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26
3. oboe and bassoon families: double reed
a. oboe, En glish horn, bassoon, contrabassoon
4. clarinet and saxophone families: single reed
a. clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone (metal)
III. Brass Instruments (Aerophones)
A. Cup- shaped mouthpiece attached to metal tubing,
ares at end into a bell
1. Pitch changed by slide or valves, pressure of lips
and breath
a. embouchure: oral mechanism of lips, lower
facial muscles, and jaw
2. Trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba
a. trumpets and horns: prevalent in ancient world
3. Other brass: concert and marching bands
a. cornet, bugle, fluegelhorn, euphonium,
sousaphone
IV. Percussion Instruments (Idiophones and
Membranophones)
A. Pitched
1. timpani, kettle drums: large copper bowls,
stretched calfskin or plastic heads
a. pitch changed by pedals
2. xylophone, marimba: tuned blocks of wood,
struck with mallets
a. vibraphone: metal blocks with resonators,
exaggerated vibrato
3. glockenspiel (“set of bells”): tuned steel bars,
struck with mallets
a. celesta: glockenspiel operated by a keyboard
4. chimes/tubular bells: tuned metal tubes sus-
pended from a frame, struck with a hammer
B. Indefinite pitch
1. snare drum (side drum): two heads, taut snares
(strings) run across lower head
2. bass drum: large drum played with large soft mallet
OUTLINE
I. String Instruments (Chordophones)
A. Bowed
1. violin, viola, violoncello (cello), double bass
(contrabass, bass viol)
2. special effects:
a. legato: smoothly, connected
b. staccato: notes short, detached
c. pizzicato: strings are plucked
d. vibrato: rapid wrist- and- finger movement,
slightly alters pitch
e. glissando: fin ger slides along the string
f. tremolo: rapid repetition of a tone
g. trill: rapid alternation of two adjacent tones
h. double- stopping: playing two strings at once,
creates harmony
i. mute: attachment over the bridge, mufes the
sound
j. harmonics: lightly touching the string,
high- pitch tones
B. Plucked
1. harp: one of the oldest instruments
a. pitches changed by pedals
b. arpeggios: chords in broken form
2. guitar: dates back to Middle Ages
a. acoustic: wood, fretted fingerboard, nylon or
steel strings
b. electric: electronically amplified
3. banjo, mandolin: related to the guitar
II. Woodwind Instruments (Aerophones)
A. Sound produced by air, fin ger holes change pitch
1. not always made of wood
2. ute family: blow across a mouth hole
a. ute, piccolo (both made of metal)
CHAPTERfi10 Western Musical Instruments
might alternatively consider reaching out to solo perform-
ers and chamber groups in your school who are looking
for opportunities to perform in public. Invite these indi-
viduals and groups to perform for your class and follow
the per for mance with a Q&A about the instruments, per-
for mance techniques, and so on. This may be mutually
beneficial for your class and for school performers who
are preparing for recitals or per for mance juries.
2. Consider using YouTube for class demonstrations on
playing vari ous instruments as well as for documenta-
ries on designing and building instruments. BBC Radio
3 maintains a YouTube channel featuring an introduc-
Many major instrument manufacturers have made
short and informative documentaries about instrument
building and design. Here are a few videos that take you
On trumpet- making, from the Yamaha Corporation,
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTION
1. Explore the play list videos that demonstrate the playing
of instruments from the vari ous instrument families.
any instrumental sounds surprise you or seem out of
place? Do any musical instruments seem to fall outside
the categorical framework of the instrument families as
outlined in the textbook? If so, can you devise an alter-
native way to categorize musical instruments?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Introducing all of the instruments covered in Chapter 10 in
one class period poses a substantial challenge for teaching this
3. other instruments: tom- tom, tambourine, casta-
nets, triangle, cymbals, gong, tam- tam
V. Keyboard Instruments
A. Instruments don’t fit neatly into Western classification
1. piano: strings struck with hammers
2. organ: wind instrument
a. airow to pipes controlled by keyboards and
pedal board
3. harpsichord: quills pluck metal strings
OVERVIEW
instruments of each family and provides information about
their construction and per for mance techniques.
1. To gain familiarity with members of the string family
of instruments and understand the vari ous techniques
instruments and understand the techniques musicians
employ to play these instruments
4. To gain familiarity with members of the percussion
family of instruments and understand the techniques
musicians employ to play these instruments
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Live per for mance is an effective way to introduce the
members of the instrument families to your class. This
is especially true for instruments that require more com-
plex methods of tone production, such as the reed and
brass instruments. Featuring live performers also allows
the class to ask the performers questions about their
instruments in person. Recruiting students majoring in
music education to demonstrate for your class provides
28 | Chapterfi10
instruments and instrument families featured in the screen-
shots in the first ten minutes of the video (see timings for spe-
MODEL RESPONSE
Screenshot Instrument Instrument
Timing Family
0:00 Percussion Snare drum
6:26 Keyboards Celesta (not in textbook)
6:52 Woodwinds En glish horn and oboe
7:10 Woodwinds Clarinet
7:35 Brass Trombone
8:10 Woodwinds Flute, oboe, En glish horn
8:26 Woodwinds Bassoon
8:38 Woodwinds Flute and oboe
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
ary of musical instruments. Includes entries on both Western and
non- Western instruments.
Campbell, Murray, Clive Greated, and Arnold Myers. Musical Instru-
ments: History, Technology, and Per for mance of Instruments of
Western Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
A comprehensive survey of musical instruments of the Western art
tradition, with a focus on design, historical development, and per-
featuring many entries on non- Western musical instruments.
YOUR TURN TO EXPLORE
Watch the per for mance of Ravel’s Boléro by the West- Eastern
Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the BBC
