String instruments include instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, double bass (sometimes called the contrabass), and harp. String instruments can be very challenging to learn and to teach, in part because mastery of string instruments requires knowledge of and experience with all of their interconnected components.
The violin, viola, cello, and double bass all consist of a body, a curved, hollow section made of wood where the sound resonates, and a neck, a straight piece that extends from the body with four strings stretched along it, attached to tuning pegs at the end. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of violin and its component parts.
Part of learning to play these instruments involves learning how to string and tune each of the musical strings. A string is made from a core, and then layers of a synthetic material or metal compound is wrapped around the core to make the string. After the string is made, a “silking” is applied. This “silking” is comprised of a colored wrapping made out of fine fibers. These fibers are wrapped at the upper and lower ends of the strings. The silking can be used to identify the brand, and to make the upper portion of the string sturdy by absorbing tension as the string is initially threaded through the hole inside of each peg and wrapped in the peg box to a desired pitch.
Frequently, when strings are purchased in a set, there are no instructions as to how to differentiate one string from the next. An experienced musician would understand that he or she would have to separate all strings and then place them in order from thinnest to thickest in order to figure out where each string should be placed inside the peg box. However, the inexperienced musician would not know to do this without help.
Since each peg on a fretless instrument, such as a violin, receives a specific string, a string may break because a consumer may be unfamiliar of where to place a string inside the peg box. FIG. 2 illustrates an example peg box containing the four pegs used in violins, along with the corresponding strings. Each string is a specific length and width. For example, the G string on the violin is the thickest string. The D string on a violin is wider than an A string, but an E string on the violin is the thinnest string of all four strings. If a consumer does not know how to distinguish the differences between each string, he or she may place the strings in the wrong pegs. This will cause strings to pop or break prematurely.
Tuning the instrument can also be difficult, as a string may also break when a user turns the peg past its tension point when trying to tune the string. Even when a string does not break, tuning string instruments is a problem for novice instrumentalists and to those who have difficulty with pitch recognition.
Further complicating the learning process is the fact that fretless instruments are unlike most other instruments because each string contains a variation of intervals and overtones. For example, on a piano keyboard, the keys are spaced in intervals consisting of either whole steps or half steps. There is no interval lower than a half step. Unlike the piano, the strings on fretless instruments contain intervals that can be played lower than half steps. The reason is because each pitch on a string is relative to where an instrumentalist places his or her fingers on the fingerboard of the instrument. Without frets, there is no guarantee that an instrumentalist will place his or her finger on the fingerboard exactly one whole step or exactly one half step from the starting pitch.