Violin of scordatura in classical music is Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre", where the solo violin's E string is tuned down to E to impart an eerie dissonance to the composition. Other examples are the third movement of "Contrasts", by Béla Bartók, where the E string is tuned down to E and the G tuned to a G, and the Mystery Sonatas by Biber, in which each movement has different scordatura tuning. In Indian classical music and Indian light music, the violin is likely to be tuned to D–A–D–A in the South Indian style. As there is no concept of absolute pitch
String instrument string with higher mass per unit length produces the lower pitch. The length of the string from nut to bridge on bowed or plucked instruments ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For example, a double bass with its low range needs a scale length of around , whilst a violin scale is only about . On the shorter scale of the violin, the left hand may easily reach a range of slightly more than two octaves without shifting position, while on the bass' longer scale, a single octave or a ninth is reachable in lower positions.