Grade Six Music Theory General Knowledge, Lesson 2a.
Musical Instruments – Families and Names

For the grade six music theory exam you need to know several facts about musical instruments. You will need to know:

• which are the standard instruments in each family, and which other instruments are commonly used in a symphony orchestra
• the names of the instruments in Italian, German and French, including the plural forms and abbreviations (you only need to be able to recognise the names, not give them)
• what key(s) transposing instruments are in, and how these keys are written in other languages
• which instruments use a single or double reed to produce sound
• what note each string is tuned to, for string instruments

 We’ll look at each of these points in turn.

a. Orchestral Families. The orchestra is divided into four families, the woodwind, brass, percussion and strings. The standard instruments and additional optional orchestral instruments in each family are:

• Woodwind – flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon; plus piccolo, cor Anglais, bass clarinet, Eb clarinet and contrabassoon.
• Brass – trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba; plus bass trombone
• Percussion – timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle; plus tambourine, glockenspiel, xylophone and gong
• Strings – violin, viola, cello and double bass; plus harp

b. Instrument Names. Many instrument names in Italian, German and French are quite similar to the English – or close enough for you to be able to work out.

Some of them are, on the other hand, completely different. These are the ones you need to memorise!

Here are two tables of vocabulary – table 1 is “Easy” and table 2 is “Learn Me!”

Table 1 – Easy 

*the “h” and the “t” are silent, so in fact this is pronounced “obwa”.

Table 2 – Learn Me!

 
The words in bold are the ones which are likely to cause confusion!

** Do not confuse Tromba with Trombone!

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