Woodwind Instruments

"This instrument is based on a two-keyed original by the 18th-century London maker Caleb Gedney now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The exterior appearance of this instrument is exceptionally elegant. Its tone is sweet. The range is two octaves plus a tone, F3 to G5. The tenor oboe is played in the oboe band, where its function of filling in the harmonies is fulfilled in a most admirable way, and can also be used as a substitute for the oboe."

http://www.roberthcronin.com/oboes.htm

Julia Robers (actress) and Chester Pitts (NFL Texans)

Well, that depends on what you mean by popular. One popular song today is Acker Bilk's Stranger on the Shore. Here are some very popular works of the clarinet's

CLASSICAL repertoire:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto, Clarinet Quintet

Gioachino Rossini: Introduction, Theme and Variations

Carl Maria Von Weber: Clarinet Concertino, Clarinet Concerto No. 1, Clarinet Concerto No. 2, Grand Duo Concertant

From the JAZZ repertoire:

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (only the intro, but it is one of the most well known clarinet excerpts EVER)

Artie Shaw: Clarinet Concerto

pretty much anything by Benny Goodman

Jérome Thomas: Moonlight Serenade

And CONTEMPORARY repertoire (a very odd genre of music, in my opinion, but whatever floats your boat):

Donald Martino: A Set for Clarinet (arguably the hardest song written for Clarinet)

Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet

Smith's 5 pieces for Clarinet

Berio: Sequenza for Clarinet

Nielsen Clarinet Concerto (This is also considered classical, but many contemporary elements as well)

Copland Clarinet Concerto ( This has a few jazz elements, but ultimately Copland's effort to write a "Jazz Concerto" for Benny Goodman was a failure, and while it is popular, it is definitely not jazz, although it contains a few jazz and classical elements)

Flutes and Piccolos don't use reeds. Also for E.C., an oboe doesn't use a reed either. :)

Yes, the cold temperature affects the quality of a saxophone because the metal becomes very cold causing the instrument to go flat. Opposite: Very hot temperatures can cause a saxophone to become more sharp than usual also. Temperature can also effect the saxophone reed, causing it to dry up or full of spit.

The clarinet is a single reed http://www.answers.com/topic/woodwind instrument. Clarinets come in many different sizes, with different pitch ranges. Though there are more than a dozen different modern clarinet types, the most common ones used in orchestras and bands are the B flat and A clarinets. The bass clarinet, which is much bigger than the standard and has an upwardly curved bell, is also frequently used in modern bands and orchestras. Other clarinets include the A flat, B flat, and E flat sopraninos, alto clarinets, contralto, and contrabass clarinets. The standard clarinet consists of five parts-the mouthpiece, the barrel or tuning socket, the upper joint, lower joint, and the bell. A thin piece of cane called a reed must be inserted in the mouthpiece before the instrument can be played. Different notes are produced as the player moves his fingers over holes and metal keys which open and close air holes in the clarinet's body. Mozart was the first compose to put clarinets in an orchestra most wooden clarinets come from Africa

a qualitiy bassoon is about 250,000

a really good quality bassoon can cost 250,000

that's a very, very expensive bassoon. Most run around 8-15000 and are fine quality. a good quality bassoon is around 25000 dollars.

mine weighs about 15lb, but its thicker (which means its a higher quality)

One of the groups at the farthest point is the Percussion instruments.

Woodwind especially the double reed instruments are more difficult with the exception of the French Horn a brass instrument which is probably the most difficult wind instrument of all to play properly.

I would stay clear of any Selmer Bundy instruments. I got a clarinet and a flute of the same make (I'm stupid) and they both were terrible. I finally have better instruments now. A buffet Festival which is a professional model. For a clarinet for a beginner though I would recommend a Buffet beginner model. Also Leblanc instruments are good too.

My friend has a selmer bundy 577. I've played it a fair bit. It's the best student clarinet tone I've ever heard and it blows very easily. Oddly, the barrel is a bit loose on most mouthpieces (except the one it comes with). After trying his, I went clarinet shopping and tried all the Bundys they had in local stores (not 577s though) and they were all very unspectacular. Since they are student models, I imagine that quality is more variable than the pro models, but, like my friend, you might just get lucky.

An idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument's vibrating, without the use of strings or membranes. Therefore, all tuned percussion instruments (primarily keyboard instruments like marimbas, xylophones, vibraphones, etc) are idiophones. Even woodblocks, maracas, and triangles are considered idiophones. Basically any percussion instrument that isn't a "drum" is an idiophone.

because some guy had a great idea to make a clarinet, but sometimes it was impossible to get to one note to the next, so people kept adding different levers and things to make it playable. Although it is still impossible to get from an f to an f-sharp to a d.

An English Horn, which is basically an Alto Oboe. If you are looking for the baritone or contra-alto variants, they are called a Bassoon and a Contra-Alto Bassoon, respectively.

The saxophone may play either melody or harmony. However, as an instrument that was designed to simulate the human vocal apparatus it often tends to play melody. The alto sax is more likely to play melody (as opposed to harmony) than the tenor sax, being a higher-pitched instrument.

All instruments in the woodwind family are important. The most popular are flute, clarinet, and alto sax. These usually have the melody. The oboe, bassoon, tenor sax, bass clarinet, and bari sax are not as popular but are important. The oboe might have a part of the melody, but sometimes it doesn't. I play the oboe and for one of my band songs i rest for 30 of the 50 measures. bassoon, tenor sax, bari sax, and bass clarinet hav the bass line. so all the woodwind family is important.

Bassoon are used in many different types of music, but often do not have the melody. They can do rock and soft rock (if you can move your fingers fast), and slow whole note songs. But throughout these different types, the bassoon does not usually have the melody, and instead holds whole notes or has a lot of half notes.

This is all based on my experience with the bassoon, it may vary for you.

Contrabassoon or Double bassoon. Now even a Contraforte

Here are some songs that are quick and easy to learn:

The Lion Sleeps Tonight- c d e d e f e d c d e d c e d - g e d e g f e d c d e d c e d

Happy Birthday- c c d c f e - c c d c g f - c c a g f e d - bflat bflat a f g f

You still can play the flute, just you have to adjust your fingers to play effectively and keep the fingers on the holes. But if you really want to play the flute, but can't, you can still play the piccolo or a treble flute, they're just flutes but smaller, higher, (and in the Treble flute's case) tuned in a different pitch!

The flute is longer than a oboe and an oboe has a double reed and a flute does not have a reed. The flute has a cylindrical bore while the oboe has a conical bore. The fingerings are definitely comparable, but not the same. The oboe has a range from Bb below the treble clef to Ab twice above the treble clef, while the flute has a huge range from C below the treble clef to D twice above the treble clef.

Yes, a tube is bigger than a clarinet and a Violin size wise but if you mean popular instrument in a orchestra or band, clarinet is usually the biggest sections in a band tubes are usually one or two if you are lucky.

The mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument is the part of the instrument which is placed partly in the player's mouth. Single-reed instruments have mouthpieces while exposed double-reed instruments and open flutes do not have mouthpieces. The oboe and the bassoon are two instruments that have a double reed.

This is a question with several answers:

The vibration of the reed causes sound to be created against the mouthpiece, because it is hollow the sound moves through the mouthpiece and into the neck. the sound moves down the body and comes out the first open hole it comes across. The only time it comes out of the bell is when you close all pads (either a low E-flat or a low C).

This is an important difference from brass, in a brass instrument the sound ALWAYS comes out of the bell, on the Bass Clarinet (and all other woodwinds), it comes out of the holes. This is important if you ever use a microphone to record yourself, on a brass instrument, you just aim at the mic and you're good to go, on woodwinds you have to place the mic half way down the body and a short distance away (2-3ft) so the sound can be captured evenly.

So with that in mind, the final answer is "all sorts of places" every time you change your fingers, the sound comes out of a new hole.

It has 23 keys and weighs about 20lbs.