. This instrument was used mainly during baroque music and classicism.

Less popular instruments

Among the less popular plucked string instruments we can also find instruments of more exotic origins such as the koto and the shamisen (Japan), the kora (West Africa), the zither (Greece), the sitar (India and Pakistan), the charango (South America) and the three and four (Latin America) among others.

Thanks to their size and versatility, many of the plucked string instruments are popular and accessible. Now that you know how they work and the variety that there is, you can venture to approach one of them to get closer to the music.