What are string instruments? How do they make sounds? What did guitars look like 300 years ago?
This resource uses artworks, from Vermeer to contemporary art, to introduce string instruments and explore the sounds they make.
Use this resource to:
find out about string instruments through artworks
learn about how vibrations create sound
discover different types of string instruments from different cultures and times
explore ideas for creative activities inspired by string instruments
This cross-curricular Music, Art and Design, Science, and History resource offers a series of teacher-led, whole-class discussions and activities. It is designed for KS 1 / CfE Level 1 / National Curriculum Wales PS 2 students, but might also be helpful for teaching younger age groups within KS 2 / CfE Level 2 / National Curriculum Wales PS 3.
Art and design KS 1 - Use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas and experiences - Develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line and shape - Learn about artists and designers
English KS 1 - Use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas - Participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debate - Develop pleasure in vocabulary by discussing word meanings, linking new meanings to those already known
Music KS 1 - use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes - play tuned and untuned instruments musically - listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music - experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.
Science KS 1 - ask simple questions and recognise that they can be answered in different ways - observe closely, using simple equipment - perform simple tests - use their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions
Science KS 2 - identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating - recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear - find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it - find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it - recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.
Art and design - Look at and talk about material to stimulate their own ideas - Enjoy and appreciate the work of artists and designers from their own and other cultures - Use what has been viewed as a starting point for their own work - Explore the visual elements of colour, tone, line, shape, texture and pattern to express ideas - Experiment with a range of media, materials and processes
Music - Work creatively with sound by investigating, experimenting, selecting and combining sounds to express feelings, ideas, mood and atmosphere - Sing and perform with simple instruments to develop vocal and manipulative control - Listen and respond to their own and others' music-making, thinking and talking about sounds, effects and musical features in music they create, perform or listen to.
Language and literacy - Participate in talking and listening in every area of learning - Take turns at talking and listening in group and paired activities - Take part in a range of drama activities to support activity-based learning across the curriculum - Express thoughts, feelings and opinions in response to personal experiences, imaginary situations, literature, media and curricular topics and activities
The world around us KS 1 History - Differences between my life now and the lives of people in the past KS 1 Science and technology - Design and make simple models. KS 2 Science and technology - How sound travels
Expressive arts - I have the opportunity to choose and explore a range of media and technologies to create images and objects, discovering their effects and suitability for specific tasks (EXA 1-02a) - I can create and present work using the visual elements of line, shape, form, colour, tone, pattern and texture (EXA 1-03a) - I can create a range of visual information through observing and recording from my experiences across the curriculum (EXA 1-04a) - Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design (EXA 1-05a) - I can respond to the work of artists and designers by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others' work (EXA 1-07a) - Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through drama (EXA 1-13a) - I have developed confidence and skills in creating and presenting drama that explores real and imaginary situations (EXA 1-14a)
English and literacy - When I engage with others, I know when and how to listen, when to talk, how much to say, when to ask questions and how to respond with respect (LIT 1-02a) - I can show my understanding of what I listen to or watch by responding to and asking different kinds of questions (LIT 1-07a) - When listening and talking with others for different purposes, I can exchange information, experiences, explanations, ideas and opinions, and clarify points by asking questions or by asking others to say more (LIT 1-09a)
Art and design - explore and experiment with a variety of techniques and materials - make choices when choosing materials and resources - mix, shape, arrange and combine materials to create their own images and objects that communicate and express their ideas, feelings and memories creatively - develop and use their understanding of colour, line, tone, texture, pattern, shape and form - develop their understanding of planning, designing, modelling, modifying and reflecting - use a variety of materials and tools for experimentation and problem-solving - design and make simple products and mechanisms - reflect on their own and others’ work.
Music - explore a range of sound sources and experiment with different ways of making and organising sounds - create their own musical ideas and contribute to simple compositions - sing a range of songs with others - play simple rhythmic and melodic patterns on a variety of instruments - recognise and describe sounds, and listen and respond to music - reflect on their own and others’ music - develop increasing control of the musical elements when making music - make broad distinctions within the musical elements when listening to music
Knowledge and understanding of the world
Range
Place and people - begin to recognise differences between their own locality, localities in other parts of Wales and in different parts of the world
Time and people - begin to identify differences between ways of life at different times - use a range of historical sources, including artefacts and buildings, adults recalling their own past, and visual sources
Myself and non-living things - understand that there are many kinds and sources of sound, that sounds travel away from sources and that they are heard when they enter the ear
Skills - exploring and experimenting - thinking about questions and then asking them and listening to the answers - listening to others’ ideas - identifying what they want to find out and how to do it - making comparisons and identifying similarities and differences - making links within the different elements of Knowledge and Understanding of the World - thinking creatively and imaginatively - describing what they have found out and offering simple explanations - expressing their own opinions and feelings, and making decisions while considering the viewpoints of others - using and becoming familiar with common words and phrases for their world - reflecting on and evaluating their own and others’ work.
Language, literacy and communication skills - Experience a language-rich environment that immerses them in the spoken and written word - Express themselves creatively and imaginatively - Experience and use a range of media and stimuli - Mark make or write in a range of genres - Communicate in a range of contexts for a variety of purposes and audiences - Build on previous experience, speaking confidently and making themselves clear by: organising what they say, choosing words deliberately, including relevant detail - Use a growing range of appropriate vocabulary in play and structured activities and formal situations, using variety in tone to add interest - Prepare and ask a variety of questions, e.g. 'Who?', 'What ?', 'Why?', 'When?' and 'How?', for a variety of purposes and to clarify understanding - Interpret, respond to and use non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and gestures
Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and it enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.
Progression step 2:
- I can explore and experiment with and then select appropriate creative techniques, practices, materials, processes, resources, tools and technologies.
- I can explore how and why creative work is made by asking questions and developing my own answers.
- I can explore and describe how artists and creative work communicate mood, feelings and ideas.
Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts.
Progression step 2:
- I can give and accept feedback as both artist and audience.
- I can consider, with guidance, how moods, emotions and ideas are communicated both in my own creative work and in the creative work of others.
Creating combines skills and knowledge, drawing on the senses, inspiration and imagination
Progression step 2:
- I am beginning to apply techniques in my creative work with guidance and direction.
- I can use creative materials safely and with some control under supervision.
Science and technology
Being curious and searching for answers is essential to understanding and predicting phenomena
Progression step 2:
- I can ask questions and use my experience to suggest simple methods of inquiry.
Design thinking and engineering offer technical and creative ways to meet society's needs and wants
Progression step 2:
- I can explore how different component parts work together.
- I can safely use a range of tools, materials and equipment to construct for a variety of reasons.
Forces and energy provide a foundation for understanding our universe
Progression step 2:
- I can explore and communicate the basic properties of light, sound, electricity and magnetism.
Humanities
Human societies are complex and diverse and shaped by human actions and beliefs
Progression step 2:
- I can recognise similarities and differences between people’s lives, both in the past and present.
Resource notes and guidelines
Questions and discussion suggestions in this resource are voiced directly to students, allowing them to be more easily presented to the class. Teachers' guidance notes and contextual information are included throughout the resource.
This is one of three resources that focus on the main families of musical instruments. Explore percussion and wind instruments using the link below.
The three resources can be used together to explore instruments and the sounds they make across a series of lessons. Or use individual components from the resources to integrate into your own scheme of work.
Practicalities
This resource includes interactive elements that encourage students to make sounds and imagine they are playing instruments. It may be a good idea to sit in an informal area without desks or to clear some space in the classroom.
If you have access to string instruments, bring them into the classroom for students to see and have a go at. This will also help to explain their different parts, how they are played, and how the strings vibrate to make notes.
String instruments
Show this painting to your class. Encourage students to look closely at the painting and describe what is happening in the image.
what instrument do you think the woman is playing?
does she look happy? (Who do you think she might be playing to?)
describe what the instrument looks like.
if you could listen to this painting, what do you think it would sound like? Try making the sound!
About the painting
This painting was painted over 300 years ago. It shows a young woman playing the guitar.
There must be a window next to the woman as light is streaming in and lighting up the left-hand side of her face. Perhaps someone has just come into the room and she is looking up at them... What do you think?
Although her clothes and hairstyle look different to what people wear today, someone playing and enjoying music is a familiar scene.
The painting is by a Dutch artist called Johannes Vermeer. He often painted people in their homes chatting, cooking or eating and playing music – the sort of everyday things that we like to do today.
Compare and contrast
Compare Vermeer's guitar player with a modern painting of a guitar player. How are they similar and how are they different?
Are the musicians holding and playing their guitars in the same way?
How much have guitars changed in 300 years?
Guitars then and now
The guitar in Vermeer's painting looks a little smaller and is narrower than a modern guitar.
The older guitar is more decorated. It has a pattern around the edge and the sound hole in the body of the guitar is covered with a panel that has a pattern of holes in it.
The musicians are holding and playing the guitars in a similar way.
Not much has changed in 300 years.
Teacher notes
It may be useful to point out that although acoustic guitars haven't changed much through the centuries, electric guitars are a whole other thing! Invented in the early 1930s, they have a solid body and use electric pickups (which are magnets wrapped in wire) to change the vibration from the strings into an electric current. This is then sent to an amplifier that converts the current into sound.
How is the sound made?
Musicians play the guitar by plucking or strumming the strings with the fingers of one hand. They change the notes with the fingers of their other hand by pressing them down on the strings.
Pretend you are holding a guitar.
How would you stand or sit?
What would you do with your fingers on each hand?
This diagram of a guitar shows its different parts. All these parts help to make the sound of a guitar.
Parts of a guitar
Look at the diagram and discuss with your class what you think each part is for.
How does each part contribute to the sound?
Teacher notes
If possible, bring a guitar into the classroom so students can see what it looks like and have a go at holding it and plucking or strumming the strings. Otherwise, use a photograph of a guitar or the diagram above to explain how it works.
Encourage students to think about the different parts and reason what they might be for. The reference notes below may be helpful.
You could start by explaining that guitars have a neck, a hollow body and strings.
Strings
Most guitars have six strings, (though bass guitars only have four strings).
The strings are attached to the bridge on the body of the guitar and stretch up the neck to the tuning pegs at the top.
The sound is made by plucking or strumming the strings, which makes them vibrate.
The strings are of different thicknesses and produce different notes when plucked. Most guitars are tuned to E, A, D, G, B, and E. The thinnest string is the first string (tuned to high E) and the thickest string is the sixth string (tuned to low E).
The tuning pegs are turned to tighten or loosen the strings and tune the guitar.
Body
The body of an acoustic guitar is hollow which amplifies the sound and makes it richer and louder.
The sound hole allows the sound from the strings' vibration to travel into the guitar body.
Neck
The long neck of the guitar means that the strings can be stretched a long way and have plenty of room to vibrate and make a sound.
On the neck of the guitar is the fretboard, a thin piece of wood with frets (thin metal bars) embedded into it. Musicians press their fingers on the strings against the fretboard to change the pitch of the notes.
Pressing down onto the strings shortens or lengthens the vibrations and changes the pitch of the note.
What does a guitar sound like?
The guitar is just one of the string instruments that is played by plucking or strumming the strings to vibrate them and create sound.
Listen to the sound of a guitar alongside four other string instruments that are plucked or strummed.
Discuss the sounds the instruments make as a class. (How are they different? How are they similar?)
Can you think of words to describe the sounds they make?
Strings and bows
Most string instruments have similar parts to a guitar – including a body, a neck and strings – though these may look different on different instruments.
But some string instruments are played with a bow rather than by plucking or strumming them.
Do you know what the instrument in this painting is called?
Like a guitar, it has strings that stretch up its neck.
How is the musician holding and playing the instrument?
Do you know how the sound is made?
What do you think it sounds like? Make some noise!
About cellos
The instrument is a cello. Rather than plucking the strings to make a sound, a bow is moved backwards and forwards across the strings. This vibrates the strings and makes the sound. A bow is a wooden cane with hundreds of straight hairs attached to it. These are usually made from the hairs of a horse's tail.
The musician holds the cello vertically between their knees with the cello standing on the floor. The cello has a spike at its base (called an end pin) which rests on the floor.
Imagine you are playing the cello.
How would you hold it?
How would you play it?
Let's see your bow action!
Music and mood
Here is another painting showing a cello being played. The artist has used the colours and brush strokes to put across the mood of the music as well as what the cello and cello player look like.
The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
What colours can you see?
What does the painting make you feel?
What sort of tune do you think the musician might be playing? (Something happy or sad? Something about a faraway place perhaps or about a memory? What do you think?)
Strings in the orchestra
The cello is just one of a larger family of stringed instruments in an orchestra that are played with a bow. If you go to a concert, you might hear: violins (which are the smallest in the family); violas (the next size up); and double basses too (these are huge and are often taller than the musician playing them!).
Can you spot different-sized stringed instruments in this painting of a school orchestra?
The link above is to a BBC Teach resource that includes four videos showing a violin, viola, cello and double bass being played.
You could ask students to describe the sounds each instrument makes.
Encourage them to think of words to describe the sounds.
These could be about the pitch ('high' or 'low').
What the sounds make them feel ('happy', 'excited', 'sad').
Or what the sounds remind them of – for example, you could ask them to think of an animal or insect that each instrument's sound reminds them of.
More stringed instruments in art
Let's look at more string instruments. Look at the artworks below.
Can you see the stringed instruments in these artworks?
Describe the shape of the instrument.
Do you think it is plucked or played with a bow?
Do you know what the instrument is called? What do you think it might sound like?
A Seated Courtesan Playing a Sitar 19th C (?)
Indian (Kalighat) School
The Harp 2004
Craig Matthews (active after 1995)
Billy Connolly Mural 2011
Andy Scott (b.1964)
Teacher notes
These notes may be helpful for reference. (You can see bigger versions of these images by clicking on them to visit the artwork pages.)
Sitar
The sitar was invented in South Asia in medieval times and is used in Hindustani classical music. It has seven strings and is plucked to make the sound. (The word 'sitar' comes from the Hindi words 'sat' and 'tär' which translate as 'seven strings'.) The sitar is held by the musician while they are sitting on the ground and it runs diagonally across their body. This watercolour painting is by an unknown Indian artist.
The harp is usually triangular in shape and has strings running at an angle to its frame against which the strings vibrate when they are plucked. Harps can be played while sitting or standing.
The banjo has a thin skin stretched across a circular frame. This would originally have been animal skin but today is usually made of plastic. The strings are attached to the frame, travel across it and up the neck of the banjo. The strings are plucked and vibrated against the skin to create the sound.
The modern banjo is derived from instruments used in North America and the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. These were made by enslaved people taken from West and Central Africa who developed them from African instruments. Banjos hold an important place in Black American traditional music and rural folk music.
This public sculpture, in Manchester, shows four African American musicians from New Orleans. They are playing the banjo, clarinet, trombone and trumpet.
Use this video to hear a range of stringed instruments being played including the harp (at 1:10), sitar (at 3:25) and banjo (at 2:40). You could ask students how many instruments they recognise (and put their hand up if they recognise an instrument). Ask them to look at the different ways the instruments are played and the different sounds that they make.
Discover more artworks showing string instruments on Art UK. Type the name of an instrument into the search box or try searching for 'string instrument'.
This is a sculpture by an artist called Bill Woodrow. He has cut the shape of an electric guitar out of a washing machine!
Bill Woodrow often uses ordinary, everyday objects that he finds in junkyards or on the streets in his art. By cutting shapes into them he makes us look at the objects in a new way.
What sort of noise do you think a washing machine and a guitar would make together!?
Let's make some noise!
Teacher notes
Encourage students to have fun making some noise with this (and create sound art!). You could split the class into two groups and instruct one group to make a washing machine noise and the other group to make guitar sounds.
You could also ask students what they think of the sculpture. (Do they like it? Is it clever? Is it confusing? Is it the type of art they might expect to see in an art gallery?)
Activity ideas
Activities: make abstract 2D artworks inspired by the shapes of string instruments
These activities provide ideas for using the shapes of string instruments to create abstract drawings, paintings or collages of a string instrument inspired by artists on Art UK.
Abstracted guitar collage
Let's get some inspiration!
This sculpture is by a French artist called Arman. He was best known for using found objects to create sculptures, often putting different objects together or deconstructing them. This sculpture consists of the deconstructed parts of a cello suspended in clear polyester resin. By abstracting the cello in this way, Arman makes us see its different parts and think about it in a new way.
The shapes are mixed up with other shapes so aren't immediately obvious, but if you look closely you'll see the curved side of the body of a guitar (drawn in charcoal) towards the centre of the canvas. This curved shape is also repeated, drawn in a blue rectangle on the left of the image. The brown rectangle in the middle looks like the neck of the guitar.
This is another abstracted still-life by Pablo Picasso. This time he has included a violin. But the violin looks as if it has been cut up and re-arranged!
Ask students what their first impressions of the painting are.
It might help to think of words to describe the painting. (These could be 'broken', 'confusing' or 'chaotic' for example.)
Can they spot the violin?
If you could listen to this painting as well as look at it, what might it sound like?
Abstract drawing activity instructions
You will need:
string instruments (or pictures of string instruments) for students to draw from
pencil and/or crayons
2 large sheets of paper (one should be fairly thick as it will need to support collage)
scissors and glue
Step 1: Choose a string instrument to inspire you
If possible, bring a string instrument, or a selection of string instruments into the classroom. Otherwise, gather photographs or pictures of string instruments for students to work from.
Divide the class into small groups, supplying each group with an instrument or picture of an instrument to inspire them. (Image-sharing websites such as Pixaby are useful resources with free images to download and use.)
Step 2: Draw the instrument
Task students with drawing the instrument, using observational skills. The drawing should be on a large scale (at least A3). They should look closely at the shapes that they can see. Look at the outline shape and the shapes inside the outline. Can they see circles? Can they see curves? Can they see rectangles? Can they see scrolls? Can they see straight lines?
Crayon drawing of a guitar
Step 3: Cut it out (and cut it up!)
The next step is to cut around their drawing so that they have a cut-out of the instrument.
Cut-out guitar drawing
They should then cut up their drawing into four or five pieces. The cuts can be random. They could end up with some big bits of their drawing and some small.
Step 4: Go abstract!
Now instruct them to put their drawing back together again but in a different order - so that they end up with an abstracted version of their instrument. Once they are happy with your new abstracted instrument, they can glue the pieces down.
Abstracted guitar drawing
Make an abstract collage or painting inspired by string instruments
You will need:
string instruments or pictures of string instruments as source material
pencil
2 large sheets of paper (one should be fairly thick as it will need to support collage or paint)
cardboard (recycled cereal boxes or packaging)
a mix of papers for collage (e.g. coloured papers, newspapers, magazines, textured paper, etc.)
string or wool
scissors and glue
Step 1: Choose a string instrument to inspire you
If possible, bring a string instrument, or a selection of string instruments into the classroom. Otherwise, gather photographs or pictures of string instruments for students to work from.
Divide the class into small groups, supplying each group with an instrument or picture of an instrument to inspire them. (Image-sharing websites such as Pixaby are useful resources with free images to download and use.)
Step 2: Draw the instrument
Students should draw the instrument using a pencil or crayon, using observational skills. Encourage them to look closely at the shapes that they can see. Look at the outline shape and the shapes inside the outline. Can they see circles? Can they see curves? Can they see rectangles? Can they see scrolls? Can they see straight lines?
Pencil drawing of a guitar, three-quarter view
Step 3: Deconstruct the drawing
Students should now abstract the string instrument by breaking it down into its main parts or shapes. For example, a guitar might be broken down into its body, its neck, its sound hole, and its strings. If the students have drawn a three-quarter or side view of the instrument, there may also be the shape of its side.
They should draw these shapes onto cardboard and cut them out to create templates. The bigger the shapes the better! (It will be easier to paint or colour the shapes if they are bigger.)
(They could also cut up some of the bigger shapes, such as the guitar body, to create more shapes to use.)
Cardboard template shapes, guitar
Step 4: Draw around the templates
They should then draw around the templates onto the thicker paper, arranging the templates to form an abstracted drawing.
The shapes could overlap or be placed next to each other in a random pattern.
Abstracted guitar from cardboard templates
Step 5: Add colour
In his Cubist still lifes, Picasso used a mix of flat-coloured shapes and patterns.
Students could fill the shapes of their abstracted instruments with different colours and textures. Encourage them to be experimental with colours and marks!
Abstracted guitar crayon drawing
Abstracted guitar painting
They can always add instrument details back in afterwards with a crayon or pen.
Collage variation
To create an abstracted string instrument using collage, follow steps 1 to 3 above, but draw around the cardboard shape templates onto a mix of papers.
Then cut the shapes out, arrange them on the thicker paper and glue them down. Add wool or string to suggest the strings.
Abstracted guitar collage
Abstracted guitar collage
Differentiation
Younger or less able students could make a simple abstracted artwork by cutting up a photograph of an instrument, rearranging this and sticking it down. Print out photographs or simple template drawings of instruments for students to use.
What does your abstracted instrument sound like?
Once students have finished their 2D artworks, look at them as a class. Ask them to imagine what their drawing might sound like. Does it sound like a broken guitar or a re-arranged violin?
Activity: make your own boxy string instrument
Have a go at making string instruments. Use these links to find ideas for making a simple guitar from recycled materials including a cereal box or tissue box, cardboard tube and string or elastic bands.
Top tip! Adapt these instructions to make other stringed instruments explored in the resource. How might you make a sitar or a banjo from recycled objects and materials?
Make some noise!
What do your recycled instruments sound like?
This BBC resource provides some ideas for making more simple instruments from old containers and rubber bands. It also provides tunes so that you can try your instruments out.
