Quarky Plays The Violin
How does dragging a bow make a singing sound?
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Quarky is writing this for you...
The story
Quarky drags a bow across a violin string and hears it sing. Sticky rosin grabs the string, pulls it aside, lets it snap back and grabs again hundreds of times a second. The Amati family in Cremona shaped the violin we know back in the 1500s.
What you'll learn
- Bow hair coated in rosin grips the string, then slips, over and over.
- That stick-slip grabbing makes the string vibrate steadily.
- The Amati family perfected violin making in Italy in the 1500s.
- Quarky takeaway: a smooth sound can be made of thousands of tiny tugs.
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