The Characteristics Of A Single Reed Instruments Family

Music very heavily affects our entertainment and media, but often one does not think much about the variety of instruments used in orchestrations such as movie soundtracks. These many instruments are divided into families (and in some systems, families of families.) For the most part, instruments are classified by aesthetic, and the way they produce sound, sometimes, however, instruments do not always fit neatly into a specific family- these anomalies having the characteristics of two or more families. Let us focus on some of the most widely recognized families, being: the brass family, the string family, the woodwind family, and the percussion family.

The brass family also called labrosones (lip vibrated instruments), produce sound by what

Some woodwinds have a single reed, whereas others, such as the bassoon, have two reeds which vibrate against each other. Like the brass family, a woodwind is a pipe that has a bell at the end, however, it does not always curve and widen. Also not unlike the brass, certain woodwinds have mouthpieces such as the single reed instruments, and the capped double reed instruments, but some woodwinds, such as the open flute, do not require a mouthpiece. Woodwind instruments may be made of any material, including wood, brass, silver, and gold. In an orchestra, the woodwind section today may include two bassoons, clarinets, flutes, and oboes, a bass flute, alto flute, piccolo, basset horn, and several types of saxophones. A concert band may include flutes, oboes, bassoons, B flat clarinets, bass clarinet, piccolo, and several types of

Strings can be played by plucking with the fingers or a plectrum (more commonly known as a pick), or by being rubbed with a bow. It is often debated whether or not string instruments may also be classified as string instruments or percussion instruments if the string is struck by a wooden hammer, like in the piano, a keyboard instrument. In other keyboard instruments, the key being played will pluck the string. The string family has a wide variety of shapes and sizes that are categorized three ways: lutes, string instruments than hold strings by a neck and bout (examples include the guitar and violin); harps, string instruments in which strings are held by a surrounding frame; and zithers, a string instrument which mount them within a body (examples include the harpsichord and the debated piano.) Instruments of the string family are typically made of wood and are hollow in order for the sound to vibrate in them and make them audible. The strings may be made of steel or nylon. In an orchestra, the strings section is made up of bowed instruments in the violin