#Five stringed instrument free#

Please feel free to call me, and we can discuss any idea you want to pursue, Five String Violas for Sale: I have made violas in every size from 14″ (my smallest) to 16-1/2″ (my largest so far: I’d love to make a bigger viola, but customers who can play such a “chin-cello” are few and far between.) I will make any of them in a five-string variant, and each achieves perfectly balanced sound and tone quality across all five strings. They simply are looking for a five-string viola in that size. My ideal customer already knows what size viola he or she plays comfortably. Front view of an Oliver five-string 15″ Viola. But, I also must not lose the upper registers of sound.Īnd, I have to do it all in the size the customer wants! The photo below shows a 15″ 5-string viola with truly superior sound. In addition, not everyone really appreciates the “viola sound.” So, I have to produce an instrument that has the viola sound, if that is what is wanted. But not everyone plays such a large instrument with comfort. And violists love that big, rich tone.Įveryone would play a large viola, if that big viola sound were really the only consideration. They provide greater volume of resonating a ir as well as boasting larger expanses of oscillating tonewood. So why would I need it larger? Because the larger instruments simply produce a bigger sound. (To those asking “ But, why the fifth string?” read more Here.) Why Larger?

#Five stringed instrument full#

The five-string violin or the 5-string viola provides the full C, G, D, A, E palette.

This instrument provides all the normal strings of a viola, (CGDA) and all the normal strings of a violin. I can demonstrate that, usually, a “five-string fiddle” actually is a 14″ viola, with an E-string added to the usual CGDA. Sometimes I have made a smaller or larger viola, or perhaps carved an unusual scroll, but they were still “traditional four-string violas.” I did not make five-string violas until much later. I started out by building standard, f our-string violas. Primarily, I shape the arching differently for a viola, as well as increasing the rib height and other specifics. I make a good 14″ viola, but, it is specifically built as a viola.ĭo not think of a viola as just “a violin with a lower voice.” A luthier has to build the “viola voice” into the instrument. People usually think of the viola as just “a larger violin that is tuned a fifth lower in pitch,” and, that concept is usually pretty close to being true, too! Very few luthiers will attempt a small viola. Not harder, but different.Five String Violas “Just a bigger Fiddle?” But you need to change a little bit the way you play, you have to use your thumb to silence the strings. You don't need more experience to play a 5 string instrument since it's always the same relationship between strings. Mariachi music history is rich and varied. Mariachi music implements a specific medley of instruments and singing, and is recognizable immediately all throughout the world. What’s fascinating about the charango’s construction is that instead of wood the armadillo shell is used as a sandbox. It originated in South America in the Andes Mountains, and some believe that it might be the descendant of a Spanish-stringed instrument. It is generally a five-stringed instrument. This small five-stringed instrument as you can imagine is part of the lute family. Also before going to 5 strings instrument I was looking for some songs I wanted to learn that use the 5th string. It triggered the advent of Mariachi bands, who strum the chords with their fingernails only to create a rich, full sound. It gives me more options but I also use those options. Coming into being in the 10th Century, the rebec was the first bowed stringed instrument to be played on the arm or under the chin. And the 5 string for my 'not metalish music' (rock, jazz, funk, ska) gives me a lot of place to play with the lower notes, play some chords or something more melodic. Since those songs are conceived with that tunning even if I 'have' all the notes in the 5 string bass it is not woth for me to try to play those since the movement of finger will not make sense. I like a lot of songs that use the drop c tunning (or maybe D tunning which is D.G,C,F, but I can deal with that with drop C). Two years later I changed the 4 string bass for a 5 one and still use the 4 string in drop C. So I get two basses, one for the band and one for my lessons. I still wanted to learn the 'standard way'. Presumably, the word violin derives from the Latin. The first thing was confusion then they say 'just tune the bass like us so we can communicate'. In essence, the modern violin is one of the oldest stringed instruments. I asked if I should get a 5 string bass (sin B is lower than C I should be covered). We were playing metal so guitars were tuned in Drop C (that is C,G,C,F.). Like two months after I started learning Bass I joined a band (we were all friends).