LIsten Up To These Musical Instruments! Quiz

Answer: Brass instruments

The brass instruments sound by blowing into them with lips placed against or inside a cup of metal, named the mouthpiece. These instruments are traditionally made from brass or bronze. They consist of long tubes, of varying length and thickness, valves, and a mouthpiece at one end and the bell at the other.

Answer: Woodwind instruments

These instruments, which belong to the woodwind family, were once all made of wood, hence their name, but today they can be found in other materials. All are made up of a tube with an opening at one end and a mouthpiece at the other; they all have a row of holes covered by keys.

They are played by blowing air through the mouthpiece and opening or closing the holes with one's fingers to change the pitch. Mouthpieces for some woodwinds have a thin piece of wood called a reed, which vibrates when the player blows across it.

Answer: String instruments

String instruments, also called chordophones, are those in which players produce string vibration by strumming, plucking, striking or drawing a plectrum or a bow across them.

Answer: Drum, tympani and cymbal

Percussion instruments are those that have a resonating surface which is struck by hands or some form of stick by the player. This family of instruments is the largest in the orchestra. Some percussion instruments are tuned and some untuned with no definite pitch. The percussionist, unlike other musicians in an orchestra, usually plays many different instruments in one piece of music.

Answer: False

False. In the piano the string is struck with a felt-covered hammer. When the piano key is pressed softly, the hammer strikes the string slowly generating a soft sound. When the performer strikes the string hard, the result is a loud sound because the hammer strikes the string quickly.

Answer: Piano

The piano is one of the most complex musical instruments. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs musical instruments categorization system, the piano is in the category of chordophones, with strings extended between two fixed points, which produce sound by plucking or moving a bow across them.

However, what causes the vibration of the piano strings are hammers hitting the strings. Therefore the piano can be considered both a percussion instrument and a string instrument.

Answer: 8,000

The Notre-Dame Cathedral organ, dated 1733, has undergone numerous processes of modernization and enlargement since its installation. Between 2013 and 2014, the Grand Organ was totally cleaned and modernized and currently it has around 8,000 pipes, 5 keyboards and 109 stops. During the fire suffered by the cathedral in 2019, the organ was not severely damaged by fire or water, but it was covered with toxic lead dust from the melting roof tiles and the spire.

In addition, the organ was exposed to the weather since the fire. Only in April 2020 the restoration work began on it, expected to end by April 2024.

Answer: Harp

On April 5, 1862, the Guinness family adopted the harp symbol as trademark for their brewery. The harp that served as a model for this logo was the 14th-century Irish harp, known as "O'Neill" or "Brian Boru" harp, which is housed in the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

Answer: It has a slide instead of valves

Brass family instruments have valves to change the pitch. But the trombone, instead of valves or keys, uses a slide with seven positions to change the pitch. A standard trombone is made up of two tubes connected so that one pipe slides into the other. The longer the column of air, the lower the pitch. It also has a short tuning slide to adjust intonation.

Answer: In the background

The layout of the musical instruments on the stage depends on the size of the orchestra and the size of the stage. However, usually percussion instruments occupy the whole back row.