Play Violin online
A fretless four-string instrument held on the shoulder and played with a bow; it came from the West and became one of the most widespread bowed instruments of Turkish makam music.
Dizi
On a keyboard, the keys A S D F G H J K play the eight pitches of the scale.
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Turn your phone sideways or switch to full screen to see the instrument larger.
Keyboard keys
Add it to your home screen as a separate app: opens with one tap and works offline too. Free.
Keyboard: the up and down arrows select a course, Space or Enter plays it, plus and minus move the selected course's mandal by one comma.
Tap or swipe on the right side; tap the labels on the left to select a course. No sound on iPhone? Turn off silent mode.
Mandals
Lower or raise each pitch one comma at a time with the mandal levers. The setting applies to every course that has no setting of its own.
Course mandal
Tune a single course separately from the pitch setting. Courses you don't adjust follow the pitch setting.
About the Violin
In brief
- Family: Bowed string instrument (smallest and highest-pitched of the violin family)
- Origin: Northern Italy, early 16th century; developed by makers such as Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari
- Body and materials: Spruce top, maple back and ribs; about 60 cm long
- Strings: 4; Western tuning G–D–A–E (in fifths)
- Frets: Fretless; comma intervals are stopped by finger placement
- Music: İnce saz and fasıl, taksim, Romani music, folk music, Western music
- Other names: A player is called kemânî; the bow is called arşe
Getting started: types, sizes, tuning
History
The violin, of European origin, spread through Ottoman music in the 19th century and soon became one of the main instruments of the ince saz ensembles. Performers such as Kemânî Tatyos Efendi and Kemânî Hakkı Bey gave it a style of its own in makam music; a violinist is called a kemânî.
Construction
It consists of an arched body of thin wood with two f-shaped sound holes, a fretless fingerboard, a pegbox and a curled scroll. It has four strings; its bow, strung with horsehair, is called arşe.
How it's played
It is held between the chin and the shoulder and played with a bow; the fingers of the left hand press the string directly onto the fingerboard. In makam music a distinctive manner has developed with grace notes, slides and ornaments.
Useful while you practice
Project notes
- Pitch system: Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek pitches are shown on a scale dividing the octave into 53 equal parts (the Holder comma, ≈22.6 cents), a close approximation of the theory's Pythagorean-ratio pitches. Each pitch is computed as its letter position plus the mandal shift; reference A4 = 440 Hz.
- Interval abbreviations: B = bakiye (4), S = küçük mücenneb (5), K = büyük mücenneb (8), T = tanini (9), A = augmented second (12–13 commas).
- Sound: real kanun recordings, retuned to comma precision for each pitch. With the synthesis option, each course is generated as three slightly detuned strings.
- Mandals: per-pitch tuning is the default; any course can also be tuned separately. Makam presets are per pitch.
- Known limitations: pitch names are referenced to Rast (G); makam presets are awaiting expert review.
Frequently asked questions about the Violin
How do I play the virtual violin?
In the realistic view, the violin's fingerboard appears on the screen and the pitches are marked as finger positions on the strings. You play by tapping, clicking or sliding your finger; on the keyboard, A–K gives the first octave and Q–U the second. From the “View” menu you can switch to a simple row of keys; on a phone, turning the screen sideways makes the instrument bigger.
How does the virtual violin play makam pitches?
The scale of the makam you choose from the makam strip is laid out for two octaves starting from its tonic, and every pitch plays at that makam's comma value. In-between pitches such as segâh, eviç or nim hicaz, which a violinist finds on a real violin by shifting the finger, the virtual violin gives automatically. The tonic and dominant are marked in color.
Where does the virtual violin's sound come from?
The sounds are violin recordings from the Musical Instrument Samples archive of the University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios (Lawrence Fritts; may be used in any project without restriction). Each pitch is tuned with comma precision from the nearest note recording. Until the recordings load, synthesized sound plays; you can also switch to the “Synthesis” option.
How do I practice pieces from the sheet music archive with the virtual violin?
On a piece page, choose the violin in the “Play it yourself” step of the “Learn this piece” section and tap “Start”; the virtual violin opens with the piece's makam. First listening to the piece at a slow tempo while following the score, then finding the phrases on the virtual violin, helps you settle your intonation on a real violin.
Source: Wikipedia