Body (musical instrument)
The corpus (from Latin corpus , 'body') is usually the resonance body, i.e. the sound body, of a musical instrument . Apart from electrically amplified musical instruments, it is necessary for the amplification (and thus audibility and carrying capacity) of the sound produced . In addition, due to its vibration properties, it is essentially responsible for the individual sound of an instrument.
The construction of the body differs depending on the instrument or group of instruments.
Stringed instruments
In the case of stringed instruments , the vibration from the strings is usually picked up via a bridge and transmitted to the body. The relatively large area of the body transmits the vibration to the air, making the sound clearly audible. In this sense, it is important that the body is made of material that can vibrate and is built in such a way that all the notes played on the strings are optimally picked up and amplified.
The body of a stringed instrument usually consists of several parts, generally referred to as the ceiling , sides and bottom are called.
String instruments include members of the violin family , viols , lutes , guitars , piano , harpsichord , harp and dulcimer .
Wind instruments
With wind instruments , the body is usually a tube in which - stimulated by the instrument mouthpiece - a column of air oscillates. Depending on the type of instrument, the tube length can be changed using tone holes or keys , or the frequency can be multiplied by overblowing .
Wind instruments include brass instruments , woodwind instruments, and organs .
Musical instruments without a body
With the advent of the ability to electrically amplify the sound of instruments, this method has made the sound box superfluous. Popular examples of this are electric guitars , electric basses , electric pianos or electric violins , which technically could do without the component of the body, but mostly keep it for visual and technical reasons. Since the advent of electrically amplified instruments, classical instruments, i.e. instruments provided with a resonance body, have been called acoustic (for example acoustic guitar as opposed to electric guitar).