Y E A R 7 U N I T 5 I N S T R U M E N T S O F T H E O R C H E S T R A W 3

Year 7 Music Instruments of the Orchestra

Research Project

Your task is to work in pairs to research an instrument of the

orchestra. You will need to use information from the Internet, information from
Encarta or other online encyclopaedias and information from Books in the
Information Centre (look under section 780).
You will need to try and find out the answers to the questions in the box below.

Your finished piece of research work can be presented in one of TWO ways. You can
choose either to
a) Use MS-WORD to present your work in the form of an A4 factsheet with
pictures, illustrations and text or
b) Use MS-POWERPOINT to create a presentation with a minimum of 4 slides.

All of your work must be neatly done by hand or computer and must also be in your
own words. You may find information from the Internet or from books and Encarta.
You can include other information in your project as well as that listed below. If you
are using MS-POWERPOINT, you may try to include a recording/mpeg music file of
an example you have heard.

What to include in your Instrument Research Project

What materials is your instrument made of?
What does your instrument look like? (Try and find a picture of your instrument on the
Internet or you might like to draw and colour your own picture)
What are the various parts of your instrument called? Draw a labelled diagram showing the
names of each part of your instrument (e.g. a violin would have strings, a soundboard, a
bow, tuning pegs, and a bridge)
How is your instrument played? Is there more than one way of playing your instrument?
How is the sound produced? Can the sound be altered in any way to produce different
effects?
How old is your instrument? When was it invented? Did it evolve out of an older
instrument?
What PITCH does your instrument play? Can you find out the highest and lowest note your
instrument can play?
To which section of the orchestra does your instrument belong?

Internet Links
www.mathcs.duq.edu/~iben/home.htm www.projectgcse.co.uk/music/instruments.htm
www.playmusic.org/stage.html www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/guide/

W W W . M U S I C A L C O N T E X T S . C O . U K