WOODWIND INSTRUMENTS

ARE A FAMILY OF MUSICAL

INSTRUMENTS WITHIN THE MORE GENERAL
CATEGORY OF WIND INSTRUMENTS.
THE INSTRUMENTS IN THIS FAMILY ALL USED TO
BE MADE OF WOOD, WHICH GIVES THEM THEIR
NAME.
 THEY ARE ALL BASICALLY
NARROW CYLINDERS OR
PIPES, WITH HOLES, AN
OPENING AT THE BOTTOM
END AND A MOUTHPIECE AT
THE TOP.
There are two main types of
woodwind instruments:
Flutes (passing of
air) and reed instruments
(use of reed).
Playing by using
reed/s
FLUTES
A flute is a woodwind instrument shaped like a
thin pipe. Flutes produce sound from the flow
of air across an edge.
The flute is the oldest woodwind instrument,
dating to 900 B.C. or earlier. The first likely flute
was called the "ch-ie" and emerged in China

During the 1100s and 1200s, the flute was

widely used in courtly music and saw use as a
military signaling and marching tool. Swiss
mercenaries helped popularize it in the 1300s.
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of
the woodwindfamily of musical instruments
• highest-pitched woodwind instrument of
orchestras and military bands. It is a small
transverse (horizontally played) flute of conical
or cylindrical bore, fitted with Boehm-system
keywork and pitched an octavehigher than the
ordinary concert flute.
SINGLE REED INSTRUMENTS
A reed is a tall plant like grass that grows in or near
water. In music, it’s a small thin piece of cane, metal
or plastic in some musical instruments such as the
oboe or the clarinet that moves very quickly when air
is blown over it.
The CLARINET is a single-reed instrument
shaped like a pipe. There are clarinets with
different sizes and pitches;

the clarinet family has more than a dozen types,

but the word clarinet usually refers to
the B♭soprano clarinet, by far the most
commonly played clarinet.
Invented around 1690, the clarinet is a single-reed
woodwind instrument with a cylindrical tube. The clarinet
evolved from an earlier instrument called the chalumeau,
the first true single reed instrument.
The man universally credited for actually inventing, or
making, the clarinet was Johann Christoph Denner
(1655-1707) with the help of his son, Jacob, of
Nuremberg, Germany. J.C. Denner was well-known and
well-respected for the high quality woodwind instruments
he made.
What made the clarinet a clarinet was Denner's
great improvement to the old chalumeau
SAXOPHONE
it is the only woodwind instrument made of brass, but it
has a single reed in the mouthpiece. Although it is
found only occasionally in the symphony orchestra, it is
considered a member of the woodwind family.
Although most saxophones are
made from brass, they are
categorized as woodwind
instruments, because sound is
produced by an oscillating
reed, rather than lips vibrating
in a mouthpiece cup as with
the brass instrument family.
The saxophone is a relatively new instrument
that was invented during the 1840s and
patented in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian
musician and instrument maker

The sax is used in many genres of music

including classical, military and marching bands,
jazz, and contemporary music, including rock
and roll.
After Adolphe's death, the saxophone proceeded to
undergo changes, books for the saxophone were
published and composers/musicians continued to include
the sax in their performances. In 1914 the saxophone
entered the world of jazz bands. In 1928 the Sax factory
was sold to the Henri Selmer Company. To this day many
manufacturers of musical instruments create their own
line of saxophones and it continues to enjoy a prominent
position in jazz music