String instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings. In most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which also vibrates, along with the air inside it. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. Common instruments in the string family include the violin, guitar, sitar, electric bass, viola, cello, harp, double bass, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, and bouzouki.
History
Early string instruments have been excavated in ancient Mesopotamia, like the lyres of Ur, which date to 2500 BC.
Types of instruments
Construction
String instruments can be divided in 21 groups.
It is also possible to divide the instruments in groups focused on how the instrument is played.
Types of playing techniques
All string instruments produce sound from one or more vibrating strings, transferred to the air by the body of the instrument (or by a pickup in the case of electronically amplified instruments). They are usually categorized by the technique used to make the strings vibrate (or by the primary technique, in the case of instruments where more than one may apply.) The three most common techniques are plucking, bowing, and striking. An important difference between bowing and plucking is that in the former the phenonemon is periodic, so that the overtones are kept in a strictly harmonic relationship to the fundamental.