Classify the musical instruments based on the way of producing sound vibrations and give
examples for each
Answers
Answer:
Excluding electronic tone synthesizers, which employ vacuum tubes or transistors to produce tones, musical instruments can be classified within three groups: (1) chordophones, or strings; (2) aerophones, or winds; and (3) idiophones and membranophones, nearly all of which are percussion instruments. Each category is further divisible into groups according to the way the vibrating medium is set into motion.
Chordophones
Three means of eliciting sounds determine three categories within the family of chordophones. They are bowing, plucking, and striking. Most common of the first category are the violin, viola, violoncello, and double bass of the orchestra, all of which use a horsehair bow for setting their strings into motion. Essentially a resonant box bearing strings of four different fundamental frequencies, members of this group have not changed appreciably in construction since the 17th century, except for the 20th-century advent of the electrified bass, which is in fact a close cousin of the amplified guitar.
Violins and the larger members of its group are sounded by plucking (pizzicato) on occasion, which provides a brittle tone of extremely brief duration. The harp is the best known orchestral instrument whose tone depends upon the noise components added by plucking. Other plucked instruments are the guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukelele, zither, lyre, lute, and the harpsichord. The latter differs from the piano in that its strings are actuated by the plucking action of a tiny plectrum.
For all chordophones pitch is proportional to string tension and inversely proportional to length, thickness, and density. Since string length is the most readily altered of these factors, all chordophones provide a means for altering the resonating length of strings (as with the violin and guitar) or a set of many string lengths and masses (as with the piano and harp) for producing a variety of pitches.
Aerophones
This category covers everything from the piccolo to the pipe organ and is best understood by consistent reference to the nature of the air column employed in the various types of instruments, as well as the way this air column is set into motion.
Brass instruments consist of a long tube whose cross section is proportionately small. Coupled with a mouthpiece that, in response to vibrations of the performer’s lips, helps to create eddies of air pressure that set an enclosed air column into motion, these instruments produce a range of pitches corresponding to the overtone series. The bugle is a primitive kind of brass instrument in that it is limited to only one overtone series, while the modern trumpet, cornet, French horn, trombone, tuba, flügelhorn, and various kinds of euphoniums utilize valves or a slide to lengthen the air column and thus provide up to seven different overtone series. Pitch on these instruments is primarily a function of tube length, the wavelength of the instrument’s fundamental pitch equal to twice the length of the tube, plus a so-called end correction that accommodates variations of bore. Timbre is a product of mouthpiece shape, bore (whether cylindrical or conical), and material, aside from the important role performed by the player himself in obtaining desired overtones.
Membranophones
Membranophones produce sound by a vibrating membrane. The group consists most notably of the timpani, or kettledrums, which can be tuned by increasing or decreasing the tension of the membranes that form the heads of the enclosed cavities. Other membranophones consist of drums without fixed pitch, such as side drums, bongos, and various non-Western types of fixed and indefinite pitch. Tone quality and character are the result of the player’s skill in controlling intensity and overtone character of the sound.
Answer:
- The term percussion instrument refers to the fact that most idiophones and membranophones are sounded by being struck, although other playing methods include rubbing, shaking, plucking, and scraping