Kind of a mess

Navigating gender dysphoria? Be heard and be counted in the science.

listen, if guitar can be used in a rock band, any string instrument can. in my experience, violin is often suited better to a role more similar to lead guitar, just because of the instrument’s range. but CELLO. i don’t even play cello, but man, that thing is versatile. (also the easiest to do vibrato on. yes, i’m jealous.) it’s got a wonderful range that can easily take on a higher pitched solo riff, or a constant rhythm backup part. (i know viola fits into this equation somewhere but i rarely see them featured in ensembles like this. sorry, violas.)

string instruments all have generally the same structure: strings (duh), a bridge (the place where they’re anchored), a nut and tuning pegs (to pull the strings taught so they produce a particular pitch), a neck (to hold the strings down to refine the pitch), and a body (for the sound to resonate through).

the biggest difference between “rock” instruments and “classical” instruments is just a few structural changes and the manner in which they are played.

guitar (and bass guitar) have frets, while a standard orchestral string instrument does not. the frets are those little metal things that go down the neck of the instrument. without them, you have to get A LOT more precise with your finger placement if you want the pitch to be right. it also means that the string is being held in place by a strip of metal, instead of flesh, so that changes the sound a bit.

electric instruments (including electric violins and cellos, which are AWESOME) have major changes to the body. since the sound is being amplified by Magic Computer Things That I Don’t Understand, the body doesn’t have to resonate the sound as much. it’s why electric guitars are so quiet without an amp.

plucking vs bowing. this, my friends, is where the magic happens. to make a string instrument make sound, you have to make the string vibrate somehow. guitars are usually plucked, picked, or strummed. (all pretty much the same thing - you pull the string to the side a little bit, and then release the tension.) but string instruments can also be bowed by pulling some sort of fiber (traditionally horse hair) across the string, and the friction produces sound. to produce enough friction without an inhuman amount of strength, you have to cover the bow hair with rosin. (it’s refined tree sap. please do not lick it, crush it up and snort it, or use the dust to draw pictures on your friend’s shirt. (yes, i’ve personally witnessed all of these.)) the reason you don’t typically see bows used on guitars is because the bridge is flat, instead of rounded, making it more difficult to get the right angle.

so basically, the reason that a cello seems weird in this context is because we’re just not used to seeing bowed instruments do this. bowing creates such a different sound, but the main structure of the instruments is so similar that it actually makes a lot of sense to me why we’re seeing more bands use classical string instruments.

and before anyone gets mad about guitars and violins clearly NOT being the same thing, let me explain it like this. (i swear it’s related just bear with me.) have you ever seen a photo of a dolphin embryo? or an elephant? a bat? a pig? compare it to a human embryo. we know that when all of those things grow up, they will be very different. but looking at them in such early stages of development, it’s much easier to see how they are evolutionarily related. pretty cool, right?