The Brass or ‘Brasswind’ Family

Like the woodwinds, all the brasswind instruments require the player to use their breath to make sound.  Very often they are made of brass, but even if they’re made of nickel, silver or wood, we still call them “brass instruments”.

note: Saxophones are often made of brass, but because they use a single reed attached to a mouthpiece to make sound, we consider them woodwinds.

The true distinguishing feature of the brass family is the use of the lips to make sound.  Brass players blow air through their lips to make the lips flap – this is called “buzzing”.  Here’s a video of someone alternately buzzing alone, and then into his trumpet.   Notice how the instrument makes the sound much louder and nicer?

There are 4 brass instruments commonly found in the orchestra:

The biggest difference between the brass instruments is size.  Just like the string and woodwind families, the larger the instrument, the lower the sound.  What gets a little tricky about the brass though, is that their tubing can be coiled up to make a very long instrument more compact.  Although the horn (sometimes called “french horn”) is a tube about 3.7 metres long, it is coiled up so it can fit nicely in the player’s lap.

Here’s the famous Canadian Brass playing flight of the bumble bee:

Advertisement