Musical
Instruments
1
Musical
Instruments
Clarinet
• Clarinets belong to
woodwind family
• Clarinets can be of
differing sizes and pitches.
• Clarinet family is the
largest such instrument
family, with more than a
dozen types.
• J.C. Denner of Germany
developed clarinet from an
instrument called
chalumeau (“SHAH loo
moe”) ~1690.
• Rameau, Haydn, Mozart
were the first composers to
use it in their music.
•There is a famous clarinet
solo in George Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue.
•The clarinet is played by
blowing across a single reed
on the mouthpiece
Timpani
• Timpani (“kettle drums”) are
musical instruments in the
percussion family.
• A type of drum, they consist of
a skin called a head stretched
over a large bowl traditionally
made of copper, and more
recently, constructed of more
lightweight fiberglass.
• They are played by striking
the head with a specialized drum
stick or timpani mallet.
• Unlike most drums, they are
capable of producing an actual
pitch when struck, and can be
tuned, often with the use of a
pedal mechanism to control each
drum's range of notes.
Bayan
(accordion)
•The bayan (Russian: баян) is a
type of chromatic button
accordion
•Bayan was developed in Russia
in the early 20th century
• Bayan is named after the bard,
Boyan.
• Bayan differs from western
chromatic button accordions in
some details of construction.
•The differences in internal
construction give the bayan a
different tone color from western
instruments, especially the bass
has a much fuller sound.
• Because of their range and
purity of tone, bayans are often
the instrument of choice for
accordion virtuosi who perform
classical and contemporary
classical music.
Tambourine
• The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the
percussion family
• Tambourine consists of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs
of small metal jingles, called "zils".
• Tambourines come in many different shapes with the most
common being circular
• Tambourine is found in many forms of music, classical music,
Roma music, Persian music, gospel music, pop music and rock
music.
• The word tambourine finds its origins in the Middle Persian word
tambūr "lute, drum" (via the Middle French tambour).
• The tambourine can be held in the hand or mounted on a stand,
and can be played in numerous ways, from stroking or shaking the
jingles to striking it sharply with hand or stick or using the tambourine
to strike the leg or hip.
Egyptian riq
The Brazilian pandeiro
Cello
•The violoncello (abbreviated to cello) is a bowed
string instrument.
• The cello is played by a bow.
• The Cello has 4 strings: C, D, G, and A
• The cello is used as a solo instrument, in
chamber music, and as a member of the string
section of an orchestra.
• The cello is the 2nd physically largest member
of the violin family, next to the double bass.
•The cello has been described as the closest
sounding instrument to the human voice.
• The cello was first made in Italy in 16th century.
•The cello was not popular at first because its
great sound overpowered the sounds of violins of
that period.
• Modern orchestra has 12 cellos
• Pablo Casals of Spain, a famous 20th century
cellist, greatly influenced the playing style of other
cellists.
•The cello is most closely associated with European
classical music.
Mstislav Rostropovich, playing the Duport Stradivarius at the White House in 1978.
He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century, he is
considered by some of his peers to be the greatest cellist of all time.
Drum
•The drum a percussion instrument
• Drum is usually played by striking the
drumhead (drum skin) with a cloth covered
beater, drumstick. Foot pedal can be used, or
hands of the drum player.
•Drums are the world's oldest and most
ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic
design has remained virtually unchanged for
thousands of years
•Drums sometimes are called “indefinite pitch”
•Drumhead can be made of animal skin or vinyl
•Richard Strauss‘s, Also Sprach Zarathustra has
a famous introduction by drums
•Most drums are considered "untuned
instruments", however many modern musicians
are beginning to tune drums to songs; Terry
Bozzio has constructed a kit using diatonic and
chromatically tuned drums.
• Often, several drums are arranged together to
create a drum kit that can be played by one
musician with all four limbs
•Every modern orchestra has at least one
drum
Trombone
•The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family.
•Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced
when the player’s vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the air column
inside the instrument to vibrate.
•The trombone is usually has a telescopic slide with which the player
varies the length of the tube to change pitches, although the valve
trombone uses three valves similar to those on a trumpet.
•The word trombone derives from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a
suffix meaning "large"), so the name literally means "large trumpet".
•In 17th century, Giovanni Gabrielli and Claudio Monteverdi were the
first to use trombones in their music al compositions.
•Trombones are used in jazz bands, dance
bands, and marching bands, as well as in
classical music.
•Most trombones today are the tenor and
bass, though as with other Renaissance
instruments such as the recorder, the
trombone has been built in every size from
piccolo to contrabass.
Violin
•The violin is a bowed string
instrument
•The violin has 4 strings: G, D, A, E
•The violin is played by drawing the
horsehair of the bow across the
violin’s strings, which causes them to
vibrate and make sound
• It is the smallest and highestpitched member of the violin family
•The violin is sometimes informally
called a fiddle,
• The word "violin" comes from the
Middle Latin word vitula, meaning
"stringed instrument“
•A person who makes or repairs
violins is called a luthier, or simply a
violin maker.
•The first violins were used to play dance music.
•The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern characteristics in 16th-century
Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th century.
•Prized violins are made by the Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th
century in Cremona.
•In 17th century, Claudio Monteverdi was the first to use violins in an operatic orchestra
•The parts of a violin are usually made from different types of wood (except electric violins), and it
is generally strung with gut or steel strings.
•The violinist changes the pitch of the sound by placing fingers on the strings in different places
on the fingerboard.
• A full symphony orchestra has 35 violins, more then any other instrument.
Trumpet
•The trumpet is a musical
instrument with the highest
register in the brass family.
•Trumpets are among the
oldest musical instruments,
dating back to at least 1500
BC.
•Trumpets are constructed of
brass tubing bent twice into
an oblong shape
•Trumpets are played by
blowing air through closed
lips, producing a "buzzing"
sound which starts a
standing wave vibration in
the air column inside the
trumpet.
•Louis Armstrong was well
known for his virtuosity with
the trumpet
•There are several types of trumpet; the most common is a transposing instrument pitched in B♭.
•Modern trumpets have either three piston valves or three rotary valves, each of which
increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch.
•The predecessors to trumpets did not have valves;
•The trumpet is used in many forms of music, including classical music and jazz.
•The chromatic trumpet was first made in the late 1700s.
•Joseph Haydn's Trumpet Concerto was one of the first for a chromatic trumpet
Piano
•The piano is keyboard instrument.
•Pianos are sometimes classified as both a
percussion and a stringed instrument.
• The piano is played by striking keys with fingers
•Piano has a range of 88 notes
•Bartolomeo Cristofori developed it in 1709, Italy
•Widely used in Western music for solo performance,
ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment,
the piano is also very popular as an aid to
composing and rehearsal.
•Pressing a key on the piano's keyboard causes a
felt covered hammer to strike steel strings. The
hammers rebound, allowing the strings to continue
vibrating at their resonant frequency.
•These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to
a sounding board that couples the acoustic energy to
the air so that it can be heard as sound.
•The word piano is a shortened form of the word
pianoforte (from Italian, clavicembalo, col piano e
forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud).
•It was called pianoforte because it was the
keyboard instrument that could be played both very
softly and very loudly.
•Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart were two of the first composers to write
music for the piano
•First pianos frequently broke during performance,
but starting 19th century they were built sturdier