Instrument
One instrument plays a tune you know. Six families, twenty-one instruments: which one do you hear?
Five games drawn at random, one try each →Five games drawn at random.
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How to identify an instrument by ear
People think they recognise an instrument by its melody. They do not, and that is why the exercise feels hard here: every instrument plays the same tune. What tells them apart is the way the sound begins.
Listen to the attack, the very first fraction of a second. A struck note starts clean and dies away on its own: piano, xylophone. A bowed note builds gradually and can last indefinitely: violin, cello. A blown note starts with the noise of air before the pitch settles: flute, clarinet, trumpet. A plucked note snaps then falls away quickly: guitar, harp.
Once you have the family, the register does the rest. A violin lives up high, a cello an octave below, a double bass lower still. Same with the brass, from trumpet down to tuba. Getting the right group already scores half the points, which always beats guessing at a name.
What is the difference between woodwind and brass?
Not the material, despite the names. In a woodwind, the sound is born from breath across an edge or a reed. In a brass instrument, it is born from the player's lips vibrating in a mouthpiece. The saxophone is metal but is still a woodwind.
How do you tell a violin from a cello?
By pitch above all. The cello sounds a good octave lower and its timbre is rounder, closer to the human voice.
How many instruments are possible?
Twenty-one, in six groups: keyboards, bowed strings, plucked strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
Five games drawn at random, one try each →Five games drawn at random.