Instrument Families

Objectives

• Student will be able to categorize different instruments into families
• Student will be able to surmise an unknown or hypothetical instrument's family based on sound or playing mechanism
• Student will be familiar with how sound waves are propagated by different playing mechanisms

Resources

Readings

• E. Estrella. "Classification System of Musical Instruments." (LiveAbout, 2018).
• E. Estrella. "Classification of Musical Instruments: the Sachs-Hornbostel System." (LiveAbout, 2019).
• P. Elsea. "A Look at Un-electronic Instruments." (UCSD Electronic Studios, 1996).

Tools

• All the Musical Instruments of the World.
• Philharmonia Instrument Guide
• Vienna Symphonic Library Instrumentology

Class Activities

• Listen to instrument recordings (common and non) and identify based on sound.
• Compare sound of instrument timbres based on materials.
• Discuss instrumental wave vibrations.
• Observe instrument harmonics (on spectrogram/oscilloscope) based on type, material, playing mechanism.
• Discussion of SH system: compare and contrast various instruments and discuss instruments with ambiguous/multiple categorizations (i.e. voice, loudspeakers).

Assignments

• Instrument classification worksheet
• Create-your-own instrument activity based on assigned material and SH system category