Early Woodwinds
This may have been how the first woodwind instruments were made.
What is blowing through an old animal bone?
This is how woodwind instruments produce sound.
What is vibrating air inside a hollow tube?
Historians believe this was the earliest string instrument.
What is the caveman’s hunting bow?
This instrument’s long-to-short strings match low-to-high pitch. It has 47 of them.
What is that the harp is part of the string family?
These early materials show that brass instruments have existed since ancient times.
What are ancient horns made of bone, cane, animal horn, or metal?
This was the earliest way musicians changed pitch on woodwinds.
What is covering open holes with your fingers?
Without this action, string instruments cannot produce sound.
What is making the strings vibrate either through plucking, strumming, bowing, or striking?
These instruments from the Middle Ages all evolved from the prehistoric hunting bow.
What are the zither, lyre, dulcimer, and lute?
Without this, string instruments could not produce musical tones.
What is that string vibration creates sound?
These are some important roles brass instruments played throughout history.
What is communicating across long distances, signaling royalty, and being used in war and celebrations?
This development allowed players to cover multiple holes at once.
What is adding metal keys to woodwind instruments?
This is how players start sound production on brass instruments.
What is buzzing your lips into a metal mouthpiece?
This is why musicians can still play instruments made hundreds of years ago.
What is that modern strings have changed very little since the 1600s?
This is the traditional method of making a violin, viola, cello, or bass produce sound.
What is drawing a wooden bow with horsehair across the strings?
Listed from highest to lowest pitches, these are the main members of the brass family.
What are trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba?
These are the three categories of sound production in the woodwind family.
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What are blowing across a hole, using a single reed, and using a double reed?
These actions allow brass musicians to change pitch.
What is tightening and loosening the lips or pressing valves/using a slide?
This explains why the string section is the largest in an orchestra.
What is that more string players are needed because they are quieter?
This is why shorter strings make higher sounds on string instruments.
What is changing pitch by altering the string’s length?
This action begins the vibration that creates sound on brass instruments.
What is buzzing your lips into a metal mouthpiece?
This must occur in order for a woodwind instrument to make sound.
What is the vibration of air inside a hollow tube?
Across instrument families, these are three major methods musicians use to alter pitch.
What are adjusting lip tension, opening or closing keys/holes, and changing string length?
These are the orchestral string instruments listed in order from highest to lowest pitch.
What are violin, viola, cello, and double bass?
These techniques allow musicians to switch between notes while playing.
What is playing different strings or adjusting finger placement to make strings shorter/longer?
These techniques allow brass players to produce different pitches.
What is changing notes by tightening or loosening the lips and using valves or a slide?