The Differences Between Violins and Fiddles

Many schools nowadays give children the option to learn to play a musical instrument. This is fun and interesting for them and is often how many of the great players have started out. However, when it comes to the violin, it has lead to many wondering what the different between violin and fiddle is.

The Cost of Fiddles

The main difference between violin and fiddle is the cost of them. Fiddles are generally cheaper than a violin due to the material of the strings. Traditionally, people that wanted to learn the stringed instrument did not have the money to afford the gut strings, which gave off the better sound. Steel was used for the fiddle.

The Look of the Instruments

Now, most violins use steel strings too but they have proven to be extremely difficult to tune with the wooden pegs that violins have. It lead to the invention of the fine tuners, which are still used today especially on the small E string.

Now, there is no real difference between the fiddles and the violins. It is the music that is played on them that deems the title of the instrument. Those who play fiddle tunes while generally call themselves fiddlers.

The different between the two instruments can be deemed by the bridge. Most of those who play fiddle tunes will need to cut down the bridge so that they can play two strings at the same time. The violin bridge can stay higher because there is less need to play two different strings at the same time.

The History of the Two Instruments

The main difference between the two instruments in the history, when they were first played it was deemed that fiddlers were lower class. Many fiddles were homemade and those who played them could not read music. It lead to playing by ear and playing their own tunes. Those who played the violin were in families that had enough money to teach them the music that they would need to read to be able to play anything that they wanted.

There is no real difference between violin and fiddle anymore; it is simply to do with the type of music that is played. While those who play fiddle music only will generally lower the bridge, it does not mean that all will need to do this. Many people can interchange between classical and fiddle music by playing on an instrument with a normal size bridge. The main difference is the history of the two instruments.