You’ve probably heard the word orchestra before. Do you know what an orchestra is? Well it means a lot of musicians playing different instruments who all perform the same pieces of music together. Orchestras come in various sizes. They can be made up of twenty or up to over one hundred players.

An orchestra will always have a leader, this person is known as the conductor. It is his or her job to inspire the players and guide them through the music. He or she helps them start together, stay together and finish together... very important, otherwise the music sounds like a train crash! Ooops!

But what makes an orchestra an orchestra, is the way the instruments are grouped together in families. The modern orchestra has four families of instruments. The strings, the woodwind, the brass and the percussion.

The String Family

The members of the orchestra’s string family are violin, viola, cello and double bass. All of these instruments can be played with a bow or plucked like a guitar.

The violin is the smallest and it plays the highest notes.

The viola  looks similar to the violin. However, is a little larger and deeper in sound.

The cello is much bigger than the viola. It produces a rich, mellow tone.

The double bass is the largest of the string family. It can also play the lowest notes of the entire orchestra! Therefore it has the darkest and deepest sound of all.

The Woodwind Family

The members of the orchestra’s woodwind family are piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. Most of the woodwind instruments were once made of only wood... thats where they got the name “woodwind”. Nowadays they are made of wood, metal and plastic.

Unlike the strings, woodwind instruments all make sounds in different ways.

The piccolo and flute sound by blowing air across the mouthpiece. The piccolo plays the highest notes in the whole orchestra.

The clarinet (and saxophone!) use a single reed (made of cane), which vibrates to produce sound.

The oboes and bassoons use two pieces of cane that vibrate against each other to sound. The oboe often plays the melody lines because it has a good range and sounds light.

The Brass Family

The members of the orchestra’s brass family are

trumpet, trombone, tuba and french horn.

These instruments are long tubes of metal twisted to make their individual shape. The player blows into tube making a buzzing sound with their lips through a mouth-piece. All of the sound comes out of the bell at the end.

The trumpet has 3 valves to help change the pitches. It play both high and low notes. It has a bright sound that can be heard by everyone.

The french horn has 4 valves and is twisted in the shape of a circle. It is very loud so the player must out their hand inside the bell to keep it more quiet.

The trombone has no valves, only a slide that moves in and out to change the pitches. It sounds rich and dark when playing its low pitches.

The tuba has 4 valves. It is the largest in the brass family and also plays the lowest notes. Even though it is the largest it doesn’t play the loudest so its deep rich sound is often hard to hear in the orchestra.

The Percussion Family

There are lots of different members of the percussion family such as snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, timpani, xylophone, glockenspiel, tambourine, triangle and many more...

Percussion instruments include any instrument that can make a sound when it is hit, shaken or scraped. It is not easy to be a percussionist because it takes a lot of practice to hit an instrument with the right amount of strength, in the right time and at the right place!

Some percussion instruments are tuned and can sound different notes like xylophone, timpani, piano or glockenspiel. There are many other percussion instruments that are untuned, this means they have no definite pitch, only timbre/sound.

Percussion instruments keep the rhythm, make special sounds and add excitement and colour to the music. Unlike most of the other players in the orchestra, a percussionist will usually play many different instruments in one piece of music.