The main groupings of musical instruments are percussion, woodwind, string, brass, and keyboard. These categories are based on how the instruments produce sound and their inherent characteristics.
These instrument families are broadly classified according to the Hornbostel-Sachs system, a comprehensive method of classifying musical instruments developed by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs. This system goes into greater detail but the five main groupings are the most commonly used in general discussion.
Here's a breakdown of each group:
-
Percussion: Instruments that create sound when struck, shaken, or scraped. Examples include drums, xylophones, maracas, and cymbals.
-
Woodwind: Instruments that produce sound when air is blown across an edge or into a reed, causing a column of air to vibrate within the instrument's body. Examples include flutes, clarinets, oboes, and bassoons.
-
String: Instruments that produce sound when strings are plucked, bowed, or struck. Examples include guitars, violins, cellos, and pianos (while pianos have a keyboard, the sound is produced by hammers striking strings).
-
Brass: Instruments that produce sound when the player vibrates their lips into a mouthpiece, causing a column of air to vibrate within the instrument. Examples include trumpets, trombones, French horns, and tubas.
-
Keyboard: This category contains instruments that are played using a keyboard. While the mechanism for sound production varies (strings in the case of pianos, air in the case of organs, electronic generation in the case of synthesizers), they are grouped together due to the common method of playing.
In summary, the classification of musical instruments into percussion, woodwind, string, brass, and keyboard provides a simplified and widely understood method of categorizing them based on their sound production and characteristics.
