WHAT IS VIOLIN ? (Additional Information)

Violin is one of the most common instruments of south India. It is praised for its beauty, tone and also for many other reasons. It is loved by all the musicians across the world.
The Violin is a string instrument. Its sound is produced through the vibration of its strings with the help of a bow.
When the bow is kept on the strings and moved according to the musical instincts, the strings vibrate and produce heavenly sound. With its beautiful singing tone violin has proved to be an extremely important instrument in western art music. It has been linked also to the art music of middle east and south India.
It was developed in the early 16^th century. It is the smallest and the highest pitched instrument of the Violin family. The violin family includes,viola, cello and double bass. In these the double bass is the biggest instrument. 
When played as a folk instrument violin is known as Fiddle. Violin usually has four strings but there are some violins with 7 strings also. The strings are usually made up of nylon or steel. The violin has a  wooden body, shaped differently. It looks almost like a hour-glass. It's body is made made up of soft wood.  {some electrical violins are made up of some other material}. Usually ‘Ebony wood’ is used for making violin.This kind of wood is used because of it’s beauty and quality.
It is arched at the top and back. It has two upper bouts and two lower bouts. Violin particularly consists of a sound board {also called as top plate or belly}, neck, bridge, four strings, two end blocks, a sound post, maple ribs and back.
The sound quality of the violin usually depends on its shape or on the wood it is made. It might  depend on the thickness of its top and back. The strings of the violin have a silk wrapping at both the ends. A full sized violin is {4/4}14 inches or 35 cms.

G-D-A-E is the tuning used in most of the violin music.The violin is usually tuned to D#-A#-D#-A# in ‘South Indian’ style. Violin is tuned by tuning pegs in the peg box under the scroll. Other way of tuning violin is by adjusting the fine tuner screws at the tailpiece.
So friends hope you all knew somethings about violin.

VIOLIN, AN OMNIPRESENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Violin is an instrument which has got its own elevated place in the every music of the world. Its seed was sown by the Germans and Italians in music, classical as well as folk. Beethoven, Bach, Tchakovsky were the greats who took violin for their repertoire in orchestrations.

British reign brought this instrument along with many other things to India. In the south it was Travankor where this instrument was accepted in the ‘so called’ sacred music. In the beginning it was a mere accompanying instrument for the Harikatha sung at the temple premises. Gradually it became a solo instrument, thanks to its nearness to human sound. Any intricate part of the Gamak or any quality for that matter, could easily be reproduced on this versatile instrument. Impressed by its beauty traditionalists did not object for its adoption in Carnatic music. 
As said earlier, in the court of the great Maharaja of Travankor violin was introduced by Vadivelu and Baluswami Dikshitar, the brother of celebrated Muthuswami Dikshitar (1786-1856). Then it entered the court of Tanjore with interest taken by Vidvan Varahappa Iyer.  Again it was Krishnaswami Bhagavatar of the slight later period, who popularized violin in Carnatic music. They all adapted the instrument to meet the musical needs of Carnatic music. Thus a great tradition was built in the field by stalwarts like all the greats like Dwaram Venkatswami Naidu, Mysore Thirumakoodalu Choudiah, M S Gopalkrishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, L Shankar, L Subramanium, Kuunukudi Vaidyanathan and many others. 


Master Keshav, a student of X'th class is a keen student of Carnatic music. He is a singer as well as a violin player. In these videos he has elaborated the Carnatic system through his violin. Firstly he has played Raga Mayamalavgoula and has rendered the three speeds. Secondly he has played Raga Mohanam and Raga Hamsadhvani.