I don't play a string instrument but thought someone who does might be able to help me with something. I play the piano and will be taking my grade 5 theory exam in November. I have been practising on some past papers and recently I have been getting a lot of questions about violin signs in music. My teacher suggested that I learn a few signs so that if one of those questions did come up then I would hopefully know the answer. I have looked through books and on websites to find pictures of these signs but have had no luck. Does anyone know any sites that could help me?

Thanks,

Lisa xxx

What do you mean by violin signs? Bowing marks? Stylistic marks?

Yes, I think so I don't really know what I'm talking about! The marks you have suggested may be the ones I mean.

Sorry to be annoying.

Lisa xxx

I don't know if it has anything in because I don't have it to hand

But do you have the blue AB guide to music theory? I know it has some stuff on instruments in it ...it might have signs and terms for specific instruments in it

Signs peculiar to string music that I can think of:

Harmonic: . . . . small circle, like a degrees sign, means that you obtain the pitch indicated by damping an open string somewhere. This is traditional notation, but no longer favoured by a committee of the International Conference on New Musical Notation, Ghent, Belgium, 1974.

Harmonic: . . . . open diamond note head, as the upper note of a chord, indicates where to damp a string; the normal note shows where to stop it firmly; a small notehead in brackets, recommended but often absent, indicates the resulting pitch.

Downbow: a square with the bottom line removed and the top one thickened.

Upbow: narrow v (like an accent but vertical instead of horizontal).

Pictures of the upper or lower half of a bow are sometimes used, mostly in music for beginners, to show which part to use for bowing. Players will often draw pictures of a mute to show when to put it on or off - like a very short wicket for on; other way up for off - but I don't recall seeing that printed.

In addition to specialist signs, string parts have many instructions in words, mostly to indicate how or whether to bow.

Bowed; arco.
Plucked; pizz(icato).
Tip or point (of bow); tête/pointe; Kopf/Spitze; punta.
Frog/heel; hausse/talon; Frosch; tallone; talón.
Near the bridge; contre le chevalet; am Steg; sul ponticello; (sobre/cerca) el puente.
Over the fingerboard; sur la touche; am Griffbrett; sul tasto/sulla tastiera; sobre el batidor.
Natural/ordinary (usu. cancels one of the preceding two); naturel/ordinaire; natürlich/normal; naturale/normale; ordinario/natural.
Hitting with the wood (i.e. the bowstick); col legno battute.
Dragging the wood; col legno tratto.

There are many other special effects possible with stringed instruments, but if you meet them in ABRSM exams (not very likely, I would guess), there will be a clear description of what is required.

AB Guide to Theory Part II has a list of all the instrument specific symbols and terms; e.g. vibrato on the clavichord, bisbiglato (sp?) on the harp, how oboists achieve a 'con sordino' effect.

Thanks everyone that's really helpful. Sorry I was a bit vague but I don't really know much about string instruments so I didn't know how to explain what I needed to learn.

Thanks again,

Lisa xxx

Not forgetting slurred notes for stringed instruments mean that you have to play all the notes under the slur in one bow direction. So you might want to think about that when composing for strings. Remember only virtuosos can play like about 16 notes to one bow. Normal people like us, play probably 5 at the most???! Unless it's a trill on two notes, then it would be easier.

lol, sounds like you got all the info from other folks so I won't repeat what's been said... if I think of anything else then I'll post it when it comes to me... but I think that should keep you going for some while!