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THE HUMAN VOICE AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSTHE HUMAN VOICESinging is the oldest way of making music, so the human voice can be considered the oldest instrument. There are several parts of the human body involved in the production of the human voice: breathing is the process in which we take air and push it out. In between this process, air is kept in the lungs. The pressure of the air leaving the lungs produces the voice when the vocal cords vibrate. These vocal cords are in the larynx. The greater the tension of the vocal cords, the higher the pitch of the sound. Some parts of our body (the rib cage, the nose, the empty parts of our skull and others) act as a resonating chamber, amplifying the sound. Voices can be classified according to their range:Women’s and children’s voices SopranoThe highest voiceMezzosopranoThe intermediate voiceContraltoThe lowest voiceMale voicesTenorThe highest voiceBaritoneThe intermediate voiceBassThe lowest voiceMUSICAL INSTRUMENTSThere are four instrument families: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Why are they called families? Because the instruments in each family share characteristics like: how they make their sounds, how they are constructed and the materials that are used to make them. The String familyThe string family makes up more than half of the orchestra. Although many of the string instruments look similar, they are very different in size and sound. As you can probably guess from the name, all of the instruments in this family have strings, which are made of gut, steel or nylon. You play string instruments by drawing a horsehair bow across the strings (the violin, the viola, the cello and the double bass) or plucking the strings (the harp and the guitar). The piano is considered a string and percussion instrument, because the hammers strike the strings by depressing the keys of the keyboard.The woodwind familyLong ago, all the instruments in this family were made of wood, but now some are made of wood or metal or a combination of materials, such as the flute. The wind part refers to air that is blown through the instruments to make them sound. The wind is actually breath!Woodwinds are basically long narrow tubes with holes. Many of the holes have little covers called keys. By blowing across or into the tube, air is set in motion throughout the length of the tube. Except for the flute, these instruments use a thin piece of wood called “reed”, which vibrates when the player blows across it. The clarinet and the saxophone use a single reed (just one piece of wood), while the oboe and the bassoon use a type of reed made of two pieces joined together. You make different sounds by covering and uncovering the holes with your fingers, or by pressing the keys.The brass familyBrass instruments really are made of brass. These instruments along with some percussion instruments can play the loudest of all the instruments of the orchestra. Brass instruments are basically very long tubes with flared ends called “bells”. The brass tubes have been curved and shaped to make them easier to hold. You play a brass instrument by putting your lips into a cup-shaped mouthpiece and buzzing. This buzzing makes air vibrate down the long metal tubes and creates sound. Many brass instruments have valves that look like buttons. When you press the valves, they open and close parts of the tubes. You change the sound by pressing different valves and buzzing harder or softer. The trumpet has the highest pitch, then comes the French horn, the trombone and the tuba.The percussion familyThe percussion family includes a lot of instruments, from small to large and from simple to complicated. To play a percussion instrument, you hit it (a drum), shake it (the maracas) or scrape it (the guiro). Sometimes you hit it against itself (the cymbals and the castanets) and sometimes you use sticks or mallets (the timpani and the snare drum). It may sound easy, but requires great skill to hit an instrument with the right force, in the right place, and at the right time. Percussion instruments are used to keep the rhythm, create texture, make special sounds, and even play different notes. Some are tuned and can sound different notes like the xylophone and the glockenspiel, and some are untuned with no definite pitch, like a bass drum or the castanets.Electric and electronic instrumentsAn?electric musical instrument?is one in which the use of electric devices determines or affects the sound produced by an instrument.?It is also known as an?amplified musical instrument?due to the common utilization of an electronic?instrument amplifier?to project the intended sound as determined by electronic signals from the mechanical instrument. This is not the same as an?electronic musical instrument, which uses entirely electronic means to both create and control sound.The electric guitar and the electric bass are electric musical instruments.The most commonly used electronic instruments are?synthesizers. Soprano Contralto Tenor Bass Violin Viola Cello Double bass Oboe Bassoon Clarinet French horn Trombone Tuba Drums Maracas lesson Timpani introduction HYPERLINK "" Xylophone HYPERLINK "" Electric guitar Synthesizer ................
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