Musical Instruments PDF

# The Design Ladder - Musical Instruments ## A Step Way to your Dream Design College ## Musical Instruments - www.thedesignladder.com ## What is a musical Instrument? - A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making music. - In principle, anything that prod...

# The Design Ladder - Musical Instruments ## A Step Way to your Dream Design College ## Musical Instruments - www.thedesignladder.com ## What is a musical Instrument? - A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making music. - In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. - The term "musical instrument" is generally reserved for items with a specific musical purpose. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Types of Musical Instruments - These categories are based on the mechanism by which the instrument makes its sound. - String Instruments - Percussion Instruments - Woodwind Instruments - Brass Instruments - www.thedesignladder.com ## String Instruments - Their sound is made by a vibrating string. - Strings can be made of metal, synthetic, or natural materials. - The strings can have different gauge or thickness, weight, length, and tension. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Piano - A musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. - Produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers that immediately rebound allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. - Vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies them. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Guitar - A musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. - Typically has six strings but four, seven, eight, ten, and twelve-string guitars also exist. - Usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Violin - A bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. - The smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments. - Held between the left collar bone (near the shoulder) and the chin. - Unlike the guitar, it has no frets or other markers on the fringeboard. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Other members of Violin family - **Viola:** It is slightly larger, just over two feet long, and has thicker strings, which produce a richer, warmer sound than the violin. - **Cello:** Is much larger (around 4 feet long), & has thicker strings than Violin or viola. The Cello sounds most like a human voice, & can make a wide variety of tones, from warm low pitches to bright higher notes. - **Double Bass:** At over 6 feet long, the double bass is the biggest member of the string family, with the longest strings, which allow it to play very low notes. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Harp - It has about 45 strings stretched across its tall triangular frame. - Strings are plucked by hand while seven pedals at the bottom of the harp adjust the length of the strings to produce additional notes. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Percussion Instruments - With a name that means, "the hitting of one body against another". - Instruments in the percussion family are played by being struck, shaken, or scraped. - In the orchestra, the percussion section provides a variety of rhythms, textures, and tone colors. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Triangle - Made from a small round steel tube. - Played by striking it with a steel beater. - Its bright shimmering sound is untuned and resembles that of a bell. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Chimes - Also called 'Tubular Bells'. - A tuned instrument consisting of a set of 12 to 18 metal tubes hung from a metal frame. - The chimes, or tubular bells, are struck with a mallet (small hammer) and sound like church bells when played. - The longer the length of the tube that is struck, the lower the pitch that is created. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Xylophone - A tuned instrument made of hardwood bars in graduated lengths set horizontally on a metal frame - Striking the bars with hard mallets produces a bright, sharp sound. - Xylophone probably originated in Indonesia (meaning in Greek "wood sound"). - www.thedesignladder.com ## Tambourine - A shallow, handheld drum made of a circular wooden frame with a calfskin or plastic drumhead stretched across the top. - It has small discs called 'jingles' set into its circular frame which produce sound when the tambourine is shaken, rubbed, or struck on the drum head with the knuckles. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Bass Drum - The bass drum is much larger than a snare drum and is played on its side so that either head may be struck. - The beater or mallet for a bass drum is large and made with a soft material such as sheep's wool covering the end. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Cymbals - Made from two large, slightly concave brass plates, are fitted with leather hand straps and are shaped so that when they are crashed together, only the edges touch. - Although cymbals are untuned instruments, different-sized cymbals produce a wide range of sound effects. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Woodwind Instruments - A type of musical instrument that you play by blowing into its mouthpiece. - Vibrations begin when air is blown across the top of an instrument, across a single reed, or across two reeds and usually have finger holes or keys by which the player may produce all the tones within an instrument's range. - Characterized by a cylindrical or conical tube of wood or metal usually ending is a slightly flared bell. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Flute - About 2 feet in length. - Looks like a narrow tube with a row of holes covered by keys along one side. - The player blows air across the small hole in the mouthpiece to produce a sound that can be either soft and mellow or high and piercing. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Piccolo - An instrument of orchestras and military bands. - The piccolo is exactly like the flute except that it is much smaller. - The pitch of the piccolo is higher than that of a flute. - Usually made of silver or wood. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Oboe - Made from wood and has metal keys that can produce many notes rapidly. - It has two reeds tied together. - By placing them between one’s lips and blowing air through them, the reeds vibrate and produce a sound. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Saxophone - Conically shaped, the Saxophone is the only woodwind instrument made of brass. - A single-reed woodwind instrument. - The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Brass Instruments - Usually characterized by a long cylindrical or conical metal tube commonly curved two or more times and ending in a flared bell shape. - Produce their unique sound by the player buzzing his/her lips while blowing air through a cup- or funnel-shaped mouthpiece. - To produce higher or lower pitches, the player adjusts the opening between his/her lips. The mouthpiece connects to a length of brass tubing ending in a bell. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Tuba - The lowest-sounding member of the brass family. - Tuba is a Latin word for "Trumpet". - The tuba has four to five valves and is held upright in the player's lap. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Trombone - The trombone is larger than a trumpet. - Gives a more mellow sound. - Instead of valves, the trombone has a slide that changes the length of its approximately 9 feet of tubing to reach different pitches. - www.thedesignladder.com ## Trumpet - The highest-sounding member of the brass family. - The player presses the three valves in various combinations with the fingers of the right hand to obtain various pitches. - www.thedesignladder.com