Types of Brass Instruments

An opera or an orchestra would be a real damp squib, if it were not for the lovely and melodious brass musical instruments. They add that extra zing to music concerts, with their distinct melody. Trumpets, saxophones, clarinets, etc. are categorized in it. These are basically those where the sound or the tone is generated by the lip vibration of the player, blowing into a resonator. This resonator is tubular in shape and is made of brass.

Brass instruments have been a part of music history since ancient times. Let's take a look at the various types in the contemporary and modern eras -

Valved Brass Instruments

This type has a set of valves ranging between 3 and 4, going to 7 in some of them. These valves are worked upon by the player's fingers,creating additional tubing. Most of the modern ones, like the trumpet, the French horn, the euphonium, the tuba, the cornet, the sousaphone, the old saxhorn and some others as well, are valved.

The Seasoned Campaigner: Trumpet is the oldest and is most popular. It dates back to almost 1500 BC and is the most obvious choice for the classical and jazz musicians. It is made of a brass tubing, designed in an oblong shape. In fact, a trumpet can be categorized as classic instrument. The most common type of trumpet, is the transposing one. Be it a music band or a traditional orchestra, trumpet reigns and how!

A la Bugle - Horn: The horn or the French Horn, is another classic type, inspired from the natural horn. It consists of a whopping 12 feet of tubing, covered with a coil and has a flared bell. Horns typically have valves, operated by the left hand, to direct the air into the tubing for a change of pitch. There are various types of horns like the natural horn, the double horn, the single horn, the March horn, the Wagner tuba, the Vienna horn and so on. It is most often referred to as just the horn, and is a regular feature of an orchestra and other chamber music types.

The Unassuming - Tuba: Tuba is perhaps the biggest of all. Its uniqueness is its low pitch. A tuba is played by vibrating the lips into a cupped mouthpiece. Interestingly, 'tuba' is the Latin word for a trumpet, and those who love it, will be happy to know that it is the latest entrant to the modern symphonic orchestra. Tuba often provides symphony for jazz music and was a part of the jazz, long before it was a part of the orchestra.

The Cousin of the Trumpet - Cornet: This one could be safely called the sibling or cousin of the trumpet, because of its stark similarity with trumpet. Although a cornet is more compact, it has a conical bore and has a unique tone quality, that is mellower than the trumpet. A concert band, brass band and symphonic repertoire, all have cornets playing a significant role when it comes to creating a harmony.

Slide Brass Instruments

When you talk of this type, they appear to be a bit more complicated. They are made in such a way, that a part of the instrument has to collide on to another, to create a symphony or a harmony.

'Reed' the Lips - Trombone: It is an aerophone, where music is created when the player's vibrating lips make the air column to vibrate. Its identified by its special telescopic slide, which is used to vary the length of the tube, to result in the pitch variation.

Wood Wind Instruments

These are played by blowing air against an opening in the instrument, which causes the air in the resonator to vibrate. Flutes and saxophones primarily and traditionally fall in this category, but some of the variations are made of brass, especially, the saxophone.

Saxophone: Saxophone is undoubtedly the most popular brass instrument, almost as well-known as the trumpet, or may be even more. Sax, as it is simply called, has a single reed mouthpiece and is a conical-bored, transposing instrument. It is made of a conical tube of thin metal, flared at the tip, in the shape of bell. It, interestingly enough, has been named after its inventor, Adolphe Sax . Saxophones have carved a niche for themselves in military band music, as well as the popular music, jazz, rock and roll, blues, big band music, etc. Be it any form of music, Saxophones cannot be ignored and if you do not know about them, well, you might even be a subject of social ridicule!

All the instruments are classified into different categories, pertaining to their design, the way they are played, redundancy and their initial harmonic tone. Some others according to these criteria, are alphorn (wood), conch (shell), didgeridoo (wood, Australia), shofar (horn) and vladimirskiy rozhok (wood, Russia).

I opted to not elaborate these classifications and familiess, as it would have made this already long article even longer! So get a hold of at least one of these types, and go the symphonic way! Hopefully, people would not say that you are 'blowing your own trumpet'!