Did you attend any symphonic orchestra concert before? Are you amazed by the various types of musical instruments being used and not even knowing some?
If you did go to a concert hall for a symphonic orchestra session before, you will see all the musicians sit in an organized arrangement that stretched across the stage. They will be playing different types of musical instrument which may includes piano, kettle drums and many others.
The actual number of musical instruments used in a symphonic orchestra may varies, but it will exceed the count of hundred. These instruments are generally divided into four main families, namely, strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
The strings family forms the main basis of the orchestra and the musical instrument being used are the violin, viola, cellos and double basses. All these instruments are structurally similar, but varying in size. The pitch of each group is inversely related to size, and hence the squeakiest note/noise is produced by the violin.
For the woodwind family, you will see the use of clarinet, flute, piccolo, oboe, and bassoon. Generally there will be four set of musical instruments for each type with the exception of the piccolo, which will be played only by one of the orchestra member
As for the brass section of a symphonic orchestra, they will be the French horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba. These are usually made from brass, but may also be made from other metal. The distinguishing feature is a cup-shaped mouthpiece.
Finally, the percussion section, which has the largest variety of instruments, but in an orchestra they will have the smallest number of players. The musical instruments used are the timpani, snare drum, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, chimes, xylophone, celesta, tam-tam, and the triangle. These are the loudest instruments in an orchestra and are generally positioned behind all other orchestra members because of the noise levels that each instrument can produce.