Air on the G String Air on the G String "Air on the G String" is August Wilhelmj's arrangement of the second movement in Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068. The arrangement differs from the original in that the part of the first violins is transposed down so that it can be played entirely on a violin's lowest string, "i.e.", the G string. It is played by a single violin (instead of by the first violins as a group). Bach's third Orchestral Suite in D major, composed in the first half of the 18th century, has an "Air" as
String instrument ways to change the pitch of a vibrating string. String instruments are tuned by varying the strings' tension because adjusting length or mass per unit length is impractical. Instruments with a fingerboard are then played by adjusting the length of the vibrating portion of the strings. The following observations all apply to a string that is infinitely flexible (a theoretical assumption, because in practical applications, strings are not infinitely flexible) strung between two fixed supports. Real strings have finite curvature at the bridge and nut, and the bridge, because of its motion, are not exactly nodes of vibration. Hence the