Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [instruments]

For questions about generalities about instruments or groups of instruments.

Technical questions about an instrument, not how to play or practice it.

For example:

  • Why is a violin shaped the way it is?
  • Why can only a limited set of tones be bent on a harmonica?
  • How does the size of a mouthpiece relate to its name?
  • How does the type of wood used for a piano influence its sound?

Not:

  • How do I use a bow?
  • How do I bend a tone on the harmonica?
  • Which mouthpiece size is best for playing high tones?
  • What wood type is best for my home piano?
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Have orchestras included any modern instrument lately?

Over the years orchestras have added various new instruments to their set and I'm thinking that there are quite many modern interesting instruments that might be included in an orchestra set. Have there been any such inclusions of modern…
SovereignSun
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Do advanced musicians still practice scales every day?

I'm wondering if you're ever "done" or do you just go practicing them forever?
user34288
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Why do instruments have a key?

There are many instruments that have keys other than C. For example: The Eb Alto Saxophone The Bb Clarinet The Horn in F Why do these instruments have a key in the first place? Here's a more specific example: On the alto saxophone, in order to…
SirPython
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Why can't drums produce melody?

A note is a vibration at a certain frequency. A drum produces a tone with a certain pitch much like a string percussed with a mallet. Why is a drum unfit for playing a melody while a string inside a piano (or any other melodic instrument) is very…
Three Diag
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What is the difference between a xylophone, a glockenspiel, a marimba, a xylorimba and a marimbaphone?

What is the difference between an xylophone and a marimba? What about a glockenspiel and a xylophone? Is it just the material and size of glockenspiel?
relome
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What are the practical reasons for still having transposing instruments?

I understand that historically there was a need for transposing instruments. e.g. Brass instruments would use lead pipes to change their key and players in brass bands would like to stick to the same fingering when swapping between instruments. …
JohnLBevan
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Does the difference in harmonic series between instruments have a significant effect on the consonance of the sound?

We all know that an instrument's timbre is uniquely determined by its harmonic series. Harmonic series are also very effective in describing whether an interval is consonant or not. For example, the perfect fifth (say C to G) is consonant because…
Ma Joad
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What instruments are inexpensive, portable and not too loud?

I'm a college student, and I'd really like to start playing an instrument. But I want to find something that is: Inexpensive Small and portable enough to fit in a backpack Quiet enough to practice in my dorm room I'd like to find something that is…
cstack
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How to minimize the pain for a beginning guitar student so they won’t give up before they develop calluses?

This is a common problem and solving it will ultimately lead to a much higher success rate for beginning guitar students. So I wanted to share the information here on Music and Theory. Many of my beginning guitar students start out on their journey…
Rockin Cowboy
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Why do pianos not need to be tuned every time you play?

I usually tune my guitar and violin whenever I play them. I assume most people do too. But what makes piano strings different? I know it is a lot of work to tune a piano, but I'm under the assumption that pianos do not need to be tuned as often as…
user46372819
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Can wind instruments be played out of tune?

I believed that the trombone stands almost alone among wind instruments, in that it allows to play a continuous pitch range. The rest have a discrete set of possible notes (pitches), hence things are somewhat easier, in that (providing that the…
leonbloy
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Can I play pipe organ as a pianist?

I've never played pipe organ. I'm a pianist and a friend of mine ask me to play on the church on his wedding on a pipe organ. Are there enough difficulties playing a piano song on the pipe organ to make any problem? What considerations do I have to…
SysDragon
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Is there a broader term for instruments, like the gong, whose volume briefly increases after being sounded instead of immediately decaying?

For most instruments, their sound immediately begins to decay after they first sound. When you strike a piano key, for instance, the loudest sound is at the very beginning, after which the sound immediately dies out. But some instruments, like the…
Richard
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Can one tell by ear whether a bowed instrument is being played up or down?

I went to a concert the other day and noticed that the bows (violins, cellos, violas) were all coordinated as the orchestra played. It looks neat, but is there an audible difference if they're not in sync bow-wise? If there's a difference, is it…
Sarruby
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Why don't "classical" stringed instruments mark their note positions?

So, I understand why classical strings (violins, cellos etc.) aren't fretted, because of the change this makes in the tone. I've often wondered though, why the note positions aren't marked on the neck anywhere. Wouldn't notes relative to the open…
AJFaraday
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