Families
Categories
What's in a name?
Ancient Ancestors
Wild Card
100

This family includes the violin, viola, cello, double bass, and harp

What is the string family?

100

The marimba is part of this category, where instruments make their characteristic sound based on the material they are made of.

What are idiophones?

100

The name for this instrument means "little flute" in Italian. 

What is the piccolo?

100

This instrument is a descendant of the French hunting horn from the 1600s. 

What is the French horn?

100

This person interprets the score and decides how the orchestra should play the music.

What is the conductor?

200

In this family, players use slides, valves, and muscle control to change their instrument's pitch.

What is the brass family?

200

All drums belong in this category, where instruments produce their sound by stretching a membrane tightly over a surface. 

What is membranophone?
200

The name for this instrument is the Italian word for "large trumpet."

What is the trombone?

200

This instrument has been around since ancient times and was originally made of wood or bone.

What is the flute?

200

This instrument makes up the largest section in the orchestra. 

What is the violin?

300

This member of the woodwind family is the only orchestral woodwind successfully used in jazz in the early 1900s.  

What is the clarinet?

300

The instrument whose sound is often compared to the human singing voice and must be played sitting down belongs to this category.

What is chordophone?
300
When it was first created, the piano was called by this name, literally meaning "soft loud."

What is pianoforte?

300

This string instrument, which has the largest musical range in the entire orchestra, is one of the oldest instruments in recorded history. 

What is the harp?

300

The harp has this many foot pedals. 

What is 7?

400

The piano belongs to three families: strings, keyboard, and _________

What is percussion?

400

This category includes all instruments in the woodwind and brass families. 

What is aerophone?

400

Although only two letters change between their names, these two string instruments occupy different pitch ranges and read music using different clefs. 

What are the violin and viola?

400

This instrument, whose ancestors include the organ and the Harpsichord, is so new that we do not see it in any music before the Classical Period.

What is the piano?

400
This instrument is regarded as Mozart's favorite. 

What is the clarinet?

500

This instrument in the brass family occupies the same range as the cello and bassoon- the tenor range.

What is the trombone?

500

This membranophone, also known as the "kettle drum," is one of few instruments of its category with definite pitch. 

What is the timpani?

500

Instruments in the family often referred to as "the heart of the orchestra" can be played in these two ways. 

What is plucked or bowed?

500

The castanets, an idiophone played by clicking two pieces of wood together, originated in this country. 

What is Spain?

500

This member of the woodwind family has such a stable pitch that it is used to tune the entire orchestra.

What is the oboe?

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