1. Classification and Sound Production
Musical Instruments
Classification and Sound Production

2. Western Symphonic Classification
Five Families of Instruments
Woodwind
Brass
String
Percussion
Keyboard (added later)

3. Woodwinds Often times has a reed or double reed to produce sound
Generally has many keys
Keys: small buttons the player presses down to cover the holes
Examples:
Saxophone
Clarinet
Oboe
ALSO included flutes and recorders

4. Reeds
Single Reeds
Double Reeds

5. Keys

6. How Woodwinds Work
Single/Double
Reeds
Flutes (and
Recorders)

7. Brass
Instruments are made of metal and use a bowl-shaped mouthpiece that the player “buzzes” their lips into by pursing their lips and blowing through them
Includes trumpets, trombone, tuba, etc.

8. How Brass Instruments Work
Slide
(Trombone)
Piston Valves
(Trumpet,
Tuba, most others)
Rotary Valves
(Horn)

9. String Instruments
Anything played by plucking or rubbing against a string
Includes guitar, banjo, violin, cello, harp, etc.

10. How String Instruments Work
Plucked
(pizzicato)
Played with
a Bow
(arco)

11. Percussion
Any Instrument that is:
Hit
Shaken
Scraped

12. Keyboard Instruments that use a piano-style keyboard, such as:
Organ
Accordion
Harpsichord
Although they produce sound in different ways, they are all operated with a keyboard

13. Hornbostel-Sachs Classification
Idiophones
Self-sounding instruments
Membranophones
Instruments producing sound by means of a stretched skin or membrane
Chordophones
String instruments
Aerophones
Wind instruments with the sound caused by vibrating air
Electrophones
Instruments using electronic circuits