Brass Musical
Instruments
The technical term
for a brass instrument is aerophone, which means the
musician must blow air into the brass instrument. The musician
produces a tone by buzzing the lips into what is generally a
cup-shaped mouthpiece. It does not mean that the instrument is
necessarily made of brass, since "brass" instruments that are
made of other metals, wood, horn, or even animal bone are
included in the family of brass instruments. Likewise, other
instruments that are made of brass or metals, such as the flute
or saxophone, do not constitute members of the brass family of
instruments.
Brass instruments, like all
other pitched musical instruments, are dependent on the overtone
series which was first studied and analyzed by the Greek
philosopher Pythagoras. It basically states that a string, or
the vibrating air column in the case of a brass instrument, will
tend to vibrate at certain frequencies based on the length of
the string or tube. The fundamental pitch is the lowest natural
note. Other possible notes then follow the Pathagorus' formula,
one octave above the fundamental, followed by a perfect fifth
above that, followed by a perfect fourth, and on up.
Types of Brass Instruments
Valved brass instruments use a
set of valves (usually three or four) that are pressed by the
musicians fingers. These valves direct moving air through tubes
in the brass instrument making sounds higher or lower.
Valved brass instruments
include modern brass instruments except the trombone: the
trumpet, French horn, euphonium, and tuba, baritone horn,
and sousaphone are the most popular.
Slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of
tubing. The main instruments in this category are trombones.
Natural brass instruments, on which only notes in the
instrument's harmonic series are available. Such instruments
include the bugle and older variants of the trumpet and horn.
|
