Make Your Own Violin or Fiddle- A Craft Tutorial

What you will need: some cardboard, a wooden slat that is 18 inch x2 inches x 1 inch (you can also use a 18 x 1 x1/4 slat instead), brown paint, black marker or paint, 8-214 1/2 screw eyes, 4-14 screw eyes and fishing line (50, 30, 12 and 8 test) (you could also use 10 and 5 instead of 12 and 8).
Step 1: Cut a violin-shape out of a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardboard.
and out of a 3 x 5 inch piece of cardboard cut out a scroll pattern. Cut a notch the the center of the side it attaches to the violin the width of the slat you are using.

Step 2: Paint the cardboard pieces and the wooden slat brown.


Step 3: When the paint is dry, glue the slat to the body about one inch from the end of the end of the widest end of the body.

Step 4: Glue the scroll at the end of the slat with the scroll pointing up when the slat is down on the table.

Step 5: We put the screw eyes in next, but it would have been better if you used the marker to "paint" on the black first. The black areas are shown below if you are not sure.

Step 6: With the front of the body face-up, use 4 of the smaller screw along the edge of where you painted it black, piercing both the cardboard and into the wood. Screw the other 4 small screw eyes deep into the top of the neck. Place them in two rows with the 2 inner screw as the top of the neck and the 2 outer screws below them. Screw 2 large screw eyes into each side of the neck at the top, leaving about 1/4 of each screw out of the wood.

Step 7: Starting with the violin's neck pointing away from you, tie the thickest piece of fishing line to the screw eye at the far left of the tailpiece. Tie the other 3 pieces of fishing line, from thickest to thinnest, around the other 3 screw eyes of the tailpiece. Step 8: Pull the free end of each line, (called a string on the instrument) tightly around the base of the small screw eye in the neck and then wrap it around the nearest large screw several times. Thread it through the large eye and then tie it using several knots to hold it.

Step 9: Make a bridge by cutting an 1-inch x 1/2 inch rectangular piece out of cardboard.

Step 10: Slide the bridge under the strings near the f-holes (the s shaped scroll work on the body). Stand the bridge on end so that its 1/2 inch height tightens the strings.

Step 11: Gently tighten the large screw eyes to "tune" the strings. Now it is finished!

To play, hold the neck of the violin in your left hand and put the other end on your left shoulder with your chin resting on it. Use the fingers of your left hand to press the strings against the fingerboard, while plucking the strings pizzicato with your right hand.

before it.

Another simple instrument you can make is a set of pan pipes made from straws.

Instructions at Learning Ideas -Grades K-8

What Things Affect Sound?

We performed a series of sound experiments. First I took a board (6 inches by 18 inches, 1 inch thick), several weights of fishing line and 3 2-liter bottles ( you could use 1/2 gallon plastic milk jugs) and 3 screw eyes (size 14). Screw one screw eye in the middle of one end of the board. Screw in one of the other screw eyes on either side. This is the set up for all three experiments.How does thickness affect a line's sound?

In the first experiment, tie 3 feet of 50pound test weight fishing line to the first screw eye. Tie 3 feet of 30 pound test weight fishing line to the middle screw eye and 8 pound test weight fishing line to the last screw eye. Tie the other end of the fishing lines to the bottles. Fill each of the bottles with 2 cups of water. Position the board so that the end opposite the screw eyes is even with the end of the table. Let the bottles hang over the edge of the table.

Pluck each line and compare the sounds.

The heavier the weight of the line, the lower the sound will be because it has more weight to move and therefore is slower. Slower vibrations equal lower sounds. How does tension affect a line's sound?

For the second experiment, remove the 30 and 8 pound weight pieces of fishing line and replace them with two more 3-foot pieces of 50 pound weight line. Tie lines to the bottles as before but this time, leave one with the 2 cups of water, but add 1 more cup to one (for a total of 3 cups ) and 3 more cups to the last one (for a total of 5 cups). Arrange as before, with the bottles hanging over the edge of the table. Pluck each line. Do they sound different?

Increasing the weight stretches the line tighter, increasing the tension. A tighter string springs back faster to its original position, producing a higher pitch (and frequency).
How does length affect a line's sound?For the last experiment, you can keep the setup the same as the last experiment. You just press one of the strings down with one finger, and pluck with the other. Press the string down at a different point, and pluck it again. How does the sound change?
The shorter the length of the string, the higher the sound results. Because the vibrations have to travel through the string to produce the sound, the longer the string, the longer it has to travel. This longer traveling, slows down the vibrations and lowers the pitch.

So what did we learn?

How thick a line is, how tightly it is stretched and how long the line is are all factors that affect sound. We will be using this information when we build our own musical instruments.

More neat sound experiments:

Observing Sound Vibrations

Playing with Sound

More Fun with Sounds

Egg carton and Wrench Xylophone

Seeing Sound

Another Experiment for Seeing Sound
About Sound and Irish Harps