Musical Instruments Tabla
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The family of wind instruments: from the recorder to the horn by Michele De Capitani
Among the families of musical instruments, wind instruments are probably the first ones that we have an experience of in our life. The recorder, just to make an example, is perhaps the first â and often also the only â instrument that you try to play at school and sometimes even at the infant school. However, the family of wind instruments also includes many other instruments, from bagpipes to the sax.
First of all, we can say that wind instruments are those instruments that can make sounds by means of a vibration of air, without using strings or vibrating membranes. Wind instruments are divided in two categories, depending on whether the vibrating air is contained in the instrument itself â as happens in flutes, reeds and brasses – or not. The family of flutes includes popular instruments like the recorder and the transverse flute, but also less popular instruments, like the piccolo and the ocarina. The term reeds stands for those instruments, like the clarinet, which have a thin plastic strip, which is called reed, at the end of the extremity, which vibrates with the pressure of the air. In addition to clarinets, this family also includes instruments like saxophones, oboes and bagpipes. The brass section includes instruments in which the reed is made of the lips of the person who plays, like trumpets and trombones.
An example of aerophones in which the air is not contained in the instrument are free reed instruments. This category includes instruments in which the vibration is caused by an elastic reed, like mouth-organs, accordions, harmoniums and bandonens.
If you have a passion for musical instruments, most notably for wind instruments, there are museums that you must visit. Not many museums are mainly focused on this family, but the Muse des instruments vent in La Couture-Boussey, in France, and the Museo Etnografico of Turin, in Italy, belong to the most important ones. The French Museum is set in a city that is well-known for the production of wind instruments since the 17th century, and preserves some rare pieces: English horns, oboes, clarinets, recorders and transverse flutes. The Quarna Museum, too, rises in a city where the production of wind instruments is notably relevant. The Museo Etnografico e dello Strumento of Quarno includes a section on handmade instruments, which can also help you learning something more about how these instruments are created, and a section on the history of the village. The musical instrument section includes over 300 pieces – some of them are rare – , like bassoons, clarinets, oboes, saxophones, wood flutes, trumpets, trombones and brass horns. The museum also offers interesting educational activities, music events, concerts and competitions.
Visiting these museums can certainly be useful to learn something more about the wide and diverse world of aerophones, which includes many different instruments that you might know or never heard about in your life.
This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with help from accordatore. For more information please visit pannelli acustici or strumenti viola.
Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/The-family-of-wind-instruments–from-the-recorder-to-the-horn/971454
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Have an Ear for Music? Wrong! You Can Sing! by Tatiana Bandurina
Some of you will disagree and say that the absence of the musical ear runs in the family: your dad, grandfather, great-grandfather and aunt didn’t have one…
Continuing on the theme of music education for parents, I’d like to say: Hold on! Let’s come to an understanding once and for all.
Last time, we talked about how parents can start their newborn’s music education. They have learned that their child’s abilities, including musical, depend not only on genetics, but also on the environment you create for him.
If you can not repeat a tune and someone else in your family could not sing, this only indicates that your relatives were unable to find the suitable “musical” environment for you. But it was not their fault, because their own childhood was just as “non-musical.”
Most people are absolutely sure that inborn musical abilities and voices are impossible to change. Yet the truth is, everyone has a natural ear for music and a singing voice. Any person who can hear and speak has an ear for music!
Moreover, people at any age can learn to sing properly. In this case, you will have to make certain efforts: learn a special breathing technique, special articulation, and learn to control your vocal chords. You must also be very diligent and persistent. All this put together can drastically change your voice and, accordingly, develop your ear for music.
If your child shows an interest in music and musical instruments, you should immediately indulge this interest and introduce him to a music teacher. If the teacher tells you that “Your child is a charming boy/girl, but absolutely has no musical talent,” don’t listen! Get a second, third, or fifth opinion, and find a teacher who is a true professional and can instruct you how to work with your child by creating an individual music education plan for him.
Of course it is more interesting and easier for music teachers to work with gifted children, but if the musical abilities of your son or daughter have not been revealed yet, do not give up on music lessons. You are not too late; you can still help them.
Once I worked at a musical school in small town in Sakhalin, Russia. The number of children wishing to play musical instruments had been limited, and we sometimes had to enrol almost everyone without preliminary testing. Quite often we had up to 40 percent of “tooters,” as we, the musicians, called them. Those were children who were not able to sing. So why did we teach them? Simply because as teachers, we could not refuse them as the desire to learn and the initiative came from the kids themselves.
Adults and children who can hear a tune “in their head” but can not reproduce it vocally and would like to correct the problem can reverse this with training. Sometimes this problem is not very obvious, and it can not be seen right away. But as children develop creatively, the problem becomes more apparent and leads to the inability to express themselves. In the future, “tooters” may develop a number of inferiority complexes, such as feelings of isolation and other personal problems.
Even when it seems that hearing and voice coordination has been disrupted, this problem can be mended.
Copyright (c) 2010 Tatiana Bandurina
Tatiana Bandurina is an educator, an inventor and an author of the book Voices of our children.
Tatiana is now a chief of Quintecco Educational Products, Inc., the website is http://www.quintecco.com. She develops new trend in education – Music Education for Parents.
Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Have-an-Ear-for-Music–Wrong–You-Can-Sing-/699716
