Working and Developing as a Musical Ensemble

Types of musical ensembles There are many kinds of musical ensembles, each with a different variety of instruments working together to create many different kinds of music. Some examples of these ensembles includes: Orchestra Brass or wind bands Chamber ensembles (quartets, quintets etc.) Rock/pop groups Jazz bands Gamelan Vocal groups (i.e. gospel choirs)

Orchestras An orchestra is the most widely known kind of musical ensemble typical of classical music, and consists of a wide range of different kinds of acoustic instruments including: String: violin, viola, cello, double bass Woodwinds: clarinet, flute, oboe Brass: saxophone, trumpet, trombone Orchestras have been around since the 1600s and have had several iterations, including Baroque (1600-1750), Classical (1750-1830) and Romantic (1830-1910)

Brass bands Brass bands are musical ensembles that consist (almost always) of solely brass instruments such as trumpets, tubas and euphoniums in addition to percussion instruments such as timpani or a drum kit. An example of a kind of brass band is the typical British brass band, which consists of: A soprano cornet, 9 cornets, 1 flugel horn, 3 tenor horns, 2 baritone horns, 2 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone, 2 euphoniums, 4 tubas and either 2 or 3 percussion instruments (timpani, glockenspiel, snare drums etc.)

Wind bands Wind bands are musical ensembles consisting of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments with an accompanying double bass or bass guitar. Occasionally, instruments that aren’t often associated with wind bands are included, such as the piano or harp. Even more rarely seen with wind bands are the synthesizer and electric guitar.

Chamber Ensembles Chamber ensembles are musical ensembles that are associated with chamber music – a form of classical music composed to be played with a small group of players such as a palace chamber or within a reasonably large room at home. The main ideal of chamber music is that it could be played at home as a way of teaching people how to play the instruments involved either as a simple form of entertainment and/or as a path leading towards being able to play bigger ensembles such as orchestras. These ensembles were originally played solely with string instruments, however, during the 18th century wind instruments weren’t too uncommon a sight with chamber ensembles.

Rock groups Rock groups are musical ensembles consisting typically of a guitarist (using an electric guitar), a bassist (using an electric bass guitar), a drummer and a vocalist. Rock music has its roots in blues music brought to the United States after being brought there from the Deep South by African-Americans after the end of World War 2. Examples of popular rock artists from the start of rock music include Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and His Comets and Little Richard,

Pop groups Pop groups are musical ensembles that specialise in the genre of pop music. A lot of a pop group’s instrumentation is very similar to a rock band’s instrumentation, often consisting of a vocalist, guitarist, drummer and bassist. Nowadays, a lot of pop music also includes synthesizers and pianos. A lot of the drums are also electric, usually composed with drum machines. As pop simply stands for ‘popular’, pop music is always evolving and changing. The pop music of the era where classical music was dominant would be classical music.

Jazz groups A jazz band or (sometimes referred to as a jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that solely plays and specializes in jazz music. Jazz bands can vary in size – a common type of jazz band is the jazz trio which consists of a pianist, double bass player and drummer. Quartets are also common, but there is no real limit as to how many players you can have in a jazz band. The main appeal of a jazz band is the way they constantly change music: each player in a jazz band interprets music in their own way. Another big part of jazz music (one of the other main features of seeing a jazz performance) is the improvisation, which is an almost fundamental part of jazz music itself.

Vocal groups A vocal group is a musical ensemble typically consisting solely of vocalists. An example of a kind of vocal group is a gospel choir – a group of vocalists that sing gospels in church. Gospel music also includes gospel choirs, as well as specific examples of other genres of music For example, the album Demon Dayz by Gorillaz makes some use of a gospel choir in some of its songs. Tender, a song from the album 13 by Blur, also makes extensive use of a gospel choir.