|
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CONTINUED
| BRASS |
 |
|
|
Brass
instruments include all the instruments that are made of brass
or any other metal. Their mouthpieces are shaped like a cup
or funnel shape. The player presses his or her lips into the
mouthpiece and as he or she blows the lips vibrate. This vibration
is passed on to the column of air in a tube, and sound is
produced.
| 1. |
|
Trombone
|
| 2. |
|
Tuba
|
| 3. |
|
French
Horn |
| 4. |
|
Trumpet
|
| TRUMPET |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"It
came to pass when the people heard the sound of
the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great
shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the
people went up into the city."
Joshua 6:20 |
| TROMBONE |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"Never
look at the trombones. It only encourages them."
Richard Strauss |
Every
marching band has a trombone section. The song “76 Trombones”
(and a big parade) says it all. The trombone is the powerful
low instrument of the brass section. It differs from other
brass instruments in that it has a slide. When the slide
of the trombone is pushed all the way in, the highest
notes can be played. As the slide is pulled out, increasingly
lower notes are achieved. This lengthening of the tube
to accommodate a longer column of air produces the lower
notes. While blowing a continuous stream of air and moving
the slide from its pushed in position to its outer most
position produces a gliding sound called a glissando.
| FRENCH
HORN |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your
wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your
horn."
Charlie Parker, 1956 |
There
is a funny myth about how the French horn was invented. Many
years ago a strict old music teacher told his pupil, “If
you don’t practice that horn. I’ll wrap it around
your neck.” So he did and we have come to know the wound
long brass tubes in a circle as the French horn. A funny tale,
but the tubing on a French horn is many feet long and if it
were outstretched and unraveled it would look like a long
long trumpet. Because the tubing is so long on a French horn
controlling the intonation (accurate pitch) is an extremely
difficult task. Hunters to tell friends which way a fox had
gone during a hunt first used the French horn. Hunting call
signals could be heard for miles and by the time the horn
found its way into the orchestra its sound had become elegant,
noble and capable of producing beautiful tones that contain
full round and dark qualities.
| TUBA |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
"The very lower bowl of music."
Peter de Vries
|
The
tuba is a heavy, large and a hard to carry brass instrument.
Equally, it takes enormous breath control and strength to
support the sound. It is played similar to the French horn
and the tuba typically plays the bass line in the orchestra.
Tuba players usually are selected from those who naturally
have a large mouth formation because the mouthpiece of a tuba
must accommodate large lips. In fact there is a stereotype
tuba player, it often is “the hefty kid in the marching
band".
| PERCUSSION |
|
|
