Sounds of Music

Sounds of Music

In music there are a variety of instruments that display the color of harmonies, when they are played in an orchestra or a band. The ranges of their sounds spans from the lowest pitch of a contrabass to the highest pitch of a piccolo. Moreover their classification derives by the group or section to which they belong.

The classification of instruments in music is divided into three broad classes or families which are percussion, string and wind. Many instruments have more than one characteristic and fall into more than one class. The piano, for example, is a string instrument as well as a percussion instrument.

Moreover in the group of percussion, the description of some of these instruments is very similar, since some of them consist of a drum shape. For example the typical description of any drum consist of a wooden cylinder that or hemispheres with calfskin stretched tightly one or both ends to form the head.

In the performance of percussion instruments, there are several of them that are executed in two ways. For instance some of these instruments are played with the palms of the hands or by using wooden sticks. The procedure when playing with the palms of the hand is as follow: both hands tap or strike simultaneously the head of the drum. In order to produce a different sound at the same time, the performer places one hand on the calfskin of the drum while strikes it with the other. The strength of the strike depends on the type of dynamic the performer is using. A good example of this kind of instrument is the conga. The conga consist of a wooden cylinder that or hemispheres with calfskin that stretches tightly the ends of the cylinder to form the head. The tension of the head is control by rods and screws. The purpose of such tension is to produce different sounds or to tune the instrument. Another way of playing percussion instruments is by using wooden sticks. This is the case in the drumset. The drumset consist in the collection of different kinds of drums and cymbals that make up this particular instrument. A typical drumset is arranged with a bass drum, a snare drum, tom-toms and three cymbals. Every peace of this instrument has a specific function in which simultaneously they dictate a rhythm or a pattern. For example the function of the bass drum consists in marking the down beat of the rhythm being played. The snare drum is in charge of marking the up beats of the rhythm. The toms and the cymbals signal the end of the rhythm or the introduction of a new pattern. The procedure of playing these instruments differs by hitting or striking the drums with the sticks instead of the hands. Since percussion instruments are most likely to be chasers of the rhythm, they constitute the rhythm section on any type of musical ensembles. There are also those instruments that constitute the harmony or the accompaniment in an ensemble; which in most cases is attributed to the string section.

In the string section we find instruments like the piano, the contrabass, the violoncello, the viola and the violin. As it was mentioned before, the piano besides being a percussion instrument it also has the characteristics of a string instruments. The description of the piano is very complex but it can be described as a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys. Since most of the time the task of the piano is to play several notes at the same time, this very function brings multiple sounds that accompany any peace of music. This type of accompaniment is usually referred as the chord progression.

Moreover string instruments such as the contrabass, the violoncello, the viola and the violin; though they are more likely to be melodic instruments, they function as harmonious instruments when played all at the same time. These instruments are commonly known as instruments of the violin family. When all these instruments are played together, they are distributed in four different voices which are: the bass, tenor, alto and soprano voice.

The structure of these instruments is very relative however the only contrast in them resides in their size and pitch. For example the body of the violin and viola are shallower than that of the violoncello or contrabass. The normal size of a violin is about two feet, the size of a viola normally is half foot longer than a violin, the length of a contrabass is about six feet long and the violoncello's length is about four feet. The range of the contrabass, it spans from three octaves below middle- c upward to one octave from middle -c. The violoncello on the other hand spans from two octaves from middle -c to two octaves up to middle c. Moreover the viola's range falls from middle- c to two octaves up from