Music: Musical Instruments

Stringed Instruments

Strings vibrate to give a strumming or humming sound. Pitch is determined by length, thickness, and degree of tautness of strings. The frame that the strings are attached to resonates, creating a different sound for each instrument. Stringed instruments include the Violin, viola, cello, and double bass.

Woodwind Instruments

These instruments are traditionally made of wood, but some are made of metal today. Some woodwinds are played by blowing over a hole in the side of the instrument while others are played by blowing across the end of the instrument. Still, others create sound when the player blows over a thin reed or reeds. Woodwinds produce a warm rich sound. Woodwind instruments include the piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, and contrabassoon.

Brass Instruments

Brass instruments are made from brass or another metal and have a long tube and cupped shaped mouth piece. The player purses his or her lips and blows into the mouthpiece. Alternating the pressure of the breath creates different sounds. Brass instruments include the trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba, cornet, baritone horn, and bass.

Percussion Instruments

Percussion instruments are thought to be the oldest instruments, and there are more types of instruments in this group than in any other instrument group. Sound is created by vibrations in stretched membranes, plates, or bells. Percussion instruments may have definite pitch or indefinite pitch. Percussion instruments include the xylophone, wood blocks, bells, cymbals, tambourines, triangles, drums, gongs, and Spanish castanets.

Keyboard Instruments

Keyboard instruments, like pianos and harpsichords are similar to stringed instruments and percussion instruments. When a key is depresses, a string is plucked. However, the organ is more like a wind instrument. When a key is depressed, air is pushed into the pipes. Bigger pipes create deeper pitches.

Electric and Electronic Instruments

This is a relatively new class of instruments that emerged this century. Some instruments in this class use traditional methods to create music, but use electric or electronic tools to amplify the music (an electric guitar). Other instruments in this class produce musical sounds by electronic means.

Voice

The most common instrument used to make music is the human voice. The sound of the human voice comes from the tightening of vocal chords. Vocal chords are the two small membranes in the larynx. The tighter the chords, the higher the pitch will be because the chords vibrate faster. The chest, throat, neck, head, nose, mouth, tongue, and teeth all work together to give strength, tone, and variety to vocal sound.

Range of Voice

	Women	Men
HIGH	Soprano	Tenor
	Mezzo-Soprano	Baritone
LOW	Alto (or contralto)	Bass