Wind instrument: Encyclopedia - Wind instrument

Wind instrument

A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air.

Wind instrument - Techniques for obtaining ranges of notes

• adjusting the effective length of the vibrating air column by opening and closing holes in the side of the tube
• opening valves, which add extra length to the tubing
• lengthening the tube by a sliding mechanism
• getting the column of air to vibrate at different harmonics (see harmonic series).

Wind instrument - Types of wind instruments

Wind instruments fall into one of the following categories:

• Brass instruments
• Woodwind instruments

Although brass instruments were originally made of brass and woodwind instruments have traditionally been made of wood, the material used to make the body of the instrument is not always a reliable guide to its family type. For example, the saxophone is typically made of brass but is classified as a woodwind instrument due to the fact that it has a reed. On the other hand, the cornett and serpent, although made of wood (or PVC pipe in the case of modern serpents), are in the family of brass instruments, because they have no reed; that function is formed by the lips of the person playing them.

A more accurate way to determine whether an instrument is brass or woodwind is to examine how the player produces sound. In brass instruments, the player's lips vibrate, which causes the air enclosed within the instrument to vibrate. In woodwind instruments, however, the player either causes a reed to vibrate, which in turn agitates the column of air (as in a clarinet or oboe), blows against an edge or fipple (as in a recorder), or blows across the edge of an open hole (as in a flute).

In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, wind instruments are classed as aerophones.

See also

• Musical instrument

Categories: Wind instruments proper | Musical instruments

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Wind instrument", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki