Essentials for Strings and Violin Scales

• Understanding the basics of strings and scales really builds up your violin knowledge. violin image by Dmytro Korniyenko from Fotolia.com

  Learning to play the violin is a time-consuming and difficult process. Not only do you have to learn to play the instrument, you have to learn about the instrument itself and some basic music theory. Learning about the strings and the scales gives you the basic information you need to maintain your instrument and learn how to start composing your own pieces. There are a few basic types of violin strings and many different scales.

Gut Strings

• Traditionally, strings for musical instruments were made of sheep guts. This still exists today in some form for violin strings, but there is now just a gut core, encased in silver or copper wire. Gut strings give a warm and complex tone, and are great for anyone wanting to replicate early music. They take longer to stretch than other types of string, and even can lose tuning because of a change in weather conditions. The sound produced by gut strings also varies based on the string's gauge (thickness). A smaller gauge will have a brighter sound, and thicker ones give a more powerful and warmer tone.

Steel Strings

• Steel strings are basically the same as gut strings but with a steel core instead of an intestine one. This gives a clearer, less complex tone, but it is more reliable in pitch. Steel core strings give you a brighter sound than gut strings, and are better suited to beginners.

Synthetic Strings

• These strings replace the steel or gut core with a synthetic material such as nylon. This provides the authentic, warm tone provided by gut strings, along with the pitch stability from steel core strings. These have been used since the 1970s and may be the best option, improving on aspects of the previous types. The choice of string is ultimately down to personal preference, and what suits your violin.

Scales

• Scales are collections of notes that get higher in pitch incrementally. The notes in a specific scale will usually produce an overall effect or feeling when played (e.g. they will sound happy, sad, panicked, excited), and are used in situations according to their overall sound. For example, if you were to play a collection of notes made up of the "C Major" scale, it would sound happy (major) and be in the key of C. This means that if you have the deeper stringed instruments playing in C, you can play a melody over the top using the notes from "C Major" and have it sound like it fits.

  The first scales you should learn are the basic major and minor scales (sad, melancholic sound). These are the most basic scale patterns and are useful to do when warming up to play. You can play the notes from a scale over one octave (in "C Major," you would play from middle C up to the next highest C note), or over two octaves (to the second C above middle C). An octave is one complete set of the seven natural notes and five flats; in a scale you will only play selected notes. "C Major" is the simplest scale, running "CDEFGAB," all natural notes.