Fiddle vs. Violin: What’s the Difference?
Main Difference
The main difference between Fiddle and Violin is that the Fiddle is a musical instrument and Violin is a bowed string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths.
Fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres including classical music. Although violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a “brighter” tone, compared to the deeper tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught ‘by ear’ rather than via written music.Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians that play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and sustained notes. Fiddling is also open to improvisation and embellishment with ornamentation at the player’s discretion—in contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer’s notes to reproduce a work faithfully. It is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers (e.g., Alasdair Fraser, Brittany Haas, Alison Krauss, etc.) have classical training.
Violin
The violin, sometimes known as a fiddle, is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the family in regular use. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino piccolo and the kit violin, but these are virtually unused. The violin typically has four strings, usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings, though it can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow (col legno).
Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical tradition, both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras) and as solo instruments and in many varieties of folk music, including country music, bluegrass music and in jazz. Electric violins with solid bodies and piezoelectric pickups are used in some forms of rock music and jazz fusion, with the pickups plugged into instrument amplifiers and speakers to produce sound. Further, the violin has come to be played in many non-Western music cultures, including Indian music and Iranian music. The name fiddle is often used regardless of the type of music played on it.
The violin was first known in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th and 19th centuries to give the instrument a more powerful sound and projection. In Europe, it served as the basis for the development of other stringed instruments used in Western classical music, such as the viola.Violinists and collectors particularly prize the fine historical instruments made by the Stradivari, Guarneri, Guadagnini and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century in Brescia and Cremona (Italy) and by Jacob Stainer in Austria. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. Great numbers of instruments have come from the hands of less famous makers, as well as still greater numbers of mass-produced commercial “trade violins” coming from cottage industries in places such as Saxony, Bohemia, and Mirecourt. Many of these trade instruments were formerly sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mass merchandisers.
The parts of a violin are usually made from different types of wood. Violins can be strung with gut, Perlon or other synthetic, or steel strings. A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier or violinmaker. One who makes or repairs bows is called an archetier or bowmaker.
Fiddle (noun)
Any of various bowed string instruments, often a violin when played in any of various traditional styles, as opposed to classical violin.
“When I play it like this, it’s a fiddle; when I play it like that, it’s a violin.”
“violin”
Fiddle (noun)
A kind of leaves shaped like the musical instrument.
Fiddle (noun)
An adjustment intended to cover up a basic flaw.
“That parameter setting is just a fiddle to make the lighting look right.”
Fiddle (noun)
A fraud; a scam.
Fiddle (noun)
On board a ship or boat, a rail or batten around the edge of a table or stove to prevent objects falling off at sea. (Also fiddle rail)
Fiddle (verb)
To play aimlessly.
“You’re fiddling your life away.”
Fiddle (verb)
To adjust or manipulate for deception or fraud.
“I needed to fiddle the lighting parameters to get the image to look right.”
“Fred was sacked when the auditors caught him fiddling the books.”
Fiddle (verb)
To play traditional tunes on a violin in a non-classical style.
Fiddle (verb)
To touch or fidget with something in a restless or nervous way, or tinker with something in an attempt to make minor adjustments or improvements.
Violin (noun)
A musical four-string instrument, generally played with a bow or by plucking the string, with the pitch set by pressing the strings at the appropriate place with the fingers; also any instrument of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_family violin family].
Violin (noun)
A violinist.
“The first violin often plays the lead melody lines in a string quartet.”
Violin (verb)
To play on, or as if on, a violin.
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