Music · Grades K-5
Meet the Instruments
Instruments come in five families. Let's meet them all!
Hello, music friend! I'm Wolfgang, your music teacher.
Instruments are like people. They live in families! Instruments in the same family make their sound in the same way.
Tap a card to learn more. Press a speaker button to hear a pretend sound. Then try the quiz at the end!
What is an instrument family?
Every sound you hear is made by something shaking back and forth very fast. That shaking is called a vibration.
Put your fingers on your throat and hum. Can you feel the buzz? That's a vibration!
Instruments make vibrations in different ways. Instruments that make sound the same way belong to the same family. Here are the five families:
- StringsPluck or bow
- WoodwindsBlow air or a reed
- BrassBuzz your lips
- PercussionHit, shake or scrape
- KeyboardsPress the keys
The strings family
How they make sound: you pluck the strings or rub them with a bow. The strings shake, or vibrate, and the wooden body makes the sound big.
Long, thick strings sound low. Short, thin strings sound high.
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Violin
The smallest and highest string instrument in the orchestra. You hold it under your chin.
More about the violin
A violin bow has lots of hairs from a horse's tail. Players rub the hairs with sticky rosin so they grip the strings.
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Cello
Say it “CHEL-oh.” The player sits down and holds the cello between the knees.
More about the cello
The cello rests on the floor on a metal spike called an endpin. Its voice is low and warm, a lot like a person singing.
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Double bass
The biggest and lowest string instrument. It is as tall as a grown-up!
More about the double bass
Players stand up or sit on a tall stool to play it. Look at the small kid in the picture next to it.
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Harp
You pluck the harp's strings with your fingers. It sounds like sparkles.
More about the harp
A big concert harp has 47 strings. The C strings are red and the F strings are dark blue or black, so the player can find the notes.
The woodwinds family
How they make sound: you blow air into a tube. On some, you blow across a hole. On others, your breath makes a thin, flat piece of cane called a reed buzz. You press keys or cover holes to change the note.
Long tubes sound low. Short tubes sound high.
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Flute
You blow across a hole, like blowing over a bottle. It sounds light and airy.
More about the flute
Most flutes today are made of metal, but they are still woodwinds. That's because of how you play them, not what they are made of.
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Clarinet
A black tube with shiny keys. It has one reed on its mouthpiece.
More about the clarinet
The clarinet can play very low and very high. Its low notes sound soft and a little spooky.
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Saxophone
A curvy tube with a bell. It is made of metal but has a reed, so it is a woodwind!
More about the saxophone
A man named Adolphe Sax invented it. He got a patent for it in 1846. It is popular in jazz bands.
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Bassoon
A tall wooden tube with two reeds tied together. It plays low and can sound silly or sleepy.
More about the bassoon
Its tube is about 8 feet long! It is folded in half, so the bassoon stands about 4 feet tall.
The brass family
How they make sound: you press your lips on a cup-shaped mouthpiece and buzz them, like a happy bee. The buzz travels through a long metal tube and out of the wide bell.
Press valves or move a slide to change the length of the tube and the note.
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Trumpet
The smallest and highest brass instrument. It sounds bright and bold, like a fanfare.
More about the trumpet
A trumpet has three buttons called valves. Pressing them sends the air through extra tubing.
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French horn
Its tube is coiled up in a circle. The bell points backward.
More about the French horn
If you unrolled a French horn, its tube would be about 12 feet long. That's about as long as two grown-ups lying head to toe!
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Trombone
Instead of buttons, the trombone has a slide that moves in and out.
More about the trombone
Push the slide out and the note goes lower. Pull it in and the note goes higher. It can make a funny “whoop” sound.
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Tuba
The biggest and lowest brass instrument. It goes “oom-pah.”
More about the tuba
The tuba is so big that the player sits down and rests it on their lap.
The percussion family
How they make sound: you hit, shake or scrape them. Percussion keeps the beat. Some, like drums, make a bang. Others, like the xylophone, play real notes.
Percussion is the biggest family. Clap your hands and you are playing percussion too!
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Snare drum
A drum with metal wires under it. The wires rattle and make a crisp “tap-tap.”
More about the snare drum
The snare drum is played with two sticks. Marching bands use it to keep everyone in step.
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Timpani
Giant kettle-shaped drums. They can play different notes!
More about the timpani
The bowl is usually copper. A foot pedal makes the drum skin tighter for a higher note, or looser for a lower one.
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Xylophone
Wooden bars you hit with mallets. Short bars sound high and long bars sound low.
More about the xylophone
The name comes from two Greek words. Xylo means wood and phone means sound. So xylophone means “wood sound.”
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Cymbals
Two round metal plates you crash together. CRASH!
More about the cymbals
A cymbal crash is very loud, so players save it for the big, exciting moments in the music.
The keyboards family
How they make sound: you press keys with your fingers. Each key makes a different note. Inside, the key might make a hammer hit a string, let air into a pipe, or tell a computer chip to make a sound.
Keys on the left sound low. Keys on the right sound high.
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Piano
Press a key and a soft hammer hits strings inside. A piano has 88 keys.
More about the piano
Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano in Italy about 300 years ago. Its full name, pianoforte, means “soft and loud.”
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Pipe organ
Keys send air through big and small pipes. Some organs are as big as a house!
More about the pipe organ
Many organs have keys for your feet too. Players press long wooden pedals to play the lowest notes.
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Electronic keyboard
Keys tell a computer chip what sound to make. It can sound like a piano, a drum or a spaceship!
More about the electronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard needs electricity. You can plug it in, and some run on batteries.
Sound lab: big and small
Here is a music secret: big instruments sound low, and small instruments sound high. Bigger instruments have longer strings or longer tubes, and those vibrate more slowly.
How to play: press each button and listen. Which one sounds like a little bird? Which one sounds like a big bear?
Two string instruments
The violin is small. The double bass is huge.
Two wind instruments
The flute is a thin tube. The tuba is a giant tube.
All the sounds on this page are pretend sounds that the computer makes with Web Audio. They are not recordings of real instruments, so real ones sound even better!
Quiz: which family?
Look at each instrument. Pick the family it belongs to. Then press “Check my answers.” Hint: think about how you would play it!
Wolfgang's listening tips
- Next time you hear music, close your eyes. Can you guess which family is playing?
- Make your own instruments! A box with rubber bands is a string instrument. A pot and a spoon make percussion.
- Blow across the top of an empty bottle. You just played a woodwind sound, like a flute!
For grown-ups: orchestras usually group instruments into strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Keyboards are a fifth family that many elementary music classes teach on their own. In an orchestra, the piano is sometimes counted with percussion (its hammers strike strings) and the harp is a plucked string instrument. Saxophones and flutes are woodwinds because of how they make sound, even though they are made of metal. The sounds on this page are simple computer-made tones meant to show high and low and the feel of each instrument; for the real thing, look for free children's concerts or your local orchestra's online instrument videos.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked against:
- Dallas Symphony Orchestra, DSO Kids: the instruments (the orchestra families and instruments in each)
- DSO Kids: timpani (copper bowls and the tuning pedal)
- San Francisco Symphony: the harp and Philharmonia Orchestra: harp (47 strings, colored C and F strings)
- Britannica Kids: French horn and OUPblog: ten facts about the French horn (about 12 feet of tubing)
- Britannica Kids: bassoon (double reed, a tube about 8 feet long folded in half)
- Britannica Kids: saxophone (a single-reed woodwind, patented by Adolphe Sax in 1846)
- Britannica Kids: xylophone (the name means “wood sound”)
- The Met: the pianofortes of Bartolomeo Cristofori and piano.org: how the piano works (invented about 1700 in Italy, hammers and 88 keys)
Credits: Words, drawings, games and quiz by Wolfgang for the Jugami School Arts Department. All art is original, hand-made SVG. All sounds are made live in your browser with Web Audio: they are computer-made pretend sounds, not recordings, and nothing is downloaded. No ads, no tracking, and nothing you tap is saved or sent anywhere.