Classical Musical Instruments Trivia Quiz

Answer: Contrabassoon

Typically a large orchestra will have only one contrabassoon player. The woodwind instrument is capable of playing the lowest notes for the entire orchestra equivalent to the A0 on the piano. At 27.5 Hz this note is barely perceptible by the human ear.

The tubing for the contrabassoon is folded over 3 times, otherwise, the pipe would be 18 ft (5.5 m) long! Due to the extreme length, it does take a sizable amount of air to play the contrabassoon, but the amount of pressure needed is less than an oboe.

Answer: Trumpet

Of the listed instruments only the trumpet is considered to be a brass instrument. While the saxophone is often made out of brass it uses a reed to produce the vibration for sound. The flute is also a woodwind instrument because the sound is made by blowing air across the embouchure (mouth hole). Brass instruments, like the trumpet, require the player to vibrate their lips in a buzzing way to create the vibration for sound.

Answer: 4

The violin, viola, cello, and bass all have 4 strings in an orchestra. The violin is the smallest of these instruments and as such is the highest pitched. Unlike a guitar, which has frets, the violinist has to rely on memory for where to place their fingers to play a note. Often in an orchestra, there are more violin players than any other instrument.

The orchestra will separate the violinists into two groups with the first group playing most of the melody and the second group playing the harmony.

Answer: Flute

Most of the woodwind instruments use either one or two reeds to create the vibration needed to play a note. The flute however relies on air being blown across the hole to create a vibration within the air column similar to blowing air over a glass bottle to make sound.

The concert flute typically has 16 finger holes to provide about 3 octaves of sound. The hole that is left open determines the sound produced. Also, the force of breath can change the pitch of the flute.

Answer: true

Most instruments use either the treble clef or the bass clef. The alto clef is sometimes called the viola clef which uses the high notes in the bass clef and the low notes in the treble clef. The alto trombone also uses the viola clef. The musical symbol for the alto clef looks a little bit like the number 3 with the note C4 being in the middle of the staff.

The viola looks like a slightly larger violin and in an orchestra, due to its lower pitch, will often play the harmony and rhythm rather than the melody.

Answer: Oboe

The first instrument that usually plays while warming up is an oboe playing the "A" note followed by the rest of the orchestra matching the oboe's note. So many things can affect the sound quality of most instruments, however, the oboe is very difficult to alter without replacing the reed. So, due to the inflexibility of the oboe, the other instruments are tuned to match it.

The oboe is often considered one of the more difficult woodwind instruments to play due to the specific breath technique needed to play a note.

Answer: They change the length of the trumpet tube.

By pressing down one or more of the valves of a trumpet the tube length is increased causing the tone to decrease. The actual notes are the result of the buzzing frequency produced by the trumpeter. The first valve will reduce one full tone, so, for example, a "G" would reduce to an "F" note.

The second valve reduces the note by a half tone, so going from an "F" to an "E" or a "C" to a "B" (think of piano keys that do not have a black key between either the "B" and "C" or the "E" and "F"). The third valve will reduce the note by one and a half tones, such as going from the "G" to an "E." Typically, a trumpet player will learn the lower-pitched notes first as it takes increasing skill to play higher pitches.

Answer: False

The French horn is a beautiful brass instrument with its tubing wrapped in a coil. Like all brass instruments, the player uses buzz vibrations to produce notes. The English horn, on the other hand, is a woodwind instrument shaped like a large oboe. The player produces sounds on the woodwind instruments with a vibrating reed. One might think the instrument must have originated in England but that is not the case.

There is no definitive agreement on how the English horn received its name, but a possibility is the Germanic name for the instrument in the Middle Ages was the engellisches horn which translates into "angelic horn." The Germanic term for angelic and anglo (a term for English) resulted in the name sticking.

Answer: It changes the pitch.

A timpani drum has one head stretched over a kettle shape. By pressing the pedal down the hoop around the drum head is stretched creating a higher-pitched sound. If the pedal is released, the tension on the drum head is lessened and a lower-pitched sound is produced. The shape of the kettle as well as where the head is struck can also create different pitches of sound.

Answer: Tamtam

While all four of these instruments will be found in the percussion section, the tam-tam is similar in function to a gong with one note. The other three instruments are set up in keyboard style with changing notes depending on which key is played. Xylophones and glockenspiels are similar in appearance with the main difference being xylophones use wooden bars while the glockenspiel uses metal.

The marimba also uses wooden bars but its way of producing sound is using resonator pipes of varying lengths beneath the bars to produce the sound.