Let’s face it, and most people have never heard of five-stringed instruments. They weren’t even invented until the 1960s, over half a century after the four-stringed mandolin and the ukulele. The five-string has a unique sound that’s often compared with a guitar while providing a more traditional instrument like the mandolin’s fingerpicking.
Five-string instruments are fairly unusual in the world of stringed instruments. They are typically divided into two categories: bowed instruments and plucked instruments. Plucked instruments are instruments that are touched with fingers (such as guitar, banjo, mandolin, etc.), and bowed instruments are instruments that are struck with a bow or a stick (such as violin, viola, cello, etc.).
The Instruments that Have Five Strings
There are so many kinds of instruments that you can play with your fingers, but if you’re looking for a unique way to make music, you might want to try playing with a fifth. The following are the instruments that have five-string:
FIVE-STRING GUITARS
The five-string guitar, also known as the “dead-string” guitar, has in its original form five strings rather than the usual four. The fifth string is played with a quill pick, and the instrument has special tuning so that it’s always tuned in fifths. This tuning is called quint or Quinta, and it’s surprisingly popular. You may be familiar with the bass quint, but you may not know many other varieties.
FIVE-STRING MANDOLINS
If you’re a guitar or bass player, chances are you’ve thought about buying a mandolin. A mandolin is a guitar-shaped instrument that’s usually made from solid wood. The ones you see at music shops range in price from $500 to thousands of dollars, and they’re usually strung with nylon strings. If you’re curious what a mandolin sounds like, here’s an example of what I did.
FIVE-STRING BANJOS
Who knew that the banjo was originally the 5th string on a Spanish guitar? Then again, who knew that the 5th string on a Spanish guitar was banned in Spain, so the banjo had to be developed for other types and instruments? Let’s see their original form, the Spanish guitar (also called a lute) was typically 4 strings and was tuned B-E-A-D-G. It was a popular instrument in Spain, and so was the popular Sevilla Guitar. The location of the 5th string is the key to understanding the development of the 5th string banjo.
FIVE-STRING UKULELE
You may not be aware of the Ukulele), but if you play guitar or banjo you’re already familiar with it. Nicknamed the “Hawaiian Guitar,” the ukulele is a lute family of stringed instruments with origins in pre-Columbian Hawaii.
FIVE-STRING VIOLINS
Five stringed instruments that you may not have known about! A five-string violin is a fiddle with five strings. The five-string violin is called a fiddle because the violin family of instruments is known as the fiddle family of instruments. The five-string violin is known as a fiddle because of how much the violin family of instruments is known as the fiddle family of instruments. Fiddles are old instruments, and they are known for being old instruments. Fiddles are old, and fiddles are old because fiddles are old.
What Are the Advantages of having Five String Instruments?
There are several advantages to having five-string instruments. It is written below:
- You can learn to play five different instruments at the same time.
- You can get a great musical education from a single teacher.
- You can make it easier to learn the sixth instrument if you wish to add another.
- You can play some instruments (or none at all) and still gain a lot from the music.
- You can play one of the more difficult instruments, such as the one you are interested in.
Now you know some five-string instruments. Those are some of the most common instruments you’ve likely never even heard of, but you should know about them because there are some amazing things you can do with them! It was fun to play every five-string instrument after your hard practice.