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registers

Page history last edited by Andrew Alder 14 years, 11 months ago

The register of a stringed instrument is simply its range... The pitches of the notes it is able to play.

 

In Western music, the register of an instrument is often indicated by traditional names such as sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass and contrabass, the sopranino being the highest sounding of these and the contrabass the lowest. These terms are not applied all that logically, for example an alto guitar is one register above a normal guitar, while an alto flute is one register below a normal flute.

 

The word register is particularly used in this site to relate otherwise identical instruments of different sizes and with different ranges, for example the soprano and tenor ukulele are considered different registers of the same instrument. In the context of stringed instruments, register is a fairly rare term, and again not entirely consistent in its application; The viola for example isn't normally considered a lower register of the violin, it's a different instrument, and it's not at all obvious why. It's tradition.

 

Different registers of an instrument are different sizes for reasons of acoustics. There's a vital and essential difference between this size difference and the practice of having fractional scale instruments for use by young and small players. Fractional scale instruments are by definition tuned identically to full sized ones; Different registers of an instrument are by definition tuned to higher or lower pitches, but (normally) with the strings at the same musical intervals. In general, instruments of different scale lengths but the same tuning are the same register. But the concert ukulele isn't a type of soprano ukulele. Again it's tradition!

 

This distinction is further muddied on occasions when fractional scale instruments are tuned higher than normal for special effects. This must be done with some caution, as the  fractional scale instrument has been built for a particular string tension, and may not tolerate a great increase. Reduced string gauges may sometimes be used to make the higher pitch possible.

 

And there's another whole concept of register applied (as well as this one) to woodwind instruments. Let's not even go there!

 

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