Instruments by range

Western instruments are also often classified by their musical range in comparison with other instruments in the same family. These terms are named after singing voice classifications:

• Soprano instruments: flute, clarinet, recorder, violin, trumpet, oboe, soprano saxophone
• Alto instruments: alto flute, viola, horn, alto saxophone
• Tenor instruments: English horn, trombone, tenor saxophone
• Baritone instruments: cello, bass clarinet, bassoon, baritone saxophone
• Bass instruments: double bass, tuba, bass saxophone

Some instruments fall into more than one category: for example, the cello may be considered either tenor or bass, depending on how its music fits into the ensemble, and the trombone may be alto, tenor, or bass and the French horn, bass, baritone, tenor, or alto, depending on which range it is played.

Many instruments have their range as part of their name: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, baritone horn, alto flute, bass flute, alto recorder, bass guitar, etc. Additional adjectives describe instruments above the soprano range or below the bass, for example: sopranino saxophone, contrabass clarinet.

When used in the name of an instrument, these terms are relative, describing the instrument's range in comparison to other instruments of its family and not in comparison to the human voice range or instruments of other families. For example, a bass flute's range is from C₃ to F♯₆, while a bass clarinet plays about one octave lower.

[edit]Other classifications

Sometimes instruments are classified according to the materials from which they are made. For example, percussion instruments made from metal are sometimes called metallophones, while those made of stone are called lithophones. Similarly, wind instruments made from metal are often categorized as brass instruments. This idea is not limited to western practice: the ancient Chinese categorized instruments into eight categories of materials (silk, bamboo, wood, gourd, earth, stone, metal, and skin).

Sometimes instruments are classed according to the method of their construction rather than their materials. For example Lamellaphones are instruments that produced sound by the plucking of their "lamellae" or tongues--strips of metal, wood, or bamboo fixed to a sound-board or resonator. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of musical instruments, lamellophones are considered plucked idiophones, a category that includes various forms of jaw harp and the European mechanical music box, as well as the huge variety of African and Afro-Latin thumb pianos such as the mbira and marimbula.

Sometimes instruments are categorized according to a common use, such as signal instruments, a category which may include instruments in very different Hornbostel-Sachs categories such as trumpets, drums, and gongs.

Instruments can also be classified according to the ensemble in which they play, or the role they play in the ensemble. For example, the horn section in popular music typically includes both brass instruments and woodwind instruments.

Instruments by range

Western instruments are also often classified by their musical range in comparison with other instruments in the same family. These terms are named after singing voice classifications:

• Soprano instruments: flute, clarinet, recorder, violin, trumpet, oboe, soprano saxophone
• Alto instruments: alto flute, viola, horn, alto saxophone
• Tenor instruments: English horn, trombone, tenor saxophone
• Baritone instruments: cello, bass clarinet, bassoon, baritone saxophone
• Bass instruments: double bass, tuba, bass saxophone

Some instruments fall into more than one category: for example, the cello may be considered either tenor or bass, depending on how its music fits into the ensemble, and the trombone may be alto, tenor, or bass and the French horn, bass, baritone, tenor, or alto, depending on which range it is played.

Many instruments have their range as part of their name: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, baritone horn, alto flute, bass flute, alto recorder, bass guitar, etc. Additional adjectives describe instruments above the soprano range or below the bass, for example: sopranino saxophone, contrabass clarinet.

When used in the name of an instrument, these terms are relative, describing the instrument's range in comparison to other instruments of its family and not in comparison to the human voice range or instruments of other families. For example, a bass flute's range is from C₃ to F♯₆, while a bass clarinet plays about one octave lower.

[edit]Other classifications

Sometimes instruments are classified according to the materials from which they are made. For example, percussion instruments made from metal are sometimes called metallophones, while those made of stone are called lithophones. Similarly, wind instruments made from metal are often categorized as brass instruments. This idea is not limited to western practice: the ancient Chinese categorized instruments into eight categories of materials (silk, bamboo, wood, gourd, earth, stone, metal, and skin).

Sometimes instruments are classed according to the method of their construction rather than their materials. For example Lamellaphones are instruments that produced sound by the plucking of their "lamellae" or tongues--strips of metal, wood, or bamboo fixed to a sound-board or resonator. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of musical instruments, lamellophones are considered plucked idiophones, a category that includes various forms of jaw harp and the European mechanical music box, as well as the huge variety of African and Afro-Latin thumb pianos such as the mbira and marimbula.

Sometimes instruments are categorized according to a common use, such as signal instruments, a category which may include instruments in very different Hornbostel-Sachs categories such as trumpets, drums, and gongs.

Instruments can also be classified according to the ensemble in which they play, or the role they play in the ensemble. For example, the horn section in popular music typically includes both brass instruments and woodwind instruments.

Andre Schaeffner

In 1932, Andre Schaeffner developed a new classification scheme that was "exhaustive, potentially covering all real and conceivable instruments".^[2]

Schaeffner's system has only two top-level categories which he denoted by Roman numerals:

• I: instruments that make sound from vibrating solids:
  • I.A: no tension (free solid, for example cymbals or claves);
  • I.B: linguaphones (solid fixed at only one end, such as a drum or gong);
  • I.C: chordophones (solid fixed at both ends, i.e. strings such as piano or harp);
• II: instruments that make sound from vibrating air (such as clarinets, trumpets, or bull-roarers.

The system agrees with Mahillon and Hornbostel-Sachs for chordophones, but groups percussion instruments differently.

Mahillon and Hornbostel-Sachs systems

An ancient system of Indian origin, dating from at least the 1st century BC, divides instruments into four main classification groups: instruments where the sound is produced by vibrating strings; instruments where the sound is produced by vibrating columns of air; percussion instruments made of wood or metal; and percussion instruments with skin heads, or drums. Victor-Charles Mahillon later adopted a system very similar to this. He was the curator of the musical instrument collection of the conservatoire inBrussels, and for the 1888 catalogue of the collection divided instruments into four groups: strings, winds, drums, and other percussion. This scheme was later taken up by Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs who published an extensive new scheme for classication in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. Their scheme is widely used today, and is most often known as the Hornbostel-Sachs system (or the Sachs-Hornbostel system).

The original Sachs-Hornbostel system classified instruments into four main groups:

1. idiophones, such as the xylophone, which produce sound by vibrating themselves;
2. membranophones, such as drums or kazoos, which produce sound by a vibrating membrane;
3. chordophones, such as the piano or cello, which produce sound by vibrating strings;
4. aerophones, such as the pipe organ or oboe, which produce sound by vibrating columns of air.

Later Sachs added a fifth category, electrophones, such as theremins, which produce sound by electronic means.^[1] Within each category are many subgroups. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, but remains widely used byethnomusicologists and organologists.

Strings, percussion, and wind

The system used in the west today, dividing instruments into wind, strings, and percussion, is of Greek origin. The scheme was later expanded by Martin Agricola, who distinguished plucked string instruments, such as guitars, from bowed string instruments, such as violins. Classical musicians today do not always maintain this division (although plucked strings are grouped separately from bowed strings in sheet music), but there is a distinction made between wind instruments with a reed (woodwind instruments) and wind instruments where the air is set in motion directly by the lips (brass instruments).

There are, however, problems with this system. Some rarely seen and non-western instruments do not fit very neatly into it. The serpent, for example, an old instrument rarely seen nowadays, ought to be classified as a brass instrument, as a column of air is set in motion by the lips. However, it looks more like a woodwind instrument, and is closer to one in many ways, having finger-holes to control pitch, rather than valves. There are also problems with classifying certain keyboard instruments. For example, thepiano has strings, but they are struck by hammers, so it is not clear whether it should be classified as a string instrument or a percussion instrument. For this reason, keyboard instruments are often regarded as inhabiting a category of their own, including all instruments played by a keyboard, whether they have struck strings (like the piano), plucked strings (like the harpsichord) or no strings at all (like the celesta). It might be said that with these extra categories, the classical system of instrument classification focuses less on the fundamental way in which instruments produce sound, and more on the technique required to play them.

Pritam Playing Brayan Adam's Everything I do,Ido it for you.