balalaika

The balalaika (Russian: балала́йка, pronounced [bəɫɐˈɫajkə]) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perfect fourth higher.

noun. bal·​a·​lai·​ka ˌba-lə-ˈlī-kə : a usually 3-stringed instrument of Russian origin with a triangular body played by plucking or strumming.

Balalaikas were used in folk music and dancing as well as large balalaika orchestras formed in the 20th century. The characteristic size, known as the prime or treble, is normally tuned E-E-A in the octave above middle C.

Russian The balalaika, as its name would suggest, is a Russian folk instrument.

Developed from unstandardized folk lutes by the nobleman Andreyev in the late 18th century into a whole family of instruments with standard tunings, the balalaika has become one of the most important plucked stringed instruments in Eastern Europe, and the quintessential lute in Russia and the Ukraine.

They also differ in the manner of producing the sound: the balalaika is plucked by the fingertips, the domra strummed with a pick or plectrum. There do exist some nonpurists who use a pick on a balalaika, but only if they are prepared to brave the withering scorn of the traditionally trained virtuosi.

Examples of balalaika The sound of music came from somewhere outside, notes of the balalaika. I sat at the window and heard the jingling of his balalaika and his thin voice pierced my ear. Mead and qvass flowed in the very streets, and the castle trumpets could not be heard for the sound of troikas and balalaikas.

The balalaika is a plucked and strummed bowl-lute chordophone of Russia. Traditionally played by peasant minstrels to accompany dance, in the late 19th century it was brought into the domain of urban artistic music making and has subsequently become a visual and sonic icon of Russian identity.

The prima, secunda and alto balalaikas are generally played by either strumming with the fingers, while the piccolo balalaika is usually played with a pick. As these smaller balalaikas create minimal sustain, they are often played with rapid strumming that sounds not unlike the tremolo technique used on a mandolin.

The balalaika has a characteristic triangular shape. The soundboard is made of pine wood and the back is beech. Most balalaikas have three strings (though some have six); the last two are usually tuned to the same note, an E, and the first to an A, which is how most concert balalaika players tune their instrument.

Alexey Arkhipovsky Alexey Arkhipovsky is a true magician of sound. Critics around the world compare his achievements on the balalaika with the innovations that Niccolò Paganini brought to the violin and the revolution that Jimmie Hendrix started on the guitar.

The most common version of the balalaika is called “prima”. It's tuned E4, E4, A4 – where the two lower strings are tuned to the same pitch. Sometimes it's tuned in a so called “guitar style” G3, B3, D4. That's the same way the three highest strings of the Russian guitar is tuned.