Zen Violin
Four strings, free in your browser
Press a stop to play the violin online, one note at a time, on four strings from G3 up to B5. Slide along a string with a mouse or pen, or with a finger while the fingerboard lies flat, or type on your computer keyboard. Your first press turns the sound on; the stops play once it's ready.
How to play
A new stop takes over from the note that is sounding, with no gap. With a mouse or pen, press and drag along a string to slide from note to note. On a touch screen, slide a finger along a string while the fingerboard lies flat, as it does with your phone on its side.
The note ends when you lift the finger, pen or mouse button that started it, or release its computer key.
Each stop shows its key, in the same layout the full app uses: the letter picks the note, and Shift with a key plays its sharp. So with a computer keyboard, the Classic VP strip's letters for notes on the fingerboard play here too, one at a time.
The strip's letters for notes below G3, the open G string, play nothing here.
Choose Song, then press Play, and Canon And Gigue In D Major, P.37 plays on the violin by itself, as Melody or as Classic VP with the piece's chords. You can press stops over it.
The song's notes can sound together, and a note below the fingerboard sounds without a light. Your own presses sound one note at a time.
About the violin
How a violin is tuned, played and related, with sources.
Strings
A violin commonly has four strings, tuned in perfect fifths: G3, D4, A4 and E5. Its lowest note, tuned normally, is G3, the G below middle C. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in regular use in the violin family.
Bow
A violin is most often played by drawing a bow across the strings, which makes them vibrate with a sustained tone. The bow is a wooden stick with tensioned horsehair, rubbed with rosin. The strings can also be plucked, most often with the right hand, which is called pizzicato.
Position
A violin has no frets, so the player must know exactly where to place each finger on a string. First position, where most beginners start, runs from the open G3 up to B5, played with the fourth finger on the E string. The stops here show first position, each note once, evenly spaced rather than to scale.
Family
The viola and the cello are undisputed members of the violin family. The double bass is less certain: some sources place it with the viols instead, and some leave it out of the violin family.
Your presses play one recorded Violin sound, one note at a time, on 29 stops in first position. The sound does not model bowing, vibrato, pizzicato or double stops.
Before you play
About playing here, and what the full app adds.
No. This virtual violin runs online in your browser, with nothing to install and no account.
Your first press turns the sound on and plays nothing itself. If the sound is still loading, the stops say so, and your next presses play once it's ready. If it can't load, a Try again button appears.
Your presses play as one instrument: a new stop takes over from the note that is sounding, and releasing an older stop changes nothing. Song is separate, and its notes can sound together.
The stops show first position, G3 up to B5, each note once, which holds every note of the tune of Canon And Gigue In D Major, P.37. Higher positions would add a control for no note the tune needs.
Its sheet in the Zen Library is in the public domain. Song plays it on the violin, as its tune or as a Virtual Piano letter sheet with its chords. The tune lies wholly on the fingerboard; the letter sheet's notes below it sound without a light.
Yes. Held upright, the phone shows the fingerboard standing, its strings side by side: tap a stop, and a vertical swipe on the stops scrolls the page after sounding the stop you touched, while a sideways swipe crosses the strings, sounding each stop it reaches. A swipe beside the stops scrolls without a sound. Turn the phone on its side and the fingerboard lies flat, so a finger can slide along a string.
A library of songs. Play, on a computer with a mouse or trackpad, has 16 instruments and ways to learn a song, such as Magic Play and Practice; there, this page's link opens the song on Violin. On a touch device without a mouse, the link opens the touch piano on Violin.