LESSON ON TIMBRE

Grade Level:

6th

Focus: The lesson will focus on timbre- specifically on the different

tone colors of different wind instruments
Vocabulary: timbre
Objectives:
To have students differentiate the sound of wind instruments aurally
and visually
National Standards Achieved:
MU.D.1.2.2: identifies instruments and their families (e.g. Violin as a
string instrument, flute as a woodwind) and performance groups (e.g.,
band, chorus, or string quartet).

Materials and equipment necessary to teach this lesson:

Various wind instruments: Saxophone, Trumpet, Clarinet
YouTube/ITunes recordings of classical pieces for the cello, flute,
trumpet, saxophone, and clarinet

Activities:
1. Listen
Ask students to name as many instruments as possible. After a minute, describe
timbre.
Read this
a. Each instrument has its own special sound, or timbre. To make a
sound on most wind instruments, the player blows air into the
instrument, causing the air to vibrate. The string instruments
sound is made by vibrating strings. The way an instrument
makes sound affects its timbre.

Sounds are made when something vibrates and causes the air to move; this
creates sound waves.
Woodwinds: Clarinet, oboe, bassoon and saxophone:
a. Reeds vibrate and create the sound.
Flute:
i. Air blown through the tone hole vibrates.

 Brass: lips vibrate.

Strings: vibrate when plucked, bowed, or strummed.
Percussion: strike, making material vibrate.
2. Develop
Listen to different classical examples.
a. Bach Cello suites
b. Glazunov Saxophone concerto
c. Saint Saens clarinet sonata
d. Hindemith flute and trumpet sonatas
e. Eastman Percussion Ensemble: Fandango 13
3. Assess
Take wind instrument listening survey. While listening to the examples, have the
students close their eyes and guess what instrument they are listening to and fill
out the worksheet.

Cross-Curricular:
Social Studies: While listening to the different examples, have
the students pass around some of the instruments, and explain their
history.
History: The trumpet is much more than a musical instrument. In
fact, the trumpet is a part of world history. For thousands of years, the
trumpet has played an essential role in almost every civilization on
the planet.
The first known metal trumpets can be traced back to around
1500BC. Silver and bronze trumpets were discovered in the grave of
King Tut in Egypt, and other ancient versions of the instrument were
found in China, South America, Scandinavia, and Asia. Since most
inventions spawn from earlier forms, there's also good reason to
assume that people have been blowing into objects to create sounds
for even longer than that. For example, some civilizations blew into an
animal horn or conch shell to produce a sound.
Many of these earlier examples were not used to make music as we
know it today. Typically, they were used for religious and military
purposes, which historians have pointed out in major religious
writings and other historical records. In medieval times, for example,
trumpeters were highly guarded by military units, since they were
crucial to relaying instructions over great distances. In modern times,
the "bugle" is still used by militaries, but mainly for paying respect to
its past use.
Instrument design, as well as metal making, improved tremendously
over the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which made these
"natural trumpets" more suitable for creating actual music. However,
these trumpets did not have valves and could only produce a small

amount of notes. Also, changing the key meant that you had to
change different pipes on the horn. The natural trumpets peak of
popularity was during the Baroque area; but in recent years it has
seen somewhat of a resurgence.
Due to its limited amount of notes, usage of the natural trumpet
started to fade during the Classical and Romantic periods. By the
1800's, instrument improvements, such as keys and valves, led to its
chromatic use. Following its capability of playing any note needed by
the composer, it redeemed its rightful place as a dominant musical
instrument.
he history of the saxophone can be traced back over 150 years.
Although this seems like a long time, the saxophone is one of the
newer instruments in the musical spectrum. It was invented by and
named for Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax. He was an expert
instrument maker and talented musician. The saxophone was
patented on March 20, 1846. It has since become a necessity in every
band due to its tonal beauty and versatility.
Sax grew up in the trade of instrument making. Sax's father was an
expert in instrument making. By the age of six, Sax had already
become an expert in it as well. Sax, being the musician he was,
became aware of the tonal disparity between strings and winds:
moreover, that between brasses and woodwinds. The strings were
being overpowered by the winds and the woodwinds were being
overblown by the brasses. Sax needed an instrument that would
balance the three sections. His answer to the problem was a horn with
the body of a brass instrument and the mouthpiece of a woodwind
instrument. When he combined these two elements, the saxophone
was born.
The first saxophone, a C bass, was displayed for the first time, in
1841, to the famous composer, Hector Berlioz. He was amazed at its
versatility, unique tone, and control of dynamics. In 1842, Sax moved
to Paris to introduce his new instrument to the rest of the world. Soon
to follow was the creation of an entire saxophone family: fourteen
different saxophones in all. Each differed by size and pitch. They were
the: E flat sopranino, F sopranino, B flat soprano, C soprano, E flat
alto, F alto, B flat tenor, C tenor, E flat baritone, B flat bass, C bass, E
flat contrabass, and F contrabass. Many of these variations, however,
are seldom used or have become obsolete.
The saxophone finally became known as an integral part of all bands
in 1845. This is the year of the famous "battle of the bands". The
French Army band was still using "traditional" instrumentation. Sax

saw this as an opportunity to show the world how the saxophone

could improve the tonal quality in all bands. He suggested a contest
between an army band composed of the original orchestral
instrumentation against a band with an instrumentation that included
saxophones. Saxs band of twenty-eight men, compared to the French
Army band of thirty-five, overwhelmed the crowd. That day, the
saxophone was officially introduced into the French Army Band and
soon to all other bands.
Many composers began to write music for the saxophone, but it was
not until about seventy-five years later that the saxophone began to
be used to play dance music. However, to do this the saxophone
needed to be altered. Originally, the sax was designed to have a
smooth, mellow, and balanced tone. This had to be changed so it
could compete with the blaring trumpets, noisy drums, shuffling feet,
and loud talking that accompanied the surroundings of early
twentieth century dance bands. The mouthpiece of the sax was made
smaller and more parallel. This gave the sax the loud, obnoxious
sound needed for jazz and dance music. Since this metamorphosis,
the saxophone has been thought of as primarily a jazz instrument.
Today, many people enjoy the wonderful music produced by the
saxophone. The beautiful sound of a sax quintet or a blaring jazz
soloist can be heard all around the world. The saxophone has become
a part of almost every style of music. It is being played everywhere
from night clubs to football fields. The saxophone is truly one of the
great musical instruments in our existence.
Invented around 1690, the clarinet is a single-reed woodwind
instrument with a cylindrical tube. The clarinet evolved from an
earlier instrument called the chalumeau, the first true single reed
instrument.
Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremburg with the help of his son Jacob
improved the chalumeau, creating a new instrument called the
clarinet. Denner added two keys to the chalumeau and increased that
instruments range by over two octaves. He also created a better
mouthpiece and improved the bell (end) of the instrument.
In 1843, the clarinet was further improved when Klose adapted the
Boehm flute key system to the clarinet. Mozart was the first composer
to use the clarinet in a symphony.

Assessment:
Can/cannot identify different wind, string and percussion.
instruments by sound.
Closure:
-hand out instruments worksheet and have students identify the
different wind, string, and percussion instruments.