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Brass instruments get their name because they are made of metal (although not necessarily brass). Today brass instruments have a separate part called the mouthpiece, which fits into the leadpipe, or small end, of the tubing. The player blows air through the mouthpiece, buzzing his or her lips against it.
As with all instruments, the faster the vibration, the higher the pitch, and the shorter the tubing the higher the pitch. While modern woodwind instruments have many keys, modern brass instruments have three or four valves (if any) to help create different pitches. Pushing down a valve alters the pitch by accessing more tubing. Players must also change the speed of the air and the muscle tension in their lips while buzzing them to change pitches.
Most woodwind instruments are tubes that are (or were a long time ago) made from wood, and players blow their “wind”, or breath, into them to make sounds.
Some woodwinds are conical, or cone-shaped. The tube starts small and gets bigger along the way to the end.
Other woodwinds are cylindrical, or cylider shaped. The size of the tube stays about the same from one end to the other, like a paper towel tube.
The “String” Instrument Family are instruments in which strings are stretched under tension, and sound is produced by causing strings to vibrate. This may be done by plucking, strumming, striking, or bowing the strings. String instruments are known in every culture.
Percussion instruments have been around for thousands of years in every culture in the world. They have been used in many different ways, such as communicating with neighboring communities, accompanying dance, and facilitating ceremonies and rituals.
There are many different percussion instruments. “Percussion” comes from the Latin wordpercutere, which in English means, “to strike”.
Not all instruments classified as percussion actually make their sounds by being struck. Some are shaken, clapped together, or even scraped (guiro). Some percussion instruments are pitched, and others are non-pitched. What most of them have in common, though, is performing a rhythmic function in music.
The keyboard family of instruments gets its name because you strike a key to play music. The first keyboard instrument invented was the harpsichord. Many of our favorite composers used this instrument to make music, such as Bach, Mozart, Handel & Pachelbel.
