How to choose a backpack to start with: sizes and types
The 3 / 4 is the standard adult size and lamination, the ally of the beginner. What to check, how to adjust the height of strings and how to solve transport.
Most adults play a 3 / 4 countertop, which in practice is the "complete" standard size. To start with, a laminated or hybrids, adjusted by a luthier and with the ropes at a reasonable height, is the most sensible choice: it holds up blows, transport and climate changes and serves as an orchestra, jazz and popular music.
The bottom has challenges that other instruments do not have: how you will move it, where you will save it and how much force your left hand wants. To think about them before buying prevents surprises.
To sum up
- 3 / 4 is the usual adult size and 1 / 4 and 1 / 2 are for children, adolescents and low-height adults.
- The lamination is strong and versatile and the carving sounds more rich with an arch but calls for care, and the hybrid's in half.
- The height of the ropes defines if you can play without pain: ask them to set a luthier.
- Resolves transport before buying: the volume of the drawback complicates more than its weight.
- Decide with your teacher if you will use French or German arch before buying the arch.
Tires 1 / 4, 1 / 2 and 3 / 4: What's yours?
At bottom, fractions do not follow the logic of the violin: 3 / 4 is the standard adult size and 4 / 4 is a very large instrument that few use.
| Size | To whom they usually serve | Approximate height |
|---|---|---|
| 1 / 10 and 1 / 8 | Young start children | less than 1.35 m |
| 1/4 | Children 9 to 11 | 1.35 to 1.50 m |
| 1/2 | Teenage 11 to 14 and low-height adults | 1.50 to 1.60 m |
| 3/4 | Most high and adult adolescents | More than 1.60 m |
| 4/4 | Few interpreters, most often high and with big hands | Unused |
The same size changes the menace and the length of the string. A 3 / 4 usually includes about 104 to 108 cm. A short menace reduces the distance between notes and is more gentle with small hands.
The foot test
- Adjust the pica so that, standing and with the bottom with a soft back, the cebula (where the diapason ends, close to the clamps) remains more or less at the height of the eyebrows or the front.
- With his left hand at first positions, his first finger should be close to the height of his eyes with his shoulder relaxed.
- The arch should pass between the bridge and the end of the diapason with his right arm comfortable without bringing his shoulder up.
- At low positions, try to cover a tone between first and fourth finger. If impossible without pain, seek a smaller size or menace.
Many middlepits play sitting at a high bench, if that's your case, repeat the sitting proof.
Laminated, hybrided or carved
| Laminado | Hybrids | Tallado | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | Fitted and put up for retail sale | Solid carved wood cover and laminated bottom and rings | All of solid carved wood |
| Sonido | Straight with good pizzicate attack | More resonant with arch | The richest and deepest with arch |
| Resistance to blows and climate | Alta | Media | Low: sensitive to moisture and abrupt changes |
| Mantenimiento | Bass | Moderado | High with periodic revisions of luthier |
| To whom | Beginners, Schools, Jazz, Popular Music, Travel | Students with orchestral projection | Advanced and Professional Students |
To start with, lamination has an enormous practical advantage: a countertop is hit at door frames, elevators and boules. A crack in a carving is a serious repair and a lamination is far more tolerant.
The Colombian climate adds up another argument. If you are to travel between Bogotá and hot ground for orchestras or festivals, moisture changes have an impact more on a carving. The laminate travels more calmly.
Retiring and tuning: what weighs most at first
A pizzicate with high ropes tipps up: his left hand makes a great deal of force and his pizzicate costs and his pain appears. With his strings too low, however, his notes are buzzing at his diapason.
- General reference: At the end of the diapason, the Sun string usually remains between 5 and 7 mm and the Mi string between 7 and 9 mm to play with arch. For jazz and pizzicate, somewhat minor heights are used.
- Bridge with tipsters: Many drawers have pink wheels at the legs of the bridge to get up or down the ropes as per the season. They are useful, but they are best moved by a luthier or your teacher.
- Diapason: A dapason with wavelengths makes buzzes in some notes even if height's right.
- Beetroot: If the ropes are high up there, first positions get rough.
- Rings: Those with a core of steel and medium tension are most common to start with. There are lower-voltage, more gentle ropes for pizzicate. Your teacher will tell you what to play with.
He always asked if the bottom come with an adjustment. A factory instrument with no tuning can be almost untouchable and a good tuning transformed a simple lamination.
French or German arch
| French arch | German arch | |
|---|---|---|
| How it's taken | That looks like cello's bow with his hand above his stick | With his hand and his face and his arms and his arms and his arms and his arms and his arms and his arms |
| Nuez | Low and narrow | High and high |
| Feeling | Agil with a lot of control close to the end | A lot of arm weight support on a string |
| To favor | Natural transition if you come from cello | A firm sound with little effort |
The important thing is that it matches what your teacher teaches, so don't buy the bow before talking to him or her.
The contraple's colophenia is very soft and sticky, different from that of violin and cello. Keep it in its box and far from the sun: with hot ground heat it softens and deforms.
Transport and space: clear up before buying
- Row: A 3 / 4 fits in many cars with a rectimatted co-pilot chair or a backseat, but measures earlier. The hatchback and vans are more comfortable.
- Taxes and platforms: Do not all accept to wear them and notify the size of their demand.
- Public transport: At peak hour, it's unrealistic with a backpack.
- Fold: thick and padded with an arch pocket and with strap and handles at several points. A wheel attached to the pica makes short journeys easier.
- At home: in a secure corner, lying from the side or a stand, far from windows, doors that open and passage of children and pets.
Many contrabajists use an orchestra or a college instrument at their essay and have another at home to study and ask if your program provides tools. To care daily, check how to care for a contraband.
What to check at the tent or a used contraple
- Mast union: Look at his heel, where his mast enters his body. A crack or separation there's a serious repair.
- Cover: Check around the effes and under the legs of the bridge and seek cracks and sink.
- Seams: The edges with knuckles are gently hit. A different buzzing or a different hollow sound indicates an open seam.
- Bridge: right, without matching with complete supported legs.
- Machinery: Each gearbox should turn soft, with no leaps and no matching.
- Fits: That goes out and goes and gets firmly blocked.
- Sound: He plays every string to the air and in several positions, pizzicate and with an arch if you can.
Frequently asked questions
Is it best to start with an electrical low or a contraple?
It depends on how much music you have to play. For orchestra and camera music, contraband. For rock, pop and a good share of popular music, the electrical is more useful. Many jazz musicians play both. If you lean for the electrical, read how to choose your first electrical bass.
At how old can you start to play contraband?
There are small child beets and many start at 9 or 10 years old, sometimes after some time at cello. The decisive thing is height and force of the hands, something that teacher evaluates in the first classes.
What's so bad about pressuring the drawback's strings?
The strings are thick and tense and the notes are far from each other. That's why a specific digitation and the force comes from the weight of his arm, and not just from his fingers. If the height of his strings are bad, his efforts are multiplied: have his face reviewed by a luthier.
Do you have an electrical backend to learn about?
Silent electrical or studio drawaways serve to practice without annoying and to travel but arch response and body sensation change. To learn well an acoustic and an electrical as a complement.