All TYPES of musical INSTRUMENTS

Music is an infinite art because its limits lie in creativity. Thanks to this inventiveness, people throughout history have come up with new ways of creating music, with all the elements it has to offer. Music lends itself a lot to variety for each of these factors that can be reinvented, including: instrumentation. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will expose the different types of musical instruments and the characteristics that make them different.

Index

1. What are musical instruments for?
2. Electronic instruments
3. Types of wind musical instruments
4. Stringed musical instruments
5. Types of percussion musical instruments

Remember that an instrument it is any object manufactured to perform a specific job, in this case, to produce sound. Sound is a physical phenomenon, what happens is that the human being has been in charge of giving it shape, structure, expression, and that is why it is now an art. Even so, we must know the mechanical part to talk about the instruments, since in the end they are artifacts manufactured in a specific way, to achieve a specific result.

We should note that sound can have different qualities like frequency, duration, intensity and timbre. All these characteristics are factors to take into account when we want to produce a certain type of sound. In music, sounds have a meaning or an objective, and based on this, people throughout history have invented different mechanisms to achieve these desired sounds.

If we want a powerful sound, we must use an instrument that can create it. If we want a sharp sound, we must choose an instrument that has the ability to reach a certain frequency. If we want a long-lasting sound, we must look for an instrument that allows us to last without much effort. All these needs are the inspirations for the creation of such a variety of musical instruments. Each type will give us a different result that will enrich a musical work.

Electronic instruments are one of the types of musical instruments that exist today. With the technology created in the s. XX began to use electricity to produce sound. Today it is possible to imitate almost any sound by electronic means.

One of the first electronic instruments was the “theremin”, Manufactured around 1920. Technology was advancing and electronic instruments became popular around the 60s and 70s. We call these instruments that transform electricity into sounds “synthesizers”.

Although the number of instruments is so large that we cannot learn to play them all, much of the richness of music is found in the collaboration and variety of sound tones. Knowing about the different types of instrument is very useful knowledge to really experiment with sound.

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These instruments produce sound by means of air passage. In general, they require the musician to blow with the mouth and some have holes, or keys or pistons that they plug those holes or shorten the distance and narrowness that the wind travels to change the sound. The timbre of wind instruments depends mostly on the length and width of the instrument, the material with which it is made and if it has different parts that fit the body principal.

We must take into account that the duration capacity of a sound in these instruments is limited by the lung capacity of the musicians. exist two main categories for these instruments: Woodwinds and Metals.

Woodwind instruments

They are those wind instruments whose main material is (or was at some point in history) wood. These instruments produce a sweeter, duller sound, compared to brass instruments. They are also less powerful when it comes to volume intensity. In general they have a fast attack and this allows them lightness to produce notes.

Some woodwind instruments: Pícolo, transverse flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon.

Brass instruments

They are those wind instruments whose main material is metal. The sound produced by these instruments is powerful and brilliant. As with woodwind instruments, the length and dimensions of the instrument affect the ability to produce high or low notes.

Some brass instruments: Trumpet, horn, French horn (or horn), saxophone, trombone, euphonium, tuba.

Another type of musical instrument is stringed, that is, instruments that have strings. What causes the sound to change on a stringed instrument is the length and material of the strings, and the space through which the sound resonates after the sound is produced. Although there are many instruments with strings, the important thing to classify them is still the technique to produce the sound.

Rubbed string instruments

They are those instruments where friction of the strings with another material produces sound. They usually have a soundboard to amplify the sound and a bow made of hair, which is rubbed with pitch (a product made of natural resin) to increase friction. Thanks to the technique of these instruments, it is very easy to produce long-lasting sounds.

Some rubbed string instruments: Violin, viola, cello, double bass.

Plucked string instruments

They are instruments with strings of which they are thrown and released immediately, using the fingertips or a plectrum (a small piece in the shape of a triangle). Depending on the size of the instrument, some have a soundboard.

Some plucked string instruments: Guitar, banjo, mandolin, lute, balalaika, harp.

Stringed instruments struck or percussed

The strings on these instruments are struck, through a mechanism operated by a series of keys, generally.

Some stringed instruments: Piano, Harpsichord.

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Produce sound when struck directly with your hand or some other piece of aid. Some have membranes that can be stretched at different levels to change the pitch or brilliance of the sound.

These in turn they are classified depending on whether the sound produced has a tuning that allows you to create melodies.

• Some instruments of determined sound: Xylophone, marimba, tubular bells, glockenspiel.
• Some instruments of indeterminate sound: Drums, drums, triangle, maracas, gong, suspended plate, keys.

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If you want to read more articles similar to Types of musical instruments, we recommend that you enter our category of Musical instruments.