The Instrument Families The Brass Family Sound comes

The Instrument Families

The Brass Family • Sound comes from buzzing your lips on a “mouthpiece” attached to the instrument • Made of brass and other metal alloys • Use valves or slides to change the pitches. – These change the length of the instrument, making it shorter for high notes or longer for low notes

The Brass Family (cont. ) • The brass family can play very high and very low – High range: Trumpet – Middle range: French horn – Low range: Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba • Brass instruments have “cousins” that they’re related to like Piccolo Trumpet and Bass Trombone

Members of the Brass Family

The Woodwind Family • Sound is produced by the player vibrating a reed with their breath – Sound is made on a flute by blowing across a plane on their “head joint” • Made of wood, plastic and metal • Pitch is changed by pressing keys or covering holes on the instrument

The Woodwind Family (cont. ) • Woodwind instruments also cover a wide range – High/Medium-High range: Flute, Clarinet, Oboe – Middle range: Saxophones – Low Range: Bassoon • Woodwind “cousins” such as the Bass Clarinet, Piccolo, and the Saxophone family are more common than Brass cousins

Members of the Woodwind Family

The String Family • String instruments make sound by vibrating a string, either by plucking, striking, or bowing • Made of different kinds of wood with bits of metal • String players change the pitch of their instruments by holding their strings down against the finger board/fretboard.

The String Family (cont. ) • String Instruments in music dating from the middle of the Baroque Period (1600 -1750) have consisted primarily of the Violin family. (Two big exceptions are the Harp and the Guitar, though it is rarely seen in orchestral music) • From highest to lowest, this includes the Violin, Viola, Cello, and Double Bass/Contrabass. – The Violin and Viola are small enough to hold them between the player’s cheek and shoulder, while the cello and bass must be played upright on the ground.

Members of the String Family

The Percussion Family • The percussion family includes any instrument that makes a sound by being stricken with a hand, stick, mallet, etc. • Percussion instruments can be made of anything, such as wood, metal, plastic, even your own body!

Percussion Instruments • Percussion instruments can be divided into two groups pitched and non-pitched percussion. – Pitched Percussion instruments can each produce multiple tones. Some pitched percussion include Timpani, Chimes, Xylophone, Marimba, Bells and other keyboard instruments – Non-pitched only produce one pitch but are used to provide texture and punctuation. These include snare drums, bass drums, gongs, crash cymbals and most hand percussion

Members of the Percussion Family

Can you guess the families? • Can you guess which families get showcased in each video? • Family One • Family Two • Family Three • Family Four

And when you put them all together…

Sources • http: //www. icompositions. com/music/song. php? sid=1 89990 • http: //stmichaelsmusic. weebly. com/the-woodwindfamily. html • http: //staff. walton. k 12. ga. us/yms/band/instr/perc. ht ml • http: //pixshark. com/orchestra-string-instruments. htm • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=hy. CIp. KAIFyo • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=o 1 d. Bg__wsuo • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Ok. Yc. Kfq. FNm. M • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=7 n. Nfh. Zh. GGic