Guide: String Instruments, Part 1

There are several instruments that fall into the category of “string instrument.” To keep from presenting an overwhelming amount of information, this installment of a guide to string instruments focuses on the four most common string instruments encountered when treating classical musicians: violin, viola, cello, and (upright/acoustic) bass. Additional instruments will be discussed in later articles.

Among these four instruments common to orchestras and string ensembles, there are a few commonalities:

1. The instrument creates music through vibrations of its 4 metal strings resonating through the hollow instrument body. Various pitches are made by depressing the strings firmly against the fingerboard. The strings can be caused to vibrate through bowing (dragging horse-hair bows across the stings – the hair is made “sticky” with resin to increase the amount and quality of vibration produced), plucking, and bouncing the wood part of the bow on the strings. The method of producing sound from the instrument is dictated by the composer and noted in the music.
2. The right arm holds and moves the bow to play the instrument. Bow movements can be long, slow, and smooth or very short, choppy, and quick. The bow arm is also used to pluck the strings in pizzicato sections. Depending on the length and location of the pizzicato section(s) in the piece, the musician may have to continue to hold the bow in the plucking hand. Occasionally, the piece allows time for the bow to be set down while the strings are plucked.
3. The left hand depresses the strings on the fingerboard to control the pitch of the note being produced.

The traditional orchestral string instruments discussed here are divided into upper and lower strings. “Upper strings” includes the violin and viola, while the cello and bass make up the “lower strings.”

Upper Strings

• Can be played while sitting or standing (In traditional performances, soloists stand, orchestra members sit)
• The left arm supports the instrument. The shoulder is flexed and horizontally abducted, the elbow is flexed, the wrist is in a supinated position with varying degrees of flexion and ulnar deviation, and the fingers flex and abduct to depress the strings while playing. Reaching some positions to play notes on the lower strings requires external rotation of the shoulder. Shifting to higher positions to depress the strings further up the fingerboard (closer to the face) requires horizontal adduction of the arm, more elbow and wrist flexion, ulnar deviation, finger abduction, and occasionally more shoulder external rotation.
• The right arm is abducted to varying degrees while bowing with the wrist in a pronated position. The bowing motion includes elbow flexion and extension paired with wrist flexion/ulnar deviation and wrist extension/radial deviation. The upper arm also horizontally abducts and adducts. The bow grip requires the fingers and thumb to be flexed. To pluck the strings, the right arm is flexed and may be slightly abducted while the elbow is nearly fully flexed. The wrist typically oscillates around a neutral position while plucking.
• Very promising, talented younger students (typically in high school) who play an upper strings instrument may be asked to learn the other upper string instrument as a secondary instrument to assist their less-musical peers in an ensemble (or to fill-out a thin instrument section).

 

Violin

• Is the smallest of the 4 instruments discussed here
• Frequently has the melodic line of the music (the main part), which may mean that the music is more technically difficult an physically demanding than some other instrument parts of the same piece
• Most musical pieces have multiple parts written for the violin; in quartet and orchestra music, these are 1st and 2nd violin (also written Violin I and Violin II). These differences are in the music that the musicians play, not in the instrument itself or any major differences in the way the instrument is played.

Viola

Violin (L) and Viola (R)

• Is larger than a violin (and, subsequently, has a lower range). This larger size can cause problems and potentially even injury for smaller instrumentalists, especially younger students and female violists.
• Typical ensemble music does not often feature “interesting” music for the viola section. This may lead many violists to experiment with other instruments or to find many “outside gigs” in small ensembles. Both of these have the potential to lead to injury.

Lower Strings

• The left shoulder abducted, the elbow is flexed (more than in the upper strings), the wrist is in a neutral position, and the fingers flex and abduct to depress the strings while playing. Depending on the size of the person relative to the instrument, varying degrees of shoulder rotation may be required. Shifting to higher positions to depress the strings further down the fingerboard (closer to the floor) requires internal rotation, slight horizontal adduction, and finger abduction. Depending on the size of the cellist, shifting to play higher notes may require the musician to “reach around” or “reach over” the body of the instrument.
• The right arm is flexed while bowing and the bowing motion comes primarily from shoulder abduction/adduction in this plane.
• During plucking, the right elbow is slightly flexed, the forearm pronated, and the arm internally rotated. The arm may be slightly flexed and adducted.

Cello

• Most frequently played while seated, using an endpin to support the weight of the instrument. The endpin is adjusted to the appropriate height for the size of the musician.
• Can be played while standing, but this is rare. It involves placing the physically lowest tuning peg of the instrument on the side closest to the musician’s body (the C peg) behind the musician’s neck. This positioning of the instrument alters playing mechanics since the neck of the instrument (where the strings are depressed during playing) is closer to the body than when playing while seated.

Bass

• Has the most variability among players in terms of positioning and playing posture
• May be played while standing erect, leaning on a tall stool, or sitting on a stool specifically designed for playing the bass. Many players who elect to stand while playing still keep a stool on stage during performances for when they are not playing.
• Some bass players shift their weight or pivot around their instrument while playing, consistently changing the relationship of their body to the instrument. This is important to remember when treating a bassist for an injury that may interfere with this ability, even if the injury does not directly impede playing ability.
• Some musicians may hold the bass in an excessively rotated position, with the bass angled toward their midline. This leads to excessive external rotation and wrist flexion on the left side. This most often arises during childhood, when the musician is too small to play – and control – the instrument effectively using proper positioning. This occasionally happens among cellists, too, but it is more commonly uncorrected among bassists, due to the wide variety of playing styles and posture preferences (this improper body positioning is often disguised as “personal preference.”)

There are a wide variety of playing postures, some more ergonomic than others.