Musical Instruments
What is a Musical instrument?
Musical instruments are things used to make music. Anything that somehow produces sound can be considered a musical instrument, but the term generally means items that are specifically for making music.
Musical instruments can be divided by type into:
An orchestra has instruments from four families:
- bowed string instruments (e.g. violin)
- woodwind (e.g. flute)
- brass (e.g. trumpet)
- percussion (e.g. drums)
Some people think that the voice is a "natural musical instrument" because singing is a way to make music without any instrument at all.
When are percussion instruments?
Percussion instruments are instruments which are played by shaking or hitting. There are many different kinds of percussion instruments. A person who plays a percussion instrument is a percussionist. Percussionists are usually able to play lots of different percussion instruments, because the basic skills required are similar.
Some percussion instruments can play tunes. These are called “tuned percussion”. Tuned percussion instruments include: xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, tubular bells and timpani.
Untuned percussion instruments include: bass drum, side drum (snare drum), maracas, castanets, cymbals, tambourine, claves and many more.
In an orchestra there can be more different kind of percussion instruments than in the other families: string, woodwind and brass instruments. However, older music does not often use lots of percussion. Most music for orchestra by composers like Mozart and Beethoven only use the timpani. In the 19th century, more percussion is added: cymbals, tambourine, triangle etc. In the 20th century, some composers may use very many percussion instruments.
Whenever any unusual instrument is used that does not fit into the category of string, woodwind, brass or keyboard, it is usually played by a percussionist. Sometimes composers have used things like typewriters, milk bottles or vacuum cleaners in their pieces.
Which are brass instruments?
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that you play by blowing through a mouthpiece to change the pitch, or note.
With brass instruments, the sound starts at the lips. Their mouthpieces just help your lips buzz. It does not matter if the instrument is really made of brass, as long as it works that way.
It is not important what the instrument is made of. Some brass instruments are really made of wood, but are still called brass instruments, like the serpent. Other instruments are made of brass but do not work like this, like the saxophone. They are not called brass instruments although they are made of brass.
There are also parts of the instrument that change the resonance and thus the pitch, like slides or valves.
A brass band is a group of brass instruments and drums that play music together. They are often used to play for parades and processions because the players can march and play at the same time. Brass bands were very popular in England. Many factories and coal mines had their own bands. The workers would play in the bands after work. One famous band is the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
What are keyboard instruments?
A keyboard instrument is an instrument that is played by pressing the keys of a keyboard. In a keyboard, the notes are arranged with naturals (usually white notes) forming the main body of the keyboard, and sharps and flats (usually black notes) placed in cuttings into the upper half of the naturals.
The ways in which the sound is made varies a lot:
- In the piano, hammers hit the strings.
- In the organ, air is sent through pipes.
- In the electronic organ or synthesizer, sound is made electronically.
- In the harpsichord, the strings are plucked by quills or “jacks”.
- In the clavichord, the strings are hit by a metal “tangent”.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the word Clavier was used in Germany to mean any kind of keyboard instrument. Often, the naturals were black and the sharps and flats were white (see picture of harpsichord), but the layout was exactly the same.
A modern harpsichord with two manuals (keyboards). It is a copy of a Baroque instrument.The development of electronic instruments in the 20th century has brought about many different types of electronic keyboard instruments. These include the ondes Martenot and the synthesizer.Nowadays, people often talk about a keyboard meaning an electronic keyboard (e.g. “He plays the keyboard”). The plural form of the word is "keyboards".
Yamaha have now made the most successful keyboards, selling over 770,000 a year.
What are woodwind instruments?
A woodwind instrument is an instrument belonging to the woodwind family. Traditionally they were always made of wood, although some of them are now made of metal or plastic.
In an orchestra there are four main types of woodwind instrument. Each of these also has related instruments of different sizes:
The piccolo is the highest of the four main instruments. The lowest note is Middle C and it has a range of 3 octaves. The piccolo is the smallest and highest instrument in the orchestra. It plays one octave higher than the flute. There is also an alto flute which sounds a fifth lower than the ordinary flute. Flutes are still sometimes made of wood, but mostly they are metal.
The oboe can play slightly lower than the flute. There is a larger version called the cor anglais (which means: “English horn”). This is a double reeded instrument. The clarinet plays nearly an octave lower than the flute. The bass clarinet plays an octave lower than the clarinet. The bassoon is the lowest of the four gvottom B flat of the piano.
The recorder is one of the oldest and most popular woodwinds and has been used to great effect by greats, such as Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi. The general public is normally only familiar with the plastic, child's version of the recorder, but professional and high-quality recorders are still made of wood.
The saxophone may look like a brass instrument, but it is played like a clarinet and therefore it is a woodwind instrument. It is usually played in bands and jazz groups.
Woodwind instruments are played in a variety of ways. The flute is played by blowing across the top of the mouthpiece. It is like blowing across the top of an empty bottle. The oboe and bassoon both have a double reed. It is like blowing through a drinking straw. Bagpipes have double reeds which are inside the mouthpiece (“enclosed reeds”). The clarinet and saxophone have single reeds which are clamped against the opening of the mouthpiece.
In comparison, brass instruments are all blown in the same way: by blowing against a cup-shaped mouthpiece. This is why the saxophone cannot be called a brass instrument, although it is made of brass.
The way that a player shapes his mouth to blow an instrument is called the “embouchure”. Woodwind instruments have several different embouchures.
In an orchestra there may be two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons. In larger orchestras, particularly from the Romantic period onwards, there may be three or four. Sometimes the extra instruments such as the piccolo are used. If, for example, in an orchestral piece the third flute is marked “doubling piccolo”, it means that the person playing flute 3 will also play the piccolo. However, if the piccolo plays at the same time as flute 3 they will obviously need an extra player for the piccolo part.
Woodwind instruments in an orchestra often have short solos. These will be played by the first player (the “section principal”).