The double-reed family of woodwinds consists of the oboe, English horn, bassoon, and contrabassoon. Each has a double reed made of cane that the player holds between his lips and blows air through, just as you did earlier with the paper drinking straw.

There have been many types of double-reed instruments throughout history. Imported to Europe from the Orient, they have rather strange names such as bombarde, pommer, schryari, krummhorn, and rackett. It was during the seventeenth century that these instruments began taking on the appearance and sound of our modern instruments. (More…)

dodoMusic Equipments, Music Genres, Musical Instruments, Woodwinds1 Oct, 20082 Comments

All the instruments of the flute family are very similar. Their sound is produced by a vibrating air column, they are all fingered the same way, and they are made from metal. Although it is a small family and the instruments can’t play very loudly, the flute family has an important place in both our musical heritage and the music of today.

Instruments of the clarinet family are perhaps the most versatile and useful of the woodwinds. Descendants of a family of seventeenth-century instruments called shawms, shalmeys, or chalumeaux, their sounds are produced by blowing air across a single reed. (More…)

dodoJazz, Popular Music, Saxophone, Violin, Woodwinds1 Oct, 20082 Comments

Although the key mechanism on modern woodwind instruments looks very complicated to a beginner, all the keys, rings, rods, and springs actually make the fingering much easier; ten fingers can now do the work of twenty. If a student practises hard, he will soon be playing much faster than even a professional could play 250 years ago.

Since the time of the pipes of Pan in ancient Greece, hundreds of woodwind instruments have come and gone. (More…)

dodoDrums, Jazz, Saxophone, Woodwinds1 Oct, 20082 Comments

The earliest woodwind instrument known to man dates back to the pipes of Pan. Pan was the god of the forest, flocks, and shepherds in Greek mythology. He is usually pictured as half man and half goat—head and torso of a man, legs and feet of a goat—and is shown playing a set of pipes.

Shepherds of that time no doubt played instruments like this to keep themselves company while watching over their flocks in the hills of ancient Greece. (More…)

dodoAmplifier, Woodwinds1 Oct, 20082 Comments