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    Musical Instruments: Exploring The Families of Musical Instruments, and More!

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    Tümtürk Nuri
    Musical instruments can be categorized into families based on how they produce sound. The main families are brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, and keyboards. Brass instruments involve buzzing lips into a mouthpiece, woodwinds use breath and reeds or flutes, strings are played by plucking or bowing, percussion involves striking or shaking, and keyboards are played by pressing keys. While many instruments clearly fit into these families, some defy easy classification.

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    Musical Instruments: Exploring The Families of Musical Instruments, and More!

    Uploaded by

    Tümtürk Nuri
    20 views38 pages
    Musical instruments can be categorized into families based on how they produce sound. The main families are brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, and keyboards. Brass instruments involve buzzing lips into a mouthpiece, woodwinds use breath and reeds or flutes, strings are played by plucking or bowing, percussion involves striking or shaking, and keyboards are played by pressing keys. While many instruments clearly fit into these families, some defy easy classification.

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    Musical Instruments

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    Musical instruments can be categorized into families based on how they produce sound. The main families are brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, and keyboards. Brass instruments involve buzzing lips into a mouthpiece, woodwinds use breath and reeds or flutes, strings are played by plucking or bowing, percussion involves striking or shaking, and keyboards are played by pressing keys. While many instruments clearly fit into these families, some defy easy classification.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    20 views38 pages

    Musical Instruments: Exploring The Families of Musical Instruments, and More!

    Uploaded by

    Tümtürk Nuri
    Musical instruments can be categorized into families based on how they produce sound. The main families are brass, woodwind, strings, percussion, and keyboards. Brass instruments involve buzzing lips into a mouthpiece, woodwinds use breath and reeds or flutes, strings are played by plucking or bowing, percussion involves striking or shaking, and keyboards are played by pressing keys. While many instruments clearly fit into these families, some defy easy classification.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 38

    Musical Instruments

    Exploring the Families of


    Musical Instruments, and
    More!
    Overview:

    • Musical instruments have been


    used by people to create music for
    almost as long as people could
    think creatively.
    Categories:

    • Musical instruments, like plants


    and animals, are categorized into
    families. Traditional classical
    orchestra instruments are divided
    into four distinct families. Today,
    we recognize a fifth family. Also,
    non-traditional instruments, new
    creations, and odd-ball instruments
    are classified in the family
    structure, based on their
    characteristics.
    The Brass Family
    • Brass instruments were
    traditionally made of brass, but
    today, we recognize that some
    instruments are classed as “brass”
    although they’re made of other
    materials. Some instruments made
    of brass are in fact not in the brass
    family!
    • Brass instruments create sound by
    the musician ‘buzzing’ their lips
    into a round mouthpiece. Here is a
    trombone mouthpiece:
    • Brass instruments usually have long, sometimes
    coiled tubing which leads to a ‘bell’ where the
    sound comes out.

    Trumpet

    French Horn
    • The Tuba and the Euphonium look very
    similar, but the Euphonium has longer,
    narrower coils, and makes a less abrupt
    sound.

    Left: Tuba Right: Euphonium


    • Here are some brass instruments that are not
    in common use. They look similar to other
    more familiar instruments, don’t they!

    Ophicleide Cornett
    (Off-i-clyde)
    • Here are some really different instruments,
    that are (believe it or not) members of the
    brass family. The player must buzz their lips as
    they play:

    Conch Alphorn

    Didgeridoo
    • The Woodwind Family
    • Woodwinds are, like brass,
    instruments whose sound is created
    by the musician’s breath.
    However, these instruments do not
    require the ‘buzzing’ that the brass
    need. There are two types of
    woodwinds, flutes and reeds.
    • The Flute family consists of instruments with which
    you blow over a hole or edge to create the sound.
    These include all flutes, recorders, and various types
    of whistles.

    Flute Recorder
    • Most of the woodwinds have a mouthpiece
    with either one or two reeds. When the
    musician blows into the mouthpiece, the reed
    vibrates to create the sound.

    Comparison of the
    Clarinet sizes of 4 different
    woodwinds.
    The bassoon and the oboe are two-
    reed woodwinds.

    The bagpipes can have either one


    or two reeds
    Top: Bassoon
    Bottom: Oboe
    • Beware!
    • The Saxophone is classified as a
    woodwind instrument. Although
    it’s body is made of brass, the
    mouthpiece contains a reed, and
    only exhaling is necessary to make
    to work.

    Didgeridoos, Cornetts and


    Alphorns, although
    they’re made of wood,
    are not woodwinds.
    Which of these instruments are
    woodwinds?
    The Strings Family
    • Instruments whose sounds are
    created by manipulating tightened
    strings are members of the string
    family. The strings may be
    plucked; they may be scratched
    with a bow, and they may be
    strummed.

    Right: Jeff Healey


    Far right: Jimmy Page
    (Led Zeppelin)
    • String quartets consist of two violas, one
    violin, and one cello. The viola is slightly
    larger than the violin, and has a lower register.
    Check out the difference in size! The cello is
    too large to hold to your chin; it rests on the
    floor and the player sits to play it.

    String Quartet Left: Violin Right: Viola


    Left: Double Bass,
    or Contrabass

    Cello

    Electric Bass
    • There are many different types of guitars, and
    they can be found in cultures all around the
    world. The Classical Guitar is used more
    frequently in modern symphonies. Modern
    rock music is largely guitar-based.

    Left: Classical Guitar Center: Mandolin Right: Banjo


    • Many guitars are uniquely crafted to create
    new, innovative sounds. They often go by
    their inventor’s name:

    Left: Warr Guitar


    Above: Dobro
    Right: Chapman Stick (Bass Guitar)
    • There are too numerous string family
    instruments to list here. The string family is
    one of the most diverse, with countless
    different styles found everywhere, and in
    virtually ever genre of music.

    Top Left:
    Hurdy Gurdy

    Top Right:
    Sitar

    Bottom Left:
    Mouth Bow

    Bottom Right:
    Zither
    • Harps are also part of the string family; the
    harp is included in the classical orchestra.

    Below: Autoharp
    The musician
    pushes keys while
    strumming.

    Left: Classic Harp


    Right: Lyre (ancestor of the harp)
    • The Percussion Family
    • Percussion instruments are those
    that are played by striking or
    shaking.
    • All drums are percussion
    instruments.
    • Often, drums are used to keep the
    rhythm in a musical piece. They
    are used for effect and add
    dynamics to complex compositions.
    • Here are some examples of different types of
    drums:
    Left: Snare drum; Bottom Left: Concert Tom Drums
    Bottom Right: Timpani
    • Some percussion instruments are tuned
    instruments, which means you can play notes
    in a scale on them:

    Left: Chimes (Orchestra)

    Bottom Left: Glockenspiel

    Bottom Right: Xylophone

    Right: Bells

    Glockenspiels are
    made of metal;
    xylophones are made
    of wood.
    Here are some other familiar percussion
    instruments:

    Left: Tambourine Center: Cymbals Right: Maracas

    Left: Triangle Center: Cowbell Right: Wood block


    What family of instruments does this belong to?
    The Keyboard Family
    • Today, many people recognize that there is
    now a fifth family of instruments. The
    keyboard family includes pianos, organs,
    electronic keyboards and synthesizers, among
    others.
    Left: Strings inside a grand
    piano.
    Right: Felt mallets that
    strike the strings inside an
    upright piano

    • One could argue that a piano is a percussion


    instrument, because you strike the keys to
    play it. It has also been considered a string
    instrument, because it has tightly bound
    strings which produce the sound.
    Some other keyboard family instruments:

    Top Left: Mellotron – popular in the 1960’s and


    70’s, replicates string sounds.
    Top Center: Early model Moog Synthesizer
    Top Right: Harpsichord, very common Baroque
    keyboard, ancestor of the piano
    Left: Pipe organ – found in churches and
    cathedrals around the world.
    What Is This?!?!
    It is called a Theramin. It is played by moving
    your hands closer and further from the device,
    causing the radio frequencies to change pitch.

    Like the theramin, there are other ‘oddball’


    instruments that defy classification. Who
    knows, maybe there will be more families of
    instruments some day!
    And then there were…

    …these!
    Any questions?

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