Transcript Instruments of the Orchestra

Instruments of the
Orchestra
How they work
The woodwind section

Although called woodwind, not many of these
instruments are made of wood any more.
Modern wind instruments can be made of
wood, metal or even plastic.
What makes a wind instrument?
Basically, a woodwind (or wind) instrument
is one which is played by vibrating a column
of air (by blowing!). You do this either with
a reed or by blowing into or across a hole.
 Unlike brass instruments, wind players do
not blow raspberries. They are much more
civilised…..

Orchestral wind instruments
The flute (highest), oboe, clarinet and
bassoon (lowest) are the four orchestral
wind instruments.
 All these instruments have relatives, some
of whom appear in the orchestra, some of
whom appear in other types of ensemble.

The flute
The only orchestral wind instrument not to
have a reed.
 The flute has a smaller relative – the
piccolo.
 The flute is related to the recorder, and
works in a similar way – the vibrating
column of air is made longer or shorter by
covering holes with your fingers. The more
holes covered, the lower the note!


The column of air in a
flute is made to
vibrate by blowing
across a hole at the
top.
Oboe

The oboe has a
double reed – two
bits of thin wood
bound together which
buzz when you blow
(ever tried that with
two blades of grass?)
Again – holes are
covered to make
higher or lower
sounds.
 The oboe has a reedy,
bright tone which cuts
through the
orchestra. It has a
larger relative called
the cor anglais

The clarinet

The clarinet has a
single reed, attached
to a mouthpiece, as
shown below
The clarinet has a more mellow tone than
the oboe or bassoon. You can also get
bass clarinets and piccolo clarinets.
 The saxophone is a relative of the clarinet
– and though you don’t usually find it in
the orchestra, it is definitely a wind
instrument!

The bassoon
The bassoon, and it’s larger relative the
double bassoon, are the lowest and
biggest wind instruments.
 Like the oboe, the bassoon uses a double
reed.
 Because of it’s size, the bassoon has a
complicated mechanism of keys to allow
all the holes to be covered.

The wind family

Listen to some examples of wind
instruments, and get familiar with their
sounds. Click here

Try to place the wind instruments in the
right place on a diagram of the orchestra
Brass instruments
Click on the links below to find out about
the brass section
See and hear brass instruments

All about brass instruments
The Percussion Section
This is by far the largest section of the
orchestra
 Percussionists are different to other
musicians as they have to be able to play
every instrument in their section.
 We can divide percussion into various
categories

Percussion instrument types

You can divide percussion instruments up
according to the material they use:
wood
skin
skin
You can also divide percussion instruments
into two groups – tuned (ones which can
play actual pitched notes) and untuned
(ones which only play sounds)
 More about percussion
 Detail about percussion instruments

String Instruments
There are four main string instruments –
violin, viola, ‘cello and double bass
 The harp is also considered a member of
the string family by some people, though
others think of it as a whole orchestral
section by itself!
 Click here for information about string
instruments
 More information
