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.