Strings and their Tones

Musical Instruments:
Fasten a violin string to a wooden frame or box, as shown in Figure, stretching it by means of some convenient weight; then lay a yardstick along the box in order that the lengths may be determined accurately. If the stretched string is plucked with the fingers or bowed with the violin bow, a clear musical sound of definite pitch will be produced. Now divide the string into two equal parts by inserting the bridge midway between the two ends; and pluck either half as before. The note given forth is of a decidedly higher pitch, and if by means of the siren we compare the pitches in the two cases, we find that the note sounded by the half wire is the octave of the note sounded by the entire wire; the frequency has been doubled by halving the length. If now the bridge is placed so that the string is divided into two unequal portions such as 1:3 and 2:3, and the shorter portion is plucked, the pitch will be still higher; the shorter the length plucked, the higher the pitch produced. This movable bridge corresponds to the finger of the violinist; the finger slides back and forth along the string, thus changing the length of the bowed portion and producing variations in pitch.

If there were but one string, only one pitch could be sounded at any one time; the additional strings of the violin allow of the simultaneous production of several tones.

FIG. - The length of a string influences the pitch.