Orchestra instruments
Brass
A major family of instruments is the brass instrument family. It includes the trumpet, the trombone ,
French horn, bugle and cornet . They are used in all sorts of music making and brilliant ,often loud sounds .
The main difference between brass instrument and any other is how the vibration to create sound notes is
made .With a brass instrument the vibration is created by the lips of a musician. By pressing the lips up
against the mouthpiece and blowing ,a vibration is created. The rest of the horn helps to amplify the noise
and create different notes .This is different from the woodwind family where air blowing across an edge or
reed causes the vibration
Brass instruments are used in all sorts of music .some of the most popular types of brass music is played in
big bands ,classical orchestra , jazz .one of the main places we see instruments played Is in marching bands.
This is because brass instruments can be played loudly without electrician amplification .plus they can be
played and carried while marching
Woodwind
Woodwinds are a type of musical instrument that make their sound when a musician blows air into it or
across the mouthpiece .they get their name from a fact that most of them were once made of wood. Today
many are made out of other materials such as metal or plastic.
The oboe is a wind instrument .
There are lots of types of woodwinds including the flute ,piccolo ,oboe ,clarinet
,saxaphone,bassoon,bagpipes and recorder. They all look similar In that they are called longed tubes of
various sizes with metal keys that cover the holes when played to make different woodwind instruments the
lower the sound they make.
Woodwinds can be divide up into two main types of instruments . Flute ,instruments and reed instruments
make sound when the musician blows air across the edge in the instrument while reed instruments have a
reed, or two that vibrate when the air is blown
Percussion
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A percussion instrument is a musician instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a
beater. The percussion family is believed to include musician instruments.
The percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare
drum ,brass drum ,cymbals , triangle and trombone
Percussions are commonly divided into two classes pitched percussion instruments ,which produce
notes with identifiable pitch ,and unpitched percussion instruments which produce notes without an
identifiable pitch .
Orchestra instruments by Subomi Olorunoje
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String instruments
All stringed instruments make sound and notes by vibrating .Musicians make the strings vibrate by rubbing a
bow against it.
Most stringed instruments have something that amplifies the sound. The sound box is often the largest part
of the instrument or the body of the instrument. The top of the sound box is called the soundboard it is
usually made out of a type of wood.
There are three ways that stringed instruments can produce different notes :Length –longer strings vibrate
slower and make lower sounding notes than shorter things.
Weight –heavy ,thick strings make lower notes than higher things.
Tightness – a tight string makes a higher note than a loose string.
Different string instruments are played in different ways .Some are played in different ways .Some are played
with bows ,some with picks and some by plucking or strumming with your fingers.