32: Introduction to Musical Instruments: Part 3 of the Mastering Music 101 Basics for Homeschool Parents series

Welcome to another engaging episode of the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, hosted by seasoned homeschooler and music educator, Gena Mayo. In this installment titled "Introduction to Musical Instruments: Part 3 of the Mastering Music 101 Basics for Homeschool Parents series," Gena delves into the fascinating world of musical instruments, providing an accessible guide for homeschool parents.

Drawing from her expertise of over 30 years in music education, Gena offers an enriching overview of the four fundamental families of instruments you might encounter in an orchestra: percussion, strings, woodwinds, and brass. Additionally, she introduces listeners to the keyboard family, expanding the traditional scope of these musical categories.

Gena begins with the percussion family, detailing how instruments like drums, cymbals, tambourines, and xylophones are played by striking, shaking, or rubbing. She explains the unique sound production methods of each instrument and why the piano might be included in this family due to its felt hammers striking strings.

Next, she covers the string family, featuring violins, violas, cellos, double basses, and the harp, discussing how the size and resonance of these instruments influence their pitch. Gena explains that smaller instruments produce higher pitches and larger ones produce lower pitches, enhancing your understanding of their role in the orchestra.

In the woodwind section, Gena discusses instruments from the piccolo to the bassoon, emphasizing how blowing into these instruments and the presence of reeds (in some cases) creates their distinctive sounds. She further explains the correlation between the size of the woodwind instrument and its pitch.

Moving on to the brass family, Gena covers trumpets, french horns, trombones, and tubas, shedding light on how these instruments produce sound through the player's embouchure and the extensive tubing that characterizes brass instruments.

Finally, Gena introduces the keyboard family, which encompasses instruments like the piano, clavichord, organ, and synthesizer. She describes the diverse ways these instruments generate sound and highlights the universal aspect of their patterned keys.

Throughout the episode, Gena reassures homeschool parents that an in-depth mastery of these concepts isn’t necessary to create a music-rich curriculum for their children. Instead, she encourages learning alongside them to foster a shared love for music.

To wrap up, Gena shares a plethora of resources available at musicinourhomeschool.com, including specialized music history and theory courses, self-paced beginning instrument instruction courses, and more to further assist parents in providing quality music education.

Don’t miss out on this informative session, packed with practical insights and resources to support and enrich your homeschool music journey!

Find all links for resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/intro-to-musical-instruments/

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Transcript

Introduction to Musical Instruments: Part 3 of the Mastering Music 101 Basics for Homeschool Parents series

[00:00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to today's workshop on Mastering Music 101: Basics for Homeschool Parents. My name is Gena Mayo and I'm thrilled to be here with you today. For those who haven't met me before, I'm a veteran homeschooler of eight children and a music teacher with over 30 years experience. My oldest is 23 and my youngest is 12.

Four kids have graduated and are either working or are in college. The other four, I'm still homeschooling for middle and high school. Today we're going on a journey to explore fundamental music concepts. And my desire is to empower you to confidently lead your children's musical education in your homeschool.

Let me say, however, that you as the homeschool parent do not have to master these concepts in order to help your children learn them. I want to just give you an overview today. And you can continue to learn more as you learn alongside your [00:01:00] child. In today's workshop, we will cover an overview of instruments and instrument families. So let's begin. 

Let's learn about the four families of instruments of the orchestra and an additional family I'll teach you about. If you were to attend a symphony orchestra concert, you would see that there are specific instruments in it. The string section is typically right in front of the conductor. Then you would see a woodwind section and off to the back or side is the brass section. Usually the percussion section is at the very back. 

Let's talk about the percussion family first. The way I like to describe a percussion instrument is that it contains instruments you strike, rub, or shake.

So picture a drum. You hit a drum, either with your hands or with a drumstick. What about cymbals? You can hit them together or tap brushes or drumsticks on them. Some percussion instruments that you would shake include tambourines or maracas. And some that you would rub would [00:02:00] be a wooden guiro that you scrape with a small stick to get it to sound, or sand blocks. 

Some other percussion instruments include the glockenspiel, which is a type of metal barred instrument, the xylophone with wooden bars, all kinds of drums, the gong, chimes, wood block, cowbell, and triangle. 

Sometimes the piano is included in the percussion family. It's also considered a keyboard instrument, which we'll talk about in a moment. But the reason it's considered a percussion instrument is because the sound is produced by a felt hammer hitting the string. 

Next we have the string family, which includes violins, violas, cellos, and double basses, as well as the harp.

If you look at those four instruments, you'll see that from smallest to biggest, they are violin, then viola, then cello, then double bass. One thing I want you to notice about these instruments is that the [00:03:00] smaller the instrument, the higher pitch they typically play. And the bigger the instrument, the lower the pitch.

It also has to do with the amount of resonance that an instrument can have inside of it. --a double bass has more space inside of it than a violin does-- as well as the size of the strings. Or if we're talking about other instruments, maybe the length of the tubing.

Now we're going to talk about the woodwind family. The woodwind family includes instruments such as the flute and piccolo, the oboe and English horn, bassoons, contrabassoons, and even the saxophone. The definition of a woodwind instrument is that you are blowing into it. It sometimes has a reed. A reed is a little piece of wood, really, reed that is sticking out the top. You could see it. in the oboe, but other instruments have it hidden inside the mouthpiece, such as the saxophone. [00:04:00] And just like I mentioned with string instruments, the smaller the instrument, the higher the pitch. So the smallest woodwind instrument is typically the piccolo. It has a very high pitch and the bigger ones, such as the bass clarinet and bassoon have low pitches. 

Next, let's move on to the brass family, which includes French horns, trumpets, trombones, and tubas. Again, from smallest to biggest, there would be trumpet, then French horn, then trombone, and tuba. And that works with the sounds that it makes as well.

You will see that there are some similarities between the brass family and the woodwind family. You're blowing into each of these instruments. But the difference comes with the type of mouthpiece it has. With a brass instrument, you have to do something with your lips and your tongue to create a tightening called an embouchure to help produce the pitch.

Brass instruments don't have reeds, nor are you blowing across the top of the hole as you do with a [00:05:00] flute or piccolo. The other thing that's different is all the piping that's wound about in a brass instrument. Those tubes are much, much longer than what you would see with a woodwind instrument, and many brass instruments have valves that you press to help change the pitch.

The final instrument family to discuss is the keyboard family, with the piano, clavichord, organ, harpsichord, celesta, digital piano, and synthesizer. What do all of these have in common? Well, they don't all produce pitches the same way. As I mentioned earlier, the piano has a felt hammer that hits the string. The clavichord has something that plucks the string. The organ can have air blowing through it. Or maybe you plug it in and it's an electric organ. The digital keyboard produces a synthesized sound. So what they all have in common is the keyboard, the particular pattern of black and white keys [00:06:00] that help a person determine what note to play.

Hopefully, Mastering Music 101 Basics for Homeschool Parents, has provided you with a comprehensive overview of fundamental music concepts that will empower you to confidently guide your children through their music education. Remember though, you do not need to be an expert to teach these concepts effectively. By understanding the basics of music theory, appreciating the rich history of music, and familiarizing yourself with various instruments and genres, you'll create a well rounded and engaging musical curriculum for your children. Continue to explore and learn alongside them, fostering a shared love for music and enriching your homeschool experience. 

I have a number of resources that you can check out to help you further your kids' music education. I have three main music history courses over at [00:07:00] Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com called Music Appreciation of the Middle Ages through the Classical Era, Music Appreciation of the Romantic Period, and 20th Century Music Appreciation. I also have three music theory courses: Beginning Music Theory for Elementary, Beginning Music Theory for Teens, and Advanced Music Theory. Two of those are available for members of the Music in Our Homeschool Plus Membership. You can learn about that at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/membership. 

Over at Music in Our Homeschool, I have a wide range of options for all ages, preschool through high school. For the littlest ones, we have 10 Songs All Preschoolers Should Know and KinderBach, available in six levels. The elementary ages are filled with a variety of music appreciation courses, such as Learn Classical Music with Cartoons, as well as Recorder Time with Mr. Jerry, suitable for children aged 8 and up, [00:08:00] and Guitar Time with Ben, designed for ages 10 and up. These beginning instrument instruction courses are self paced and allow children to learn at their own speed. 

If you're looking for a variety of options for high school fine arts, we have you covered there too, with all of the music history and music theory courses I mentioned.

Definitely take a look at the Music in Our Homeschool Plus membership since it provides the most cost effective way to incorporate a quality music education for all of your children. 

If you'd like to contact me, please email me at Gena@MusicinOurHomeschool.Com. That's Gena with an E. Or find me at MusicinOurHomeschool.com.

Get a set of free music lessons at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/FreeMusicLessons, or a 25-lesson music education sampler course at MusicinOurHomeschool.com/Sampler. Thanks for joining me [00:09:00] today. Bye-Bye. 

Find links for all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/intro-to-musical-instruments/