Where Do I Go? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Percussion

A musical instrument is anything that has been made to make musical sounds. People used to make sounds themselves by clapping or stamping and then they learnt to create things to make them for them.

Percussion instruments make a sound when they are hit or struck by the hand or something else. All the different types of drums are in this group, either using hands or drumsticks to make the sound.

Answer: Percussion

A person who plays an instrument is known as an instrumentalist or a musician. Most musicians play one instrument and often join with others to create a music group, band or orchestra.

There are many instruments that make sounds by hitting themselves like bells, cymbals and rattles. A bell is struck by either an inner clapper or an outer hammer. The tambourine does both, the metal jingles make a sound from either shaking it or you can hit like a drum.

Answer: Percussion

Small bells have loose small balls within them which make sound when they are shaken and the ball hits different sides. Then there are many bells that are played to make music.

Church bells often have a group of bell ringers who ring bells of different notes to create music. The group of bells they ring is called a carillon.

A carillon is also an actual musical instrument made of at least 23 bells with different notes. It looks like a keyboard but when you hit the key it makes a particular bell ring.

Answer: Strings

Early musical instruments were made for a purpose, like a horn to start a race or bells that were rung to let people know dinner was ready; over time people started to create sounds that sounded pleasing together.

String instruments make a sound when the strings are vibrated. They come in a few different types. The first are stringed instruments with a body and neck. The guitar is one of these.

Answer: Strings

Instruments were originally made by objects that people found in nature like reeds of plants for whistles and shells for percussion. Then people figured out why they made the sound they did and started to reproduce them with man made items.

Some stringed instruments, like guitars, have strings that vibrate because they are plucked or strummed with the fingers or a pick known as a plectrum. Others, like those of a violin, are made to vibrate by rubbing the strings with a bow.

Answer: Strings

Lyres and harps are played the same way but are in two different group because of their shape.

Lastly, but not included in this quiz, are the zithers which have many strings across a thin flat body. A piano is one of these string instruments; when you press the keys a hammer strikes the strings to make them vibrate.

Answer: Woodwind

One type of musical group is the rock or pop band. This has a strong drum or percussion section that sets the beat. It usually contains a couple of guitars rhythm, bass or electric and a keyboard. Some include other instruments, including woodwinds.

Woodwinds are one of the two wind groups which produce sound by blowing air into them. They do not need to be made of wood; in fact a lot of them, such as the saxophone, are metal.

Answer: Woodwind

Orchestras are another way in which people play music together. They usually play classical music and can have over 100 people with all sorts of instruments.

One group of woodwinds uses reeds to work. These are thin strips of material inside the instrument that vibrate as air is blown over them. Clarinets and saxophones use reeds to work.

Answer: Woodwind

There have been many ways of classifying musical instruments but the most common is in how they actually produce the sound.

The other woodwind group uses what is known as a fipple. A fipple splits the air as the player blows across its surface, which makes the air in the chamber beneath it move. All flutes and pipes use fipples.

Answer: Brass

There are many types of bands that use brass instruments, the obvious being the brass band which often has a small percussion section too. The typical British brass band includes 10 cornets, 6 horns, 3 trombones, 2 euphoniums, 4 tubas and 2 or 3 percussive instruments.

Brass instruments do not need to be made of brass although many are. It is how they make music that classifies it. They are the other half of the wind group requiring blown air to work. For brass instruments, the player created the vibration themselves, using their lips, as they blow air into the instrument.

Answer: Brass

Marching bands usually have a lot of brass instruments but also include woodwinds and percussion. Most wear a uniform and play while marching.

The brass family make different notes by changing the amount of air inside the instrument. This can be done by pressing valves to close off parts of the air column, as in the case of members of the horn family.

Answer: Brass

Military bands have percussion and both types of wind instruments and perform at military functions, including funerals. They can play ceremonial and marching music which includes the national anthems of lots of countries.

Instruments like the trumpet change the air inside by having valves that are pushed in while others have a slide that changes the length of the tubing, this technique is used by the trombone family.