SHORT NECKED STRING
INSTRUMENTS
I like to group these instruments
together because normally people tune them in perfect fifths, and
because the neck of these instruments is short enough to encourage a
player to use one finger per scale degree, (half step or whoe step
between adjacent fingers) instead of just a half step between
fingers, as it tends to be with the long necked string
instruments.
These include:
Violin with four strings tuned G, D, A, E
from low to high pitch, and and mandolin with four pairs of strings,
where each pair is in unison and the four pairs are tuned G, D, A, E
like a violin. The modern violin has no frets and is played
with a bow normally: the mandolin does have frets and is normally
played with a flat pick.
Viola wth four strings tuned C, G, D, A from low to high pitch, and and mandola with four pairs of strings, where each pair is in unison and the four pairs are tuned C, G, D, A like a violin. The modern viola also has no frets and is normally played with a bow: the mandola has frets and is normally played with a pick.
There are many different sizes of violins, rated in fractions of a
full-size violin. These include 4/4, 3,4/ 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and
perhaps more sizes I don't know about. The smaller sizes are
great for little kids who want to begin violin lessons, normally under
the Suzuki violin school method.
Also, there are various sizes of violas, rated in size of the body. I think the standard size is near 16.5 or 17 inches. I've seen violas at 16, 15, 14, 13, and 12 inches. Your trusty local music store, or vendor on the web, normally has a chart relating these sizes to age of student.
The old fashioned and pretty reliable way to verify the correct instrument size for a student is to have them hold the instrument horizontally under their chin, and point the instrment neck somewhat to their left, and check to see if their left hand will nicely reach and curl around the scroll at the end of the instrument neck. If it will, then you have their right size instrument.... till they grow taller, that is.