Piccolo

The piccolo is played horizontally as it is a transverse flute. Having the same fingerings, it is commonly considered a younger sibling of the flute. It also has notes that are an octave higher than that of a flute's and has half of a common flute's size. This gave rise to its name, Piccolo, which is Italian for small.

History

The piccolo gets its origins from the flute and made its first appearance in the orchestra on 1700. "Rinaldo" by Handel in 1711 was the earliest known performance with a piccolo. It was constructed with two sections with an E-flat key during the Baroque era. It was constituted in the orchestra around the middle of 1700 but was usually used in performances with a military disposition. It started to be used in symphonies after Beethoven wrote parts for it in his 5th Symphony.

Michael Janusch, a flute teacher, created the multi-key piccolo. It was like the flute with 6 keys which was traditional at that time. This gave rise to its development during the 19th century. The D-flat piccolo was used in many famous solos but is not heard of in the modern times.

Mollenhauer later revised the D-flat piccolo and this made the piccolo a popular instrument during the 20th century. It is now played as an integral element of the orchestra.

Castanets

Also referred to as palillos, the castanets are plausibly the most sophisticated percussion instruments. It is used in Portuguese, Italian, Moorish, Spanish, Latin American, and Ottoman music. Generally, it is a pair of concave shells joined at an edge by a string. These are hand-held and produce clicking or rattling sounds used for rhythmic accents.

Castanets are also played in the orchestra. At times, these are fastened to the handle or placed on a base forming machine castanets. It is very uncommon to play the castanet in the Spanish style in the modern orchestra. This is not because it is very complicated to master and employ but because there are no more than four known professional castanet players all over the world. To compensate for this, a castanet machine is used. The cups of a castanet machine are attached to a piece of wood which ends in a handle that is held and shaken.

Possible origin

There is no known definite origin of the castanets. The Egyptians and the Greeks were known to have created music by clicking sticks together using one hand.

There are nevertheless several theories on its development. One is that castanets are the descendants of the Iberian crusmata which were two shells, wooden sticks, or flat stones. Also, the Greeks played the krotola in religious affairs but it is proven that castanets were also found in Italian, Latin, and Portuguese music among many others.

Flute

The most basic instrument in the woodwind family is the flute. Also known as an aerophone, it is a reedless wind instrument that creates sound from the flow of air from an opening. Flutes are often made of wood in Europe while silver is the main flute construction material in the United States.

Theobald Boehm invented the modern flute. He connected a bowl-shaped head to a cylindrical centre with large finger holes and open-standing keys. Several small developments have been made after that.

Flute Construction

Modern flutes are often around twenty-six inches long and 0.75 inches wide. There are two open ends which makes it an open cylinder. There are sixteen openings in total; eleven are closed by seven fingers, one is closed by the left thumb, and four can be opened or blocked by arranged keys.

Flute Categories

For most flutes, the flute player blows straight across from the edge of the embouchure. These are called end-blown. Another basic type is the side-blown flute. Here, the player blows through the hole located at the side of the tube. Another model is the fipple flute which manoeuvres the air through a duct onto the edge. Fipple flutes are easier to play and has a well defined timbre compared to other flutes. Here are the categories of flutes based on origin:

Saxophone

The saxophone, more casually referred to as sax, is another member of the large woodwind family. It consists of a cone-shaped tube made of thin metal which is usually brass and at times plated with nickel, silver, or gold. It is played with a mouthpiece that is single-reed just like that of the clarinet.

History

This magnificent instrument was invented by Adolphe Sax from Belgium. Akin to his father, Charles Joseph Sax, he was an instrument maker. The saxhorn, his first successful creation, was made public some time after he transferred to France. Adolphe Sax completed several developments to the bass clarinet prior to focusing on the saxophone.

The saxophone was created around 1846. Sax's primary key work was very basic which made wide intervals quite hard to finger. To make playing less difficult, many developers and instrument makers added alternate fingerings and more keys. One of the most substantial advancements in its key work was that both tone holes can be controlled by the left thumb using one octave key. This configuration is now common to all modern saxophones.

Sitar

The sitar is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking. It is prevalent in Hindustani classical music and has been around since the Middle Ages. It uses sympathetic strings which is common in Indian musical instruments. It also has a gourd resonating cavity and an extensive hollow neck.

The sitar came into the western musical industry when Pandit Ravi Shankar used it in his works. Subsequently, The Rolling Stones used the sitar in the song Paint It, Black.

Origin

The sitars originated from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent during the late Mogul era. Its predecessors, the Persian lutes, had been used in the Mogul courts for hundreds of years. According to the Sangeet Sudarshana, the sitar was invented by Amir Khusru in the 1700's. He named this instrument based on the Persian setar.

There are plenty of theories about the source of the sitar. Regrettably, most of these are historically inaccurate and hence impossible.

Clarinet

The word Clarinet is derived from the Italian word clarino meaning trumpet with the suffix –et which means little. Thus, the name clarinet or little trumpet. In jazz, it is also called liquorice stick. An individual who plays it is a clarinetist.

The Clarinet is usually wooden and vertically played. It has a wider bore which has a single reed and this, when activated, vibrates against a removable mouthpiece. Traditionally, the wood used is granadilla wood from South America, Africa, or Asia. It is most commonly used today as a B-flat clarinet which is about sixty centimeters in length.

Lineage

Its roots can be traced back to the Middle Ages where single-reeds or hornpipes were used in Europe and in the Middle East. The contemporary clarinet was from the chalumeau, an instrument likened to the recorder but with a single-reed.

Trombone

The trombone is a wind instrument that is a member of the brass family. The trombone's differentiating characteristic is a telescope-like slide which is controlled by the player to change pitches with the exception of the valve trombone with three valves. Similar to other brass instruments, the vibrating lips of the player makes the air inside the trombone to vibrate and this produces sound.

The instrument's name is derived from the Italian word tromba meaning trumpet and -one which means large. Thus, it is literally named large trumpet. Both the trumpet and the trombone have generally cylindrical bores.

History

The creation of the trombone dates back more than six hundred years. Its original design was slightly similar to the sackbut, an Old English instrument. The term sackbut originated from the French saquer which means pull and bouter meaning push. Trompone is the Italian for sackbut and this is most plausibly the basis of the word trombone. Initially there were four types of trombones: soprano, bass, tenor, and alto.

Tuba

The lowest pitched and largest brass instrument known is the tuba. It is one of the latest members of the modern symphony orchestra. Taking the place of the ophicleide, it was first publicly played in the middle of the 19th century. The player produces sound by vibrating his lips against a large cup-shaped mouthpiece.

The term tuba is Latin for horn or trumpet. It is largely comparable to the baroque trumpet.

History

Richard Wagner, a German composer, invented the very first tuba. Aside from composing music and creating the tuba, Wagner also increased the significance of woodwinds in the orchestra. He broke the brass section into four divisions. The first section is a brass trumpet with three trumpets; the second is a bass tuba with three trombones; third, four French horns; last is four tubas.

Bass Guitar

The bass guitar, sometimes called bass or electric bass, is a stringed instrument which has a design similar to the guitar. The difference is that it has a longer scale and it is tuned in a deeper pitch. It is mainly played with the fingers or with a plectrum or pick.

It also has the same construction and appearance as an electric guitar but it has a longer neck, a larger body, and a longer scale length. The bass guitar could be fretless or fretted but the latter are more commonly used. It could either be acoustic bass or electric bass.

History

The first electric string bass that is also similar to the modern bass was invented by Paul Tutmarc of Washington around 1930. It was a fretted instrument which was constructed to be played horizontally. In the 1940's, Bud Tutmarc, son of Paul Tutmarc, marketed the bass guitar under the brand name Serenader and advertised it nationwide. Unfortunately, the Tutmarc's bass guitar did not become popular in the market.

Banjo

The banjo has a body similar to a tambourine with four or five strings. The strings cross above a pressure bridge and are attached to a tailpiece. These vibrate and also cause the stretched animal hide or plastic membrane to vibrate.

Some believe that the name banjo came from the Portuguese word bandore or a Spanish word bandurria. A few say that it may have been derived from a Senegambian word that refers to a bamboo stick that was originally used for the banjo's neck structure.

History

The creation of the banjo can be traced back centuries. The origin of the very first versions of the banjo is indefinite. It was common to see strings stretched across drums made of animal hide in the Mideast, Far East and Africa.

Bagpipe

The bagpipe is an aerophone, a musical instrument class, and uses enclosed reeds to vibrate by movement of stored air in a bag. It is more commonly referred by pipers as "pipes". You might be familiar with the Irish uilleann pipes or the Scottish great highland bagpipe but there are also varieties of bagpipes coming from regions all around the Persian Gulf, Northern Africa, and Europe.

Origin

The roots of the bagpipes could be dug up to the ancient times. Because any herdsman had all the materials needed which are a reed pipe and sheep or goat skin, bagpipes might have been from a rustic instrument in various cultures. Many historians think that it started in Sumaria and it was also cited in the Holy Bible. A Roman historian even recorded that Emperor Nero played the bagpipe. It was specifically stated as "knew how to play the pipe with his mouth and the bag thrust under his arm".

The existence of bagpipes in pre-medieval times is dubious. Yet visual and textual remains could still possible prove bagpipes in ancient forms.

Parts of the bagpipe

Acoustic Guitar

The body of the acoustic guitar is hollow and does not have electric amplification. Its name is a retronym of the electric guitar to differentiate them from each other. The top plate could be made of cedar or spruce while its strings could be made of steel or nylon. At the top is a circular hole with a diameter of 3.25 inches to 3.5 inches which strengthens and reinforces the produced sound.

Sound production

Sound is typically produced on guitars through the strings' vibration. The increase of volume is done by the sound box consisting of a resonant cavity and a soundboard. The vibration of the strings also causes vibration of the soundboard. It has a much larger area than the strings which means that is also produces a louder sound.

Sound waves are created coming from the back and front panels as the soundboard is vibrating. The sound box serves as a resonant cavity and reflects the sound waves produced. The sound volume increases greatly compared to the primary volume created by the strings. Some sound is then projected out of the hole.

Acoustic guitar qualities

Accordion

The accordion is a handheld free reed musical instrument from the bellows-driven aerophone family. Accordions are thought of as a one-man-band and often called squeezeboxes. It often does not need any accompanying instrument because the performer could play music on keys using the right hand and the accompaniment which has pre-set and bass chord buttons using the left hand.

Air flow through reeds is generated by expansion and compression of the accordions bellows. A keyboard or a set of buttons handles which reeds will accept air flow which produces the tones. The pressing of buttons causes valves or pallets to open and lets air flow across the reeds which will vibrate.

History