Violoncello String Vibrations as an Example of Continuum Dynamics—Limits of Minimal Model Considerations

ABSTRACT Vibrations in string instruments and especially the excitation of their strings by bowing or plucking have been the subject of considerations and research for decades in textbooks and research papers. The current presentation collects some instructive measurement results with a violoncello and their interpretation in the framework of minimal models of mechanical linear or nonlinear continuum oscillations, respectively. Excitation mechanisms and locations, boundary conditions, response spectra, flageolet harmonics, and stick‐slip limit cycles are thereby considered. We hope to give with this paper some descriptive results for treatment within the context, for example, of lectures in continuum mechanics and friction excited vibrations and on the usefulness but also limits of minimal modeling.