This page introduces you to the four bowed string instruments found in a symphony orchestra, from highest to lowest: violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Then are included some plucked stringed instruments.

Bowed orchestral instruments

Violin

Niccolo Paganini, Moto perpetuo, Op. 11 No. 6, performed by Yehudi Menuhin

Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonata in G minor, BWV 1001, II. Fugue (1720), performed by Lara Trotovsek

 

Viola

Robert Schumann, Fairy Tales for Viola and Piano, Op. 113 (1851), performed by Yuri Bashmet

 

Dmitri Shostakovich, Sonata Op. 147 (excerpt) (1975), performed by Maxim Rysanov

 

Cello

Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello Suite No. 1, BWV 1007, I. Prelude, performed by Micha Maisky

 

Bob Marley, “No Woman, No Cry” (1974), performed by Sheku Kanneh-Mason

 

Double bass

Francois Rabbath, Poucha Dass (1968)performed by Lauren Pierce

 

Jazz bass, performed by Willie Dixon

 

Other string techniques

Bowed string instruments can produce sound in other ways, too. Here are some of the techniques a violin, viola, cello, or double bass player has to master.

Pizzicato

Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 4, IV. Allegro pizzicato 1928), performed by the Amadeus Quartet

 

Col legno

Demonstration by James Ehnes

 

Sul ponticello

Demonstrated by David LePage

 

The “seagull effect”

 

Plucked string instruments 

These instruments all produce sound by plucking the strings rather than bowing.

Harp

George Friedrich Handel, Harp Concerto in B-flat Major Op. 4 No. 6, HWV 294, cadenza (1738), performed by Josh Layne

Benjamin Britten, Suite for Harp, Op. 83, I. Introduction (1969), performed by Catrin Finch

 

Guitar

Isaac Albéniz, Asturias (1892), performed by Johannes Möller

Performance by Russian Renaissance (2016) Balalaika, domra, button accordion (not a string instrument!), and balalaika contrabasso