The Woodwind Family Flashcards
What does the woodwind section of the orchestra include?
The woodwind section of the orchestra includes oboes, clarinets, bassoons and flutes.
What were all The woodwind instruments made of in the past?
In the past all these instruments were made of wood, but these days they can made of plastic, metal or wood.
What do you have to do to all of the woodwind instruments to make a sound?
All the instruments have to be blown to make a sound.
Name the five members of the strings family?
Flute, piccolo, bassoon, clarinet, oboe
What is the flute?
The flute is the only member of the woodwind family that’s not made of wood!
What is the piccolo?
The piccolo is about half the size of the flute and sounds higher.
What were ancient flutes made of?
Ancient flutes were made from animal bones including swan, vulture and mammoth tusk
Where does the woodwind family sit in the orchestra?
Right in the middle
What are woodwind instruments like?
They are like magical spirits. Their sound leaps and twists and twirls through the air.
How can the woodwind family play?
They can play delicately and sing the most beautiful melodies. But they can also be full of fury too.
What is the woodwind section home of?
The highest and lowest voices in the orchestra.
What is the highest instrument in the woodwind family?
Piccolo, part of the flute family
What is the lowest instrument in the woodwind family?
Bassoon, it growls and rumbles lower than the double basses
What is in between the highest and lowest instruments?
The clarinet and oboe. Like bassoons clarinets and oboes all make their sound when the player blows through a piece of bamboo cane, shaped into a reed
What is the flute used in?
The flute is used in many different types of music including jazz, folk and orchestral.
What is the person who plays the flute called?
A flautist
Why is it funny to think that the flute is part of the woodwind section of the orchestra?
It’s made of metal, but in the early orchestras, flutes were made of wood
How do you make a sound in the flute?
By blowing in over the hole
How could you try to blow into something like a flute?
Using a bottle, you make the sound by blowing across the bottle
How many octaves can a flute play?
About 3, starting on a low C
What is the piccolo an octave higher than?
The flute, so when you play a printed C it will actually sound an octave higher than that
What are oboes like?
Oboes, like bassoons, need a double reed to produce a sound - it’s a bit like blowing through a blade of grass between the thumbs.
How long have oboes been used in the orchestra for?
About 400 years
How many sizes of oboe are there?
There are 6 different sizes of oboe. One of them is called the oboe d’amore which means oboe of love.
What are oboe reeds made from?
Oboe reeds are made from cane which is a type of grass
When was the oboe that we would recognize first invented?
Around 1650, in the court of Louie the Son King. The oboe has developed from that.
What is the reed made of?
Two pieces of cane, which are symmetrical and vibrate together when you blow down them to produce a sound.
What happens when you put the reed in the oboe?
The sound changes
How do you change the pitch on the notes?
Moving your fingers up and down on the various keys on the instrument
What does the instrument start on?
A bottom B flat
What is a cadenza?
It’s a moment when one instrument takes the centre stage and has a little bit of artistic freedom, their not conducted in the same way. So however you play the cadenza is up to you, it’s like a creative artist.
What kind of an instrument is the oboe?
A very very expressive instrument
Where does the oboes strength lie?
In its ability to deliver a beautiful solo line and its used all the time by composers. It has a kind of soul to it, the sound of the oboe which makes them unique
What is the Clarinet used in?
The clarinet is used in many different types of music including jazz, folk and orchestral.
What are the pads underneath the keys of a clarinet often from?
The pads underneath the keys of a clarinet are often made from something called ‘fishskin’, which isn’t fish skin at all but is in fact the intestine of a sheep or cow.
What does a clarinetist have to put together?
A clarinetist has to pug the seven parts of the clarinet together before it’s ready to play
How are plastic clarinets made!
Plastic clarinets are made by melting tiny pellets of plastic and forcing the liquid plastic into a mould
What was the last of the orchestral woodwind instruments to be invented?
The clarinet
What is the clarinet made of?
African black wood now, but in the early days it would be made of box wood and the clarinet would have had a lovely brown colour
How many keys would the very early clarinets have had?
2, one on the bottom and one on the top, over the last 200 years, gradually more and more keys have been added to the clarinet that we know of
What is the most important part of the mouthpiece?
The reed
What kind of an instrument is the Clarinet?
A single reed instrument, different to the oboe and bassoon which are double reeds
What will happen if you try to make a sound using a mouthpiece with no reed, what would happen?
It would make no sound
What happens when you put the reed in the mouthpiece?
You should be able to make sound
Why is the bassoon so awkward?
The bassoon is awkward to hold so bassoonists use a sling or strap to make it more comfortable to play.
What is the bassoon split into?
The bassoon is split into 6 parts to make it easier to carry around. The bassoonist needs to fit the parts together to play it.
What does an orchestra usually have?
Orchestras usually have two bassoons and a contrabassoon which is even bigger and lower in sound than the bassoon p
What does a bassoonist’s left thumb have to control?
A bassoonist’s left thumb has to control up to ten keys
What kind of reed does a bassoon use?
A double reed, two reeds of a cane (a sort of bamboo) and they’re bunged together quite tightly
What happens when you blow into a reed?
They vibrate, first of all towards each other and then away again at great speed
What is the full orchestral range of the bassoon?
3 and a half octaves
What shape is the bassoon?
A cone
Why does it turn round at the bottom?
Because there are two tubes inside
What are the order of the woodwind family from highest to lowest?
Piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon
