IAMU 114-02 Music in the Worlds Cultures Keene State College Spring 2015 Gerstin

ASSIGNMENT 1
INSTRUMENTS
Due Jan. 27
For this assignment, you will be assigned either to winds, strings, tuned percussion, or
other percussion. Find a YouTube link to an example of your instrument type that you are
unfamiliar with, preferably something thats not a well-known Western orchestral or pop
instrument. Email me your url (jgerstin@keene.edu) or send it to me on Canvas, no later than 8
p.m. on Jan. 26 so that I can organize everyones urls for class.
Try searches such as string instrument (country), folk music (country), traditional
instrument (country), inserting the name of a country of your choice. Also, try to find an example
of an instrument playing its traditional music. Dont get seduced by, for example, Jimi Hendrix
played on a Korean gayageum (no matter how cool it is).
You do not have to know the name of the instrument you find. Just find it.
INSTRUMENT TYPES
Ethnomusicologists do not use the instrument classifications of Western classical music
(for example, woodwinds), but rather a system based mainly on construction, and secondly on
playing technique. I have simplified this system for this course. There are four major instrument
groups: winds, strings, percussion, and electronic.
Winds. Winds are categorized by construction and playing technique. There are three main types:
flutes, horns, and reeds.
Flutes: Blowing across a hole creates vibration in the air inside the instrument.
Examples: flute, bottle
In ducted flutes, you blow directly into a hole instead of across it, but a channel
inside the instrument directs your breath against the main body of air.
Example: recorder
Horns: Vibrating or buzzing your lips while blowing into a tube creates vibration in the
air inside the instrument. Horns are also known as brass but can be made of wood,
animal horn, or many other materials.
Examples: trumpet, trombone, tuba
Reeds: Blowing over a thin, tapered piece of reed or cane creates vibration in the air
inside the instrument.
Examples: saxophone, clarinet, bassoon
In a harmonica, the reeds are internal. They are also internal in bagpipes; the bag
pumps air through the reeds. Accordions also pump air through internal
reeds, and
have a keyboard or buttons attached.
Strings. You can play most string instruments in a variety of ways; for example, you can strum or
pluck a guitar, and bow or pluck a cello. However, most strings use just one or two main
techniquesnot many people bow a guitarso playing technique works as a rough guide. The
most common techniques are bowing, plucking, strumming, and striking.
Bowing: Drawing a taut set of strings (the bow) across the instruments strings.
Examples: violin, cello, orchestral bass
Plucking: Pulling on the strings with your fingers or a pick.

Examples: guitar (fingerpicking), banjo, jazz bass

Strumming: Stroking the strings with your fingers.
Example: guitar
Striking: Hitting the strings with a small stick.
Examples: hammer dulcimer, piano
On a piano, pressing a key makes a small hammer strike the corresponding string.
Percussion. Striking or shaking the instrument creates a sound.
Tuned percussion: Multiple pieces of wood, metal, or other material, each piece tuned to
a different note. Tuned percussion instruments can play melodies.
Examples: xylophone, vibraphone
Drums (membranophones): Striking a skin or membrane, which is attached to a
resonating chamber (the drums body).
Examples: timpani, bass drum
In a frame drum, the drums body is just a shallow frame to hold the skin.
Example: tamborine
Bells: A resonant object, often but not always metal, is struck with a stick. Unlike a
drum, the body of the instrument itself is struck.
Example: cowbell
Rattles (shakers): Seeds, beads or other small objects strike the body of the instrument.
Examples: maracas, baby rattle
Maracas or baby rattles are internal shakers but the seeds can also be external.
Example: shekere
Rasps (scrapers): The instrument has grooves cut into it, which you scrape with a small
stick.
Example: guiro
Sticks (strikers): A pair of sticks are themselves struck together to create sound.
Example: claves
Electronic. A new type of instrument barely fifty years old, in which sounds are generated
electronically.
Examples: synthesizer, sampler
On an electric guitar, the sound is amplified electronically but not created
electronically. You still play it by plucking or strumming strings. It is not an
electronic instrument.