Types of musical instruments: a brief description

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Music is an amazing phenomenon. Its sounds can touch the deepest nooks and crannies of human nature. A cheerful melody makes people dance, meekly obeying the irresistible influence of its intricate patterns. Some music, on the contrary, makes you feel sadness and sadness, carefully invested by the author in every note of the work. A good song is a journey into the inner world of a musician, where he, like a guide, will lead the listener through the beautiful or terrifying depths of his soul. The sound of music pours forth that which cannot be expressed in words.

Music in antiquity

Mankind has been familiar with the art of music for a long time. Archaeologists are constantly finding different types of musical instruments in the places where our ancestors lived. It is assumed that the first instruments were percussion instruments. They made it possible to set the rhythm necessary for the same type of work or to achieve states of altered consciousness. Some finds suggest that wind instruments also have their roots in antiquity.

With the development of civilization, people's preferences also changed. Musical instruments constantly progressed, they became more complex and sophisticated, bringing diversity and novelty to the cultural life of man. Great musicians were revered and bestowed with generous gifts, which indicates their high status in society.

The place of music in the modern world

Over time, music has become an integral part of the life of not only idle nobles, but also ordinary people who composed songs about their difficult fate. It can be assumed that the art of music has accompanied mankind since time immemorial and will accompany it until the last representative of our species leaves this mortal world.

Today, hundreds of different musical instruments are available to musicians. Anyone who decides to take up music will be able to choose an instrument to their liking. However, no matter how bizarre forms modern devices for creating music take, most of them can be attributed to percussion, strings or brass. Let's take a closer look at the main types of musical instruments.

Wind instruments

Wind instruments have firmly taken their place in the hearts of music lovers. Both in classical works and in modern musical compositions, their mesmerizing sound continues to delight listeners. There are different types of wind musical instruments. They are mainly divided into wooden and copper.

Wooden instruments produce different sounds by shortening the air flow through the instrument. A great example of such an instrument is the flute. In it, by opening or closing the holes on the body, you can make the sound higher or lower. Such instruments appeared quite a long time ago and were originally made of wood, which was the reason for their name. Woodwind instruments include oboe, clarinet and saxophone.

The sound of brass instruments is affected by the strength of the airflow and the position of the musician's lips. The main material from which these tools are made is metal. Most brass instruments are made from brass or copper, but there are exotic options in silver. Initially, such instruments could only produce the sounds of a natural scale, but over time they acquired mechanisms that allow them to extract chromatic tones. The most famous representatives of brass instruments include tuba, trombone, French horn, as well as various types of trumpet. A musical instrument of this type can diversify any composition with its bright and rich sound.

Types of stringed musical instruments

Stringed musical instruments are very popular in modern society. In them, the sound is extracted due to the vibration of the string and amplified by the body. There are various types of musical instruments that use strings to create sound, but they can all be classified as plucked, bowed, or percussion.

In plucked stringsInstruments for creating music use string plucking. Vivid representatives of plucked instruments are such popular instruments as guitar, double bass, banjo, harp. Bowed instruments differ from their plucked counterparts in that they use a bow to strike notes. It slides over the strings, making them vibrate. Violin, viola, cello are the most famous bowed instruments. The most popular percussion string instrument is the piano. In it, notes are extracted by hitting a stretched string with a small wooden mallet. For the convenience of playing, musicians are provided with a keyboard interface, where each key corresponds to its own note.

Types of percussion musical instruments

It's hard to imagine a modern musical ensemble without drums. They set the rhythm of the entire composition, create the pulse of the song. The rest of the musicians in the band follow the rhythm set by the drummer. Therefore, percussion types of musical instruments are rightfully considered one of the oldest and most important means of creating music.

Percussion instruments are divided into membranophones and idiophones. In membranophones, sound is extracted from a membrane stretched over the body of the instrument. These include such popular representatives of the musical world as the tambourine, drums, timpani, bongos, djembe and countless other instruments. In idiophones, the sound is produced by the entire instrument, or the instrument consists of many sounding elements of different heights. For example, xylophone, vibraphone, bells, gong, triangle are just a fewexamples of idiophones.

In conclusion

Whatever type of musical instrument you choose, the main thing to remember is that the music is created not by the instrument, but by the musician. A good musician will extract a beautiful melody from empty cans, but even the most expensive instrument will not help someone who does not like music sound good.