Week of May 25 K-5 Strings

Hello, musicians! I hope you were able to get outside this past weekend and enjoy some of the beautiful weather. This week we'll be exploring the string family of musical instruments. Strings, perhaps more than any other family of musical instruments, has a place in many cultures around the world. It would be impossible to try and go through all of them here, but I hope you enjoy learning about some of them here!

As always, please feel free to send me some Chrome Music Lab or Incredibox creations if you have some free time. I love listening ton them!

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3-5 Google Form

Symphonic/Orchestral Strings

There are four standard string instruments used in orchestras around the world. They are the violin, viola, cello, and bass. These instruments are played in one of two ways. The musician either uses a bow and draws in across the strings to produce the sound or the musician uses their fingers to pluck the strings. Plucking the strings in called pizzicato. Below is a video of a string quartet (four musicians) that consists of two violins, a viola, and a cello. (We'll see the bass in the next video.) They are playing a cover of the Taylor Swift song, "Shake It Off." Hope you like it.

Bluegrass Strings

Country music isn't always my first choice when finding music to listen to, however I absolutely love bluegrass music! I never get tired of listening to it. Bluegrass music uses mostly string instruments: the violin (fiddle), mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar, and bass. The mandolin has eight strings and the musician strums and plucks the strings much like a guitar player does. The banjo usually has five strings and is strummed in a similar way. Most of us are familiar with the guitar, bass, violin. Each instrument will take a solo in the video below. I hope you like listening to some bluegrass music!

Sitar

Not that the other instruments are not, but I just think the sitar is so COOL! It has a very recognizable sound and is native to the country of India. Standard guitars have six strings whereas Sitars can have up to 21 strings. Here you'll see the sitar paired with another Indian percussion instrument called the tabla. Take a listen! It's such a cool sound!

Erhu

Our last string instrument takes us to China. The Ehru is a bowed string instrument. It has two strings and can be heard in many different styles of music in China ranging from traditional folk music to pop and rock. Interestingly, sound box (the part that is sitting on the musician's lap) of often covered in python skin giving the Erhu it's distinctive sound. Please take a listen!