Orchestral Instruments
Percussion |
| Brass |
Woodwind Strings Conductor |
The Conductor
The conductor uses a score with all the parts, which are in order. They control the tempo using a hand or baton. They cue in musicians, especially for brass and percussion, and interpret the music, much like a film director.
String Instruments
Violin
Bowed: Open note. Changing the length of strings by pressing down (stopping). String close to the bridge: high note. String further: low note. Double-stopping: Two notes played at the same time. Tremolo: Back and forth, really quickly, creating a spooky and dramatic sound. Col legno: Wood dragged across the strings instead of the hair, creating an eerie scraping sound. Con sordino: Mute, making the sound distant and soft. Mutes are made of wood or rubber.
Guitar
Pluck: Acoustic guitar with a hollow body that resonates, giving a louder sound. Classical or Spanish guitars use nylon strings, while steel strings are used in pop and folk music. The neck is thinner and strengthened with a metal bar. 12-stringed guitars are common in folk music.
Electric guitar: 6 strings, solid body, electrically amplified with a loudspeaker.
Bass guitar: 4 strings, tuned to E-A-D-G. Lower pitched due to thicker and longer strings. Fretless basses are also available.
Plucking strings is called picking. Two or more strings plucked together is called strumming.
Piano
Struck: Pianos were most popular in the Baroque and early Classical periods. They have a tinny, string sound. When a key is pressed, a string inside is plucked by a lever. The virginal is a miniature table-top version of a harpsichord. The clavichord has a soft sound, where strings are struck with hammers, not plucked.
Wind Instruments
Edge-Tone Instruments
Flutes and piccolos. Air is blown across an oval-shaped hole. The edge of the hole splits the air, making it vibrate down the instrument and creating sound.
Single-Reed Instruments
Clarinets and saxophones. Air is blown down a mouthpiece with a reed. A thin slice of wood, reed, or plastic is clamped to it. The reed vibrates, making the air in the instrument vibrate and creating sound.
Double-Reed Instruments
Oboes and bassoons. Air passes between two reeds, lightly bound together and squeezed between the lips. The reeds vibrate, producing sound.
Brass Instruments
Brass instruments include horns, trumpets, cornets, trombones, and tubas. They are basically a length of hollow, metal tubing with a mouthpiece at one end and a funnel shape (the bell) at the other. Different shapes and sizes of these parts give each brass instrument a different tone and character.
Percussion Instruments
Tuned Percussion
- Xylophones: Wooden bars.
- Glockenspiel: Metal bars, with a tinkly and bell-like sound.
- Tubular Bells: Hollow steel tubes, sounding like church bells.
- Celesta: Keyboard instrument.
- Timpani: Kettledrums, capable of producing different notes.
- Vibraphone: Giant glockenspiel with resonators below the bars that make the notes louder and richer. Electric fans make the notes pulsate, giving a warm and gentle sound.
Untuned Percussion
Untuned percussion instruments make noise but cannot play a tune. They provide pure rhythm. It is nearly impossible to learn every untuned percussion instrument. Examples include cymbals, bass drum, timbale, snare drum, bongos, tambourine, maracas, sleigh bells, bodhrán, castanets, and triangle.