The Major Categories of Musical Instruments

There are innumerable musical instruments that• Woodwind Instruments
have evolved with time. In general, instrumentsThe wooden instruments are made of wood and
are categorized according to their physicalthe brass musical instruments are made of brass
properties on how they are played, theirand the best way to determine the quality of the
functionality and the range of the instrument.material used is by examining how the musical
In ancient times it was much easier to categorizeinstrument produces sound because in brass
the instruments as their classification was basedinstruments the players lips start to vibrate while
on instruments where the sound is produced,in the wooden musical instruments the reed
vibrating sound producing instruments andvibrates or the player blows against the edge of
percussion instruments made from wood or metalan open hole.
and skinheads.For example the Saxophone is made of brass but
User Interfaces of Musical Instruments:it is categorized in the woodwind category
Construction of these musical instruments requiresbecause it vibrates the air in the column. While the
years of training and practice. Most of the musicalwooden coronet is made of brass but it is
instruments have key board and a user inter face.categorized in the brass family because the lips of
Most of the Keyboard instruments are placedthe player vibrates when he plays the
with a musical keyboard and each key generatesinstruments.
a different sound and some keys also have anThe Bell Is the Most Important Part of the Wind
extra means that helps them manipulate differentInstruments
sounds. These key produce sound made by windThe wind instruments have a bell shaped part
and vibrating strings. While some instrument workwhich is round and flares open opposite the
without a keyboard but they still have the samemouthpiece and they are usually found in
physical arrangement of keys and produce soundtrumpets and horns. In brass musical instruments
waves likewise.the acoustical coupling from the inside and outside
Wind Instrumentsair occurs at the bell and the shape of the bell
An instrument that has a resonator in which aoptimizes the sound.Plus in most wood wind
column of air is set into vibration is called windinstruments the musical notes vent are at the
instruments and the musician has to blow into theuppermost holes and the main function of the bell
mouthpiece which is set at the end of theis to improve the consistency between the tone
resonator. And the length of the tube determinesof the notes.
the pitch of the sound. You can even modify theBy changing the length of the vibrating air column
sound produced manually. Plus the sound can beand the effective length of the tube and opening
produced by blowing through a reed.or closing the side holes you can obtain different
There are basically two types of Wind Instrumentnotes on these wood wind musical instruments.
• Brass Instruments