Plucky Strings and Peppy Percussion Strings and Percussion    

Lesson 1: Violin - 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, No. 20

by Niccolo Paganini

Performer: Jonathan Vered

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Listen to the music daily.
• Recite the composer and composition names.
• Read the synopsis.
• Review the vocabulary terms.
• Read about the instrument category.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

Music lessons over the next two years group musical instruments into five major categories: strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds. This year covers string, keyboard, and percussion instruments. Lessons first focus on string instruments, which are musical instruments played by striking strings, plucking strings, or drawing a bow across strings. The next four weeks present a string instrument called a violin. Violins typically have a small wooden body, a long neck, and four strings that musicians pluck with their fingers or rub with a bow. The musical composition for this lesson, '24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, No. 20,' by Niccolo Paganini, features the violin. As you enjoy the music, identify the sounds of the violin. Listen to a lone violin playing in Activity 5 below for reference.

Vocabulary

Musical Instrument: An object or device for producing musical sounds.
Musician: A person who plays a musical instrument, especially as a profession, or is musically talented.
Sound: Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear.
Vibration: Movements back and forth or side to side.
Thickness: The distance between opposite sides of something.
Length: The measurement or extent of something from end to end.
Tightness: The state of being stretched.
Material: The matter from which a thing is or can be made.

Category

Music lessons over the next two years group musical instruments into five major categories: strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

String instruments produce sound through the vibration of strings. Strings may be plucked or strummed with fingers, hit with hammers, or rubbed with a bow.

See a picture of strings below. Note that some strings are thicker and some are thinner.

The sound produced by a string depends in part on its thickness, its length, its tightness, and its material.

Instruments have multiple strings of varying thickness. Musicians playing instruments turn pegs to tighten or loosen the strings and change their sounds. Musicians also press their fingers against the strings to control the length of strings that vibrate and produce sound. Strings are made from materials such as nylon or steel.

String instruments include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, guitars, ukuleles, sitars, mandolins, banjos, and depending on who you ask, pianos.

Study the images of strings.

1. Viola Strings

2. Cello Strings

3. Guitar Strings

Enrichment

Activity 1: Learn the Parts of a Violin

• Study the parts on the labeled picture of the violin.

Activity 2: Study How to Hold and Play a Violin

Examine the picture of the man playing the violin below and answer the following questions:

How does the man use his right hand?

How does the man use his left hand?

What do the fingers of the man's left hand press down?

• How does the man use his chin?
• How does the man use his shoulder?
• How does the man make sounds with the violin?
• How does the man change which sounds the violin plays?

Activity 3: Quiz Yourself: Identify Violin Parts

Quiz yourself, and identify the following parts from memory on the violin below:

• Scroll
• Neck
• Body
• Chin Rest
• Four Strings
• Pegs

Activity 4: Can You Find It?

Study the lesson painting, 'Still Life with Jewels, Violin, Globe, and Book,' by an unknown artist, and find the following:

• Violin
• Bow
• Globe
• Works of Josephus
• Casket of Jewels
• Leather-bound Books
• Medallions
• Recorder
• Musical Score

Activity 5: Listen to a Violin

Listen to the recording of a violin:

Review

Question 1

What are the five major categories of instruments listed in the lesson?

1 / 6

Answer 1

The five major categories of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

1 / 6

Question 2

Which instrument category does this lesson feature?

2 / 6

Answer 2

This lesson features the string category.

2 / 6

Question 3

Which instrument does this lesson feature?

3 / 6

Answer 3

This lesson features the violin.

3 / 6

Question 4

What are the major parts of the violin?

4 / 6

Answer 4

Major parts of the violin include the scroll, pegs, neck, body, strings, and chin rest.

4 / 6

Question 5

How many strings do violins have?

5 / 6

Answer 5

Violins have four strings.

5 / 6

Question 6

Why do strings create different sounds?

6 / 6

Answer 6

The sound produced by a string depends in part on its thickness, its length, its tightness, and its material.

6 / 6

❮ ❯

1. What are the five major categories of instruments listed in the lesson? The five major categories of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.
2. Which instrument category does this lesson feature? This lesson features the string category.
3. Which instrument does this lesson feature? This lesson features the violin.
4. What are the major parts of the violin? Major parts of the violin include the scroll, pegs, neck, body, strings, and chin rest.
5. How many strings do violins have? Violins have four strings.
6. Why do strings create different sounds? The sound produced by a string depends in part on its thickness, its length, its tightness, and its material.

References

'String instrument.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Violin.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.