Violin Fingerboard Explorer

An interactive note map of the Violin's fingerboard in GDAE: tap a note to light it everywhere it occurs, and watch the lattice the tuning builds — GDAE — a fifth between each neighbouring pair, G at the bottom and E at the top.

Nothing on this fingerboard marks the notes, which is exactly why a map helps: light up a scale and the four-finger frames stop being abstract, and the shifts between positions become distances you can see before you have to feel them.

Open string for open string the Violin sounds exactly like a mandolin — the pitches are identical. What is not identical is anything after that: no plectrum, no fixed dividing line under the finger, and a bow that can keep a note alive as long as the arm keeps moving.