The string instruments are one of the largest family of instruments and are usually held in different forms.

Some string instruments are commonly held between the knees. The body of the instrument is supported by the knees while the musician is seated.

Here is a list of some knee-held string instruments. These instruments are from a diverse range of musical traditions across various cultures and historical periods.

What Are String Instruments Held Between the Knees?

Cello

Perhaps the most well-known knee-held string instrument is the cello. The cello is played in an upright position with the player seated.

The instrument’s body rests on the floor while the neck and upper part are braced against the musician’s chest and shoulder.

The lower bout of the cello, where the C-string is located, rests on a spike or an endpin.

By positioning the cello between the knees, the player can have better control and stability while playing the instrument.

The Double Bass

It is also known as the upright bass or contrabass. The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched instrument in the string family.

Normally, it is typically played in a standing position with a strap around the player’s shoulder.

However, it can also be played in a seated position. Players typically rest the body of the bass against the player’s body and support the neck between the knees.

Both the cello and the double bass are versatile instruments. They are commonly used in classical music, jazz, and various other genres.

In addition to these classical string instruments, there are modern variations that can be played in a knee-held position.

For example, there are electric cellos and electric upright basses that can be played similarly.

Electric Cello

An electric variation of the cello can be played in the knee-held position.

Electric cellos often have a more compact body and can be played with headphones or amplified for performance purposes.

Electric Bass

This is an electric version of the double bass (also known as the upright bass or contrabass).

It typically has a slightly smaller body and can be played in a knee-held position, similar to the cello.

The Harp

The harp is a popularly known large, multi-stringed instrument with a triangular or semicircular frame. It is played by plucking the strings with the fingers of both hands.

While the instrument rests on the floor or a stand, it sits between the knees of the harpist.

Harpists do not hold the instrument between their knees like with instruments like the cello or double bass.

Viola Da Gamba

The viola da gamba is a fretted string instrument that was popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. It has a similar playing position to the cello.

The musician is seated and the instrument’s body rests on the ground. The neck of the viola is braced against the shoulder, and the lower bout is supported by the knees.

Bass Viol

The Bass viol is a large member of the Viola da Gamba family. It has a similar playing position to the viola da gamba.

The musician is seated and the instrument’s body rests on the ground. The neck is braced against the shoulder, and the lower bout is supported by the knees.

Viola Pomposa

This is a lesser-known string instrument. It is similar in size and shape to a violin or viola but with additional sympathetic strings.

It can be held between the knees or supported on a leg while being played.

Some less popular string instruments are also held between the knees and used in cultures around the world.

These may not be as well-known as the cello or viola. However, they provide fascinating opportunities for exploration and creativity in string instrument performance.

Hardanger Fiddle

This traditional Norwegian instrument is similar in appearance to a violin and it has been compared.

However, the Hardanger fiddle has additional sympathetic strings below the main playing strings.

It is played with a bow and can be held between the knees while seated.

Nyckelharpa

The nyckelharpa is a Swedish keyed fiddle. It has a series of wooden keys that depress the strings to change pitch.

It is played with a bow and can be held between the knees. The body rests on the player’s legs.

Hurdy-Gurdy

The hurdy-gurdy is a unique string instrument with a keyboard. It also has a rotating wheel that bows the strings, and various drone strings.

It can be held between the knees while playing, with the keys and wheel accessible to the player’s hands.

Baryton

The baryton is a rare instrument that was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. It features sympathetic strings that vibrate in response to the main strings being played.

Similar to the viola da gamba, the baryton can be held between the knees. Its body rests on the legs of the player.

Dihu

The dihu is also known as the Chinese two-stringed fiddle. As a stringed instrument, it is played by holding it between the knees.

It is a traditional Chinese bowed string instrument with a small resonating chamber and two strings. The torso of the dihu is typically made of bamboo or wood.

To play the dihu, the player holds the instrument vertically between their knees. The sound box resting on their thighs.

The bow is then drawn across the strings to produce sound. The pitch of the dihu can be adjusted by pressing the strings against the neck with the fingertips.

The dihu is known for its distinctive sound. It is often featured in ensembles, accompanying other traditional instruments.

Octobass

The octobass is an extremely large and rare instrument that belongs to the double bass family.

It is so massive that the player had to sit on a stool and support the instrument between their knees.

The octobass produces incredibly low tones and is primarily used in orchestras for special effects.

Viola D’amore

The viola d’amore is a historical string instrument that has sympathetic strings that resonate sympathetically with the played strings.

It is held between the knees, similar to a cello, and played with a bow. The viola d’amore has a warm and resonant sound and is commonly used in Baroque music.

Lirone

The lirone is a bowed string instrument with numerous strings that are played simultaneously. It is held between the knees or sometimes supported on the lap.

The lirone was popular in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was often used to accompany vocal music.

Doshpuluur

The doshpuluur is a traditional three-stringed lute-like instrument from Central Asia, particularly popular among the Tuvan people. It is sometimes held between the knees.

The strings are plucked or strummed while the player uses their other hand to dampen the pitch of the strings.

The Great Thing about Knee-Held String Instruments

Each instrument provides its own unique timbre and playing experience. Overall, knee-held string instruments offer a unique playing experience.

They often produce rich, resonant sounds due to their larger size and design. Granted, the one common feature they share is being held between the knees for support while playing.

This playing position allows for the use of bowing techniques and finger placement on the strings.

It also allows various articulations that contribute to the expressive capabilities of the instrument.

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It’s no secret that string family instruments are some of the most popular out there. This goes for both absolute beginners and those who are looking to start playing a second instrument. And, most importantly, they seem to be really appealing to plenty of music lovers these days.

However, string instruments are a very wide category. In fact, they include plenty of different variants, most of which are the result of centuries-long development in many different parts of the world. This is exactly what we’ll be looking into in this brief guide. We’ll explore string instruments, put them into their main categories, and will share some of the most important and popular ones that are available today.

3 Main Types of String Family Instruments According to Playing Techniques

• Plucked string instruments
• Bowed string instruments
• Striking string instruments

Plucked (or Picked) String Instruments

Guitar

At this point, the guitar is probably the most popular stringed instrument. However, the instrument comes in a lot of forms these days, with the main division being acoustic and electric guitars. Nonetheless, all of them are based on the same principle. There’s the instrument’s body attached to a neck, with strings attached to the bridge on the body on one end, and tuning machines at the end of the neck, a component that’s referred to as the headstock. Of course, there are some other formations where tuners are located on the body and are fused with the bridge, but such guitars are not that widespread.

But all of them rely on the same principle. Strings are plucked, or picked. This can be done using only one’s fingers, or by implementing a plectrum, popularly known as a “guitar pick”. Meanwhile, the neck features a fretboard, which has metal frets on it. By pressing an individual string on a particular fret, the length of the string that vibrates is shortened, thus providing you with a higher pitch. This makes the guitar a good choice for both a leading and backing instrument. Harmonies can also be played “vertically” or “horizontally.”

The guitar, in its many forms, has found its way into pretty much any musical genre today. As for electric guitars, they are now capable of producing many different types of sounds due to the development of different effects units, as well as various types of amplifiers.

Banjo

In its essence, banjo also relies on the same basic principles as the guitar does. You have the body, the neck, you have a headstock at the end of the neck, you have a bridge on the body, and strings are also pressed on the fretboard like on the guitar.
However, there are a few other important distinctions on a banjo. Firstly, the body consists of a frame that has a thin membrane on top of it. The backside is, in almost all cases, completely open and lets the instrument resonate in its unique way.

Modern banjos can either have four or five strings. The one with five strings has a so-called “drone” string. In most cases, the bottom fifth string is the same gauge and tuning as the first string. But in pretty much all cases, the fifth string also only starts from the fifth fret, which is where its tuning machine is located as well. Four-string banjos are more of “traditional” instruments and are not as widespread as five-string ones. But they still rely on the same principles.

Banjo traces its roots in a few different instruments. However, the exact instruments are often part of many discussions. It is generally believed that these instruments all come from the Caribbean. Nonetheless, the development of the modern banjo was significantly helped by African-Americans during the first half of the 19th century.

Bass Guitar

Although often neglected by casual music listeners, the bass guitar is one of the essential instruments for pretty much any modern musical style. However, this is actually one of the youngest instruments. Whether it’s acoustic or electric version, bass guitar as we know it today didn’t actually exist since the 1950s. Sure, the concept was originally developed back in the 1930s by inventor Paul Tutmarc, who essentially created a plucked instrument that had the same tuning and covered the same frequencies as the acoustic double bass, plus it additionally had frets.

But it was Leo Fender who created a regular bass guitar with an electric guitar-like solid body and added conventional pickups to it. This horizontally-held instrument quickly replaced the double bass in all modern music by the time the mid-1950s came.

There were also other attempts at developing bass guitars by Fender at other companies. This involved regular 6-string guitars that were tuned an octave lower. However, their tone never really fit contemporary musical styles and they pretty much remain relics of the past.

Bass guitars are most often plucked by fingers, although it’s also not uncommon to see bass players use different types of plectrums. This depends on the tone that one’s trying to convey, as well as one player’s personal preferences.

Harp

The main thing that makes harps different compared to other plucked instruments on this list is that they don’t have necks. Additionally, each string has its own pitch, they are all placed at an angle to its soundboard, and the only way to change their individual pitch is to use levers or pedals. This makes real professional or semi-professional harps fairly expensive compared to other instruments.

The concept of harps is thousands of years old, although these were very simplified instruments, like lyre.

Mandolin

Just like the guitar, mandolin belongs to the lute family. Mandolins rely on the same principles, as these are string instruments with necks, bodies, and frets. However, what makes them really different is the fact that they come with string courses, which are essentially doubled strings, both tuned to the same note. Mandolins mostly come with 8 strings, with 4 courses of two strings.

Mandolin takes its roots in traditional Western European instruments. These include gittern, lute, and mandola. Among all the styles that developed Neapolitan and Lombardic ones are the most widespread. The Neapolitan one is what we mostly see these days. There are many sub-types of Neapolitan mandolin, but the most common ones are A-style and F-style ones.

Ukulele

Ukuleles resemble mini-sized guitars and bear only four strings, most commonly nylon ones. They take us all the way back to the second half of the 19th century. Ukuleles were developed in Hawaii, where they’re considered to be traditional instruments. However, they were developed from Portuguese guitar-like instruments, commonly known as “machetes.”

These days, ukulele is going through its revival and is becoming increasingly popular. This is mostly due to the instrument’s overall simplicity, making it easy to learn and perform on. There are many types of ukuleles, but the most common one is sporano with the G4, C4, E4, and A4 tuning.

Bowed String Instruments

Violin

Going over to bowed instruments, the violin is probably the most famous one from this group. The word, and thus the instrument concept, dates back to the second half of the 16th century. However, all bowed instruments are direct descendants of the Arabic instrument rebab. This eventually led to the Byzantine Lyra, and eventually the older concepts of the modern violin, which emerged in northern Italy during the 16th century.

Once again, we have an instrument with a body that has a resonant chamber, which is also attached to a neck. The very end of the neck contains a pegbox, which is where the tuning pegs are located. On the body, we have a bridge and a tailpiece with fine tuners. As the body resonates, the sound comes out the “F-shaped” sound holes on the front.

And, most importantly, violins are fretless instruments, just like pretty much all of the bowed instruments. There are some fretted versions, although they’re pretty rare. Electric violins with piezo pickups have also become widespread and are a much more practical solution for some modern bands that have violin players.

Viola

Viola also belongs to the violin family and is almost identical to the violin. However, it’s slightly bigger and comes with a lower pitch, which is why it’s sometimes referred to as the “alto voice” of this family of instruments. All of this also impacts the instrument’s overall timbre, making it sound just a bit “darker” compared to the violin. It’s most often used as an accompanying instrument. But other than that, the instrument is played the same way as a violin.

Cello

Another one from the violin family, the cello features four strings and is tuned exactly one octave below the viola. However, it’s a noticeably larger instrument and it’s played vertically while sitting down and holding the instrument between one’s legs.

The instrument’s name tells us a bit of its origin. “Cello” comes from the Italian word “violoncello” which literally translates to “little violone.” Violone is essentially a large bowed instrument, similar to the double bass, that was prominent during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras of music.

It’s another example of a fretless instrument. And although usually serving a backing role, the cello can also be a lead instrument as well.

Double Bass (Bass, Contrabass)

Double bass, contrabass, or just bass, is the largest bowed instrument, as well as the lowest-pitched one. And just like the cello, it’s also derived from violones. It comes with four strings and is tuned the same way as the standard bass guitar.

Striking String Instruments

Piano

What many don’t know, or just forget to consider, is that the piano is also a string instrument. However, this is one of the “striking” string instruments, meaning that the sound is produced through hitting the strings. In the case of the piano, there’s a mechanism involving piano keys and hammers inside of the piano that hits the strings. The sound then resonates in the piano’s large body.

Others

Aeolian Harp

Although not exactly an instrument like others on the list, the aeolian harp produces sound using wind. It features a body and a sounding board, along with strings stretched between two bridges. This is also the only instrument that plays only the harmonic frequencies, making it sound really unique.

Hurdy-Gurdy

The Hurdy-gurdy is a medieval instrument that recently got more attention. But although a string instrument, it relies on completely different principles. There’s a hand-cranked rosined wheel that rubs against the strings. Then there’s a keyboard that helps you shorten the length of the strings, change their pitch, and produce melodies. However, hurdy-gurdy also comes with “drone” strings that produce fixed background notes. It’s a traditional folk instrument, but it found some experimental but interesting implementation in modern music as well.

Conclusion

String instruments still keep a very important place in the world of music today. In fact, we’d even argue that they’re at the very top. You’re actually hearing violins, cellos, guitars, and basses way more than you actually think. And in recent years, ukulele has been seeing a significant rise in popularity. If you decide to start playing a string instrument, you won’t regret it – there’s high chance you’ll find a band or orchestra to play in.

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