Aula de msica CPI Monte Caxado

Unit 5 The wind instruments

UNIT 5 - THE WIND INSTRUMENTS

1. Aerophones: the wind instruments:
They are any musical instrument that you play by blowing; for example: woodwind or brass
instruments.

a)- Woodwind:
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air
against a sharp edge (borde, canto afilado= bisel) or through a reed, causing a column of air to
vibrate. The instrument itself does not vibrate.

Example of a flutes edge

Example of a saxophones mouthpiece

Most of these instruments are made of wood but can be made of other materials, such as metals or
plastics. Flutes, clarinets or bassoons are all examples of woodwind instruments.
Summary: The woodwind section of the orchestra is the group of instruments that are mostly made
of wood or metal and are played by blowing.

a. Flute: is a musical instrument of the woodwind group, shaped like a thin pipe (tubo, caa).
Flutes produce sound from the flow (corriente) of air across an opening
or across an edge (borde, canto).
A musician who plays the flute is called flutist, flute player or flautist.
Aside from the voice, flutes are the earliest known musical instruments.
Some examples date to about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago.

Aula de msica CPI Monte Caxado

Unit 5 The wind instruments

There are many types of flutes:

-

The fipple/ducted flutes have a duct (conducto) that directs the air onto the edge, and this
is termed a fipple. Some examples are: the whistle, the recorder or the ocarina.

Tin whistles

Pea whistle

Ocarina

The side-blown or transverse flutes, such as the Western concert flute or the piccolo.
Flutists hold the transverse flutes sideways and blows across a hole on the side of the tube
to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube.

The Western concert flute is a transverse flute closed at the top. An

embouchure hole is positioned near the top,
across and into which the player blows.
The flute has circular tone holes. This key
mechanism was evolved near 1840, so
before that, they had simply holes.

Wooden transverse flutes were common before the early 20th

century. Currently, beginner's flutes are normally made of nickel silver
or brass (latn), which is silver plated (chapado), while professionals
use solid silver, gold, and sometimes platinum instruments.

The concert flute is one of the highest

common orchestral instruments, with the
exception of the piccolo, which plays an
octave higher.
Other sizes of flutes and piccolos are used
from time to time.

Aula de msica CPI Monte Caxado

Unit 5 The wind instruments

b. Single-reed instruments:
A reed is a tall plant like grass that grows in or near water. In music, its a small thin piece of cane,
metal or plastic in some musical instruments such as the oboe or the clarinet that moves very
quickly when air is blown over it, producing a sound.

Oboes reed

Saxophones reeds

The clarinet is a single-reed instrument shaped like a

pipe. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of
differing sizes and pitches.
The clarinet family has more than a dozen types, but
the word clarinet usually refers to the B soprano
clarinet, by far the most commonly played clarinet.
Clarinet bodies are generally made of African wood.
Mouthpieces are generally made of hard rubber,
although some may be made of plastic. The instrument
uses a single reed fastened to the mouthpiece. When
air is blown through the opening between the reed
and the mouthpiece, the reed vibrates and produces
the instrument's sound.
The player is called clarinetist.

The saxophone (also informal sax) is a musical

instrument that you blow into, used especially in jazz. The sax is a member of the woodwind
family, despite saxophones are usually made of brass. They are played with a single-reed
mouthpiece similar to the clarinets reed.

Aula de msica CPI Monte Caxado

Unit 5 The wind instruments

The saxophone was invented by the Belgian Adolphe Sax in 1841. He designed two groups
of seven instruments each. Each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in
alternating transposition. The simplest design of saxophone is a straight conical tube, (the
sopranino and soprano saxophones are usually of this straight design). The rest are curved:
the end of the instrument points upward.
The person who plays sax is a saxophonist.

More examples of aerophones:

Recorder

Clarinet

Ocarina

Mouthpieces clarinet

Panflute or panpipe

Bass clarinet

Aula de msica CPI Monte Caxado

Saxophone alto

Unit 5 The wind instruments

The sax family: from largest to smallest contrabass, bass, baritone, tenor,
C-melody, alto, F mezzo-soprano, soprano, C-soprano, sopranino.