Timbre

The Elements of Music

Timbre

Timbre is the type of sound that is made. This can mean the instrument playing or the quality of the sound the instrument is making. Most instruments are capable of many different timbres.

The Instruments

There are four groups of instruments.

Strings Woodwinds Brass Percussion

The Orchestra

Strings

The String section has the most players in it - sometimes as many as 60. This is because it takes many strings to create a rich sound that balances well with the wood winds, brass and percussion.

There are four kinds of stringed instruments in the orchestra: Violins Violas Cellos Double basses

All are made of wood and have a similar curvy shape, but their sizes are different.

Strings

All stringed instruments have strings stretched over them. The strings are made of gut, steel, or nylon. They are played with a bow - a long stick that has horsehair attached to it.

Usually the bow is prepared with resin and drawn across the strings. This is called bowing.

Stringed instruments can also be struck with the bow. Or they can be played by plucking or strumming the strings with the fingers.

The Violin and Viola

The violin is the smallest member of the string family. Because its strings are the shortest, it produces the highest sound.

The viola is not often heard by itself. Because it is bigger than the violin, with longer strings, it makes a rich, warm sound that is lower in pitch.

Cello

The cello plays even lower than the viola - a whole octave lower. To support its longer strings, it's more than twice as big as the viola - too big to support on one arm! It's heavy, too. So cellists sit down, resting the instrument upright against their bodies. They use an endpin and their knees to keep it in place.

Double Bass

The double bass is the orchestra's foundation. They are the largest of all the stringed instruments, and play the lowest notes.

At six feet or even more, it's often taller than the person who plays it. Bassists have to stand up to play. Some double bassists perch on a high stool.

string ensemble

Woodwinds

Woodwinds can be made of wood, plastic, or metal.

Except for the flute they all use reeds to make sound.

All reeds are used in the orchestra except for the saxophone. Because it was invented later than the other instruments it is only used in more modern pieces.

The Flute

Flutes are usually made of metal, but sometimes you will see flutes made of wood. Flutes are some of the highest instruments in the orchestra, and they are very good at playing fast, detailed music.

The very highest-pitched instrument in the orchestra is a kind of flute, but it plays a whole octave higher. It's called the piccolo

The Clarinet

You can hear the smooth, velvety sound of the clarinet in orchestras, military bands, and jazz groups. Clarinets are made of wood or molded plastic. The standard "B-flat" clarinet is a little more than two feet long.

Bass Clarinet

A bass clarinet is shaped differently. Because it is larger than the B-flat clarinet, it plays lower and can take on a mysterious quality. It is played in the same way as the standard clarinet, but because it is much longer, it has an endpin that slides out of the bottom of the instrument to help prop it up on the floor.

Oboe and Bassoon

The oboe looks very similar to the clarinet, but sounds very different! Oboes are made of wood, and their sound is produced by blowing air through a thin double reed at the upper end of the instrument.

The bassoon is a double-reed woodwind instrument. It has almost 8 feet of wooden tubing, bent into a narrow U-shape. The reed is secured in a curved metal tube. Bassoons are the largest woodwind instruments in the orchestra

woodwind quartet

The Saxophone The saxophone is classified

as a woodwind because it is played using a reed. But it's made of brass. It's a kind of a cross between a woodwind and a brass instrument. The saxophone has a single reed and a mouthpiece like a clarinet, but it has a metal body with a flared bell. There are four major types of saxophones, each playing a different range of notes: soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone.

saxophone ensemble

Brass

The wind instruments belonging to the brass family are usually made of brass, however, they can also be made of other metals -- or of wood, tusk, horn, or shell.

Brass players produce sound by blowing into the mouthpiece of the instrument. To set the air in motion, they "buzz" their lips together. Their lips are acting much like the reeds of the woodwinds.

Some brass family members that play in the orchestra are the trumpet, the horn, the trombone, and the tuba.

Trumpet The loud, clear sound of the

trumpet has been used to send signals and messages for a long time. Trumpets were once used to frighten enemies in battle, and to celebrate big ceremonies with blazing fanfares.

There are two ways different pitches are played. A trumpeter can press down on the keys that control the trumpet's three valves, and he can change the shape of his lips against the mouthpiece. A trumpet is 18 inches long - but if it were unwound it would be four and a half feet long!

Trumpets are at least 3,500 years

old - early versions of the trumpet have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs.

French Horn The French horn has a velvety,

round tone color that projects well across other instruments without overpowering them.

The horn is balanced on the legs. The left hand works the valves that help to change the horn's pitch, and the right hand is held inside the bell. The player can vary the volume, pitch and tone of the horn by how the hand moves inside the bell.

The very first horns were made from the horns of animals. By breaking off the horn's tip and blowing down the hole, you could sound a note. These horns were used during hunts, to give directions to the hunters. Later, horns were made of metal.

Trombone

Trombones have been around a while. While Columbus was busy discovering America 500 years ago, King Henry VII had a band of four trombones. They were called sackbuts back then, but they were very like today's trombones.

Most brass instruments use valves to produce different pitches. But the trombone uses a slide instead. The player pushes and pulls the slide back and forth to change the length of tubing - which changes the pitch.

Tuba

The tuba is the largest member of the brass family and plays the lowest notes. It's also the youngest brass instrument. It was first used in military bands in the 1800s and joined the orchestra about a hundred years ago.

brass ensemble

Percussion

The percussion family is huge! It includes any instrument that produces sounds when it is struck, scraped or shaken.

A percussionist in an orchestra may play as many as a dozen different instruments.

Struck percussion instruments include the piano, the timpani, the xylophone, cymbals, the triangle, the snare drum and the Bass Drum, woodblocks, gongs, and chimes.

Percussion instruments that are scraped to produce a sound are a little less common in the orchestra. Some shaken instruments used in the orchestra include tambourines and rattles.

percussion ensemble