The violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart, the lowest being the G just below middle C. It is the smallest and highest-tuned member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello. Music written for the violin almost always uses the G clef (treble clef). (A related bowed string instrument, the double bass, technically belongs to the similar but distinct viol family.)

Another name for the violin is the fiddle, and a violin is typically called a fiddle when used to play traditional music. Although many people think "violin" and "fiddle" are names for different instruments, or at least different grades of instrument, in fact they are simply words that came into English via different languages, "violin" having taken the Romance route and "fiddle" the Germanic one's part of incidental music to Dryden's Pausanias.

	Range Tuned by turning the pegs to make strings tighter (for higher pitch) or slacker to make the pitch lower
	Tuning A virtuoso player could extend a perfect 4th higher than the upper note suggested here.