What are the types of musical instruments
Musical instruments can be classified according to many criteria, but the most common is to divide them into families of instruments according to how they produce sound. Because this traditional classification was too much directed towards the instruments of the symphony orchestras, the musicians Curt Sachs and Erich Hornbostel proposed in 1914 a new method of classification. In this way, we want to explain in detail what are the types of musical instruments.
String instruments or chordophones
Stringed instruments or cordófonos -according to the classification of Sachs-Hornbostel (1914) - are those that produce the sound through the vibration of strings, either because they are percudidas, rubbed or pinched.
Examples:
- Rubbed string : guitar, violin, cello, double bass ...
- Percussed string : piano, harpsichord, keyboard
- Pulsed or clamped string : guitar, bass, harp, zither, etc.
Wind instruments or aerophones
Wind instruments, also called aerophones in the most recent classification, generate sound through the vibration of a column of air that rubs with a tongue, lips or vocal cords. Within this typology of musical instruments, we can make a subdivision according to how the timbre is produced:
- Wind-metal or metal : trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba, horn ...
- Wind-wood or wood : clarinet, flute, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, harmonica, accordion, etc.
Percussion instruments or membranophones
The membranophones or percussion instruments are those that sound by the vibration of a membrane that is struck or rubbed, either by hand, brushes, drumsticks, etc.
Some examples are:
- Drum
- Drum
- Drum
- Drums
- Zambomba
- Gong
- Tambourine
- Castanets
Idiophones
It is important to note that this type of musical instrument is not found in the traditional classification, but appears in the Hornbostel-Sachs. It is understood by idiófonos those instruments in which the sound is due to the vibration of the own material with which they have been constructed, or because they are percutidos, shaken, rubbed, etc.
Although many consider them as percussion, we could include as idiophone instruments:
- Xylophone
- Castanets
- Keys
- Bell
- Maracas
Electrophones
Also, due to the modernization of musical instruments, in the twentieth century was added another type of musical instruments: the electrophones, that is, those that generate sounds through electronic means.
It would therefore be about instruments as in the synthesizer and the theremin, but the guitar or electric bass that are only electroacoustic instruments included in string instruments are not included here.
