Location (musical instruments)
The situation called for stringed instruments , the position of the gripping hand on the fingerboard . Locations are usually indicated by Roman numerals and counted from the saddle . These numbers only describe the position of the entire hand and do not provide any information about the position of the fingers, which on many instruments can assume different positions within the same position. A "higher" position is a position further away from the saddle, which therefore also sounds higher. The next higher position is reached when a certain finger would pick the next higher note in its basic position.
There are many reasons for playing in alternating positions:
- In higher registers, higher notes can be played.
- The same tone has a different timbre on different strings. Tones of a coherent melody line are therefore sometimes preferably played on the same string; this can make a change of position necessary.
- Especially at a faster tempo, it can be easier to finger several consecutive notes in a higher register.
Locations for plucked instruments
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With the guitar (and accordingly also the electric bass ), the positions are counted according to the position of the first finger (for right-handers, that is, the left index finger). This count is carried out chromatic , ie after the number of federal , to lie on the first finger (therefore often referred to as would fretposition called). Example: If the player grips the tone g # on an E string with his first finger, the hand is in the fourth position. With plucked instruments, the position is often given in Roman numerals above the staff. It should be noted here that the fingers can also assume other positions within the position - above all, the first finger can be stretched downwards. The position can be changed in different ways: directly , indirectly , with a free attachment , by replacing , by shifting by hand or by jumping .
Positions on string instruments
In contrast to the plucked instruments, the positions of string instruments are not counted chromatically, but diatonic . The counting traditionally follows the fourth finger in the basic position on the highest string. For example, in the first position on the violin, the fourth finger grabs an b (as a fifth above the empty e string). The second position is a semitone higher than the first (the fourth finger grabs a c ), but the third position is then a whole tone higher (fourth finger on d ). According to this count, the layers are not equally far apart. There is also a “half position” in this terminology, in which the hand is a semitone lower than in the first position (fourth finger in the basic position on b ). Since, as mentioned, the position of the fingers within the position is flexible, tones outside the basic position can also be achieved by stretching the first and fourth fingers.
The same counting is used for the violoncello , but because of the larger distances, only two finger positions are common: a basic position with semitone steps between all fingers and a stretched position with whole tone steps only between the 1st and 2nd finger. Correspondingly, either the first finger can be moved downwards or all other fingers upwards within a layer.
In classic playing technique, the length of the double bass is too large for different finger positions within one position; therefore the fingers always keep the same position, i.e. they do not reach higher or lower. Since here, too, following Franz Simandl, the positions are called diatonic according to the position of the fourth finger, the hand must also occupy intermediate positions in certain keys, which are referred to as “two and a half, three and a half” positions and so on.
Since this complexity seems exaggerated for non-diatonic music, another count begins to establish itself in parallel, which corresponds to what was described above for plucked instruments.
It is not customary to specify the positions for string instruments, except of course in teaching material. Positions are implicitly indicated by the fingering (with Arabic numerals). Roman numerals, on the other hand, usually denote the string (counting from top to bottom).
history
In its early days, the violin was held against the chest, shoulder or collarbone without inserting the chin; these ways of playing are still used in many folk music today. Since the left hand was primarily necessary to hold the instrument, its mobility was restricted and it was difficult to play freely. Shifting downwards could only be carried out by “crawling” with the thumb, index finger and wrist. From the middle of the 18th century it therefore became customary to hold the instrument more or less firmly between the chin and collarbone, with the chin placed on the ceiling to the left or right of the tailpiece .
Violin literature since the late baroque period allows playing up to about the 12th position, and in individual cases even beyond. The description of a contemporary that Antonio Vivaldi when playing position with his little finger “only came a straw wide to the bridge”, “that there was no space for the bow”, is certainly exaggerated.
In 1820 Louis Spohr introduced a chin rest that was mounted above the tailpiece and further improved the fixation of the instrument when changing positions; today it is usually attached to the left of the tailpiece.
Lay at the trumpet
The situation with the trombone is remotely comparable - the train can assume seven different positions, each with a different set of notes. These pull positions are each a semitone apart.
literature
Walter Kolneder: The book of the violin . ISBN 3-254-00026-9
Individual evidence
- ↑ Angela Lehner-Wieterik: Why it doesn't squeak when changing position or that “something different” about Abel Carlevaro's technology. In Guitar & Laute 10, 1988, 2, pp. 43-48