Rafael Palma Elementary School

PROJECT IN

MSEP

Submitted by:
DAVID JAM B. PUNZALAN (Acce II)

Submitted to:

MS. CARLA BACAYAN

Subject Teacher
BRASS INSTRUMENTS

A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by

sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the
vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones,
literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments".

There are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass

instrument. Slides, valves, crooks,(though they are rarely used today) or
keys are used to change vibratory length of tubing, thus changing the
available harmonic series, while the player's embouchure, lip tension and
air flow serve to select the specific harmonic produced from the available
series.

The view of most scholars (see organology) is that the term "brass
instrument" should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above, and
not by whether the instrument is actually made of brass. Thus one finds
brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn, the cornett, the serpent
and the didgeridoo, while some woodwind instruments are made of brass,
like the saxophone.

Modern brass instruments generally come in one of two families:

1. Valved brass instruments use a set of valves (typically three or four

but as many as seven or more in some cases) operated by the
player's fingers that introduce additional tubing, or crooks, into the
instrument, changing its overall length. This family includes all of the
modern brass instruments except the trombone: the trumpet, horn
(also called French horn), euphonium, and tuba, as well as the cornet,
flügelhorn, tenor horn (alto horn), baritone horn, sousaphone,
mellophone, and the saxhorn. As valved instruments are predominant
 among the brasses today, a more thorough discussion of their
workings can be found below. The valves are usually piston valves,
but can be rotary valves; the latter are the norm for the horn (except
in France) and are also common on the tuba.

2. Slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing.

The main instruments in this category are the trombone family,
though valve trombones are occasionally used, especially in jazz. The
trombone family's ancestor, the sackbut, and the folk instrument
bazooka are also in the slide family.

There are two other families that have, in general, become functionally
obsolete for practical purposes. Instruments of both types, however, are
sometimes used for period-instrument performances of Baroque or
Classical pieces. In more modern compositions, they are occasionally used
for their intonation or tone color.

1. Natural brass instruments only play notes in the instrument's

harmonic series. These include the bugle and older variants of the
trumpet and horn. The trumpet was a natural brass instrument prior
to about 1795, and the horn before about 1820. In the 18th century,
makers developed interchangeable crooks of different lengths, which
let players use a single instrument in more than one key. Natural
instruments are still played for period performances and some
ceremonial functions, and are occasionally found in more modern
scores, such as those by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

2. Keyed or Fingered brass instruments used holes along the body of

the instrument, which were covered by fingers or by finger-operated
pads (keys) in a similar way to a woodwind instrument. These
included the cornett, serpent, ophicleide, keyed bugle and keyed
trumpet. They are more difficult to play than valved instruments.
CORNET

The cornet /ˈkɔrnɪt/ is a

brass instrument very
similar to the trumpet,
distinguished by its
conical bore, compact
shape, and mellower
tone quality. The most
common cornet is a
transposing instrument
in B♭, though there is
also a soprano cornet
in E♭. Both are unrelated to the renaissance and early
baroque cornett.
TRUMPET

A trumpet is a musical instrument. It has the highest register in the brass

family. As a signaling device in battle or hunting, trumpets have a very long
history, dating back to at least 1500 BC; they have been used as musical
instruments
since the 15th
century.
Trumpets are
used in art music
styles, where
they are an
instrument in the
orchestra and in concert bands, and in popular music styles such as jazz.
They are played by blowing air through almost-closed lips, producing a
"buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column
inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century they have primarily been
constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded oblong
shape

There are several types of trumpet. The most common is a transposing

instrument pitched in B♭ with a tubing length of about 1.48 m (4 ft 10 in).
Earlier trumpets did not have valves, but modern instruments generally
have either three piston valves or, more rarely, three rotary valves. The use
of rotary valve trumpets is more commonly seen in European countries,
particularly Germany and Austria. Each valve increases the length of tubing
when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch.

A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter.

FLUGELHORN

The flugelhorn (/ˈfluːɡəl.hɔrn/—also spelled fluegelhorn,

flugel horn, or flügelhorn—from German, wing horn,
German pronunciation: [ˈflyːɡl̩hɔʁn]) is a brass
instrument that resembles a trumpet but has a wider,
conical bore. Some sources falsely consider it to be a
member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax
(who also developed the saxophone). Other historians
assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by
Michael Saurle (father) in Munich in 1832 (Royal Bavarian
privilege for a "chromatic Flügelhorn" 1832), which
predates
Adolphe Sax's
work.
ALTO HORN

The alto horn (US

English; tenor horn in
British English,
Althorn in Germany;
occasionally referred
to as E♭ horn) is a
brass instrument
pitched in E♭. It has a
predominantly conical
bore (most tube
extents gradually
widening), and
normally uses a deep,
cornet-like mouthpiece.
It is most commonly used in marching bands, brass bands
and similar ensembles, whereas the French horn tends to
take the corresponding parts in symphonic groupings and
classical brass ensembles.
MELLOPHONE

The mellophone is a three-

valved brass instrument in
the key of F or E♭ that is
used in marching bands and
drum and bugle corps in
place of French horns.
These instruments are used
instead because their bells face forward instead of to the
back (or to the side), as dissipation of the sound becomes
a concern in the open-air environment of marching. Tuning
is done solely by adjusting the piping, instead of adjusting
both piping and hand position as on the horn. Fingering for
the mellophone is the same as fingering for a non-trigger
(single) french horn.
Owing to its use primarily outside of concert music, there
is little solo literature for the mellophone, other than that
used within drum and bugle corps.
FRENCH HORN

The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the

"horn" in professional music circles) is a brass instrument
made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The
double horn in F/B♭ (technically a variety of German horn)
is the horn most used by professional bands and
orchestras. A musician who plays any kind of horn is called
a horn player (or less frequently, a hornist).

Pitch is controlled through the adjustment of lip tension in

the mouthpiece and the operation of valves by the left hand,
which route the air into extra tubing. Most horns have lever-
operated rotary valves, but some, especially older horns,
use piston valves (similar to a trumpet's) and the Vienna
horn uses double-piston valves, or pumpenvalves. The
backward-facing orientation of the bell relates to the perceived desirability to create a subdued
sound, in concert situations, in contrast to the more piercing quality of the trumpet. A horn
without valves is known as a natural horn, changing pitch along the natural harmonics of the
instrument (similar to a bugle). Pitch may also be controlled by the position of the hand in the
bell, in effect reducing the bell's diameter. The pitch of any note can easily be raised or lowered
by adjusting the hand position in the bell.

Three valves control the flow of air in the single horn, which is tuned to F or less commonly B♭.
The more common double horn has a fourth valve, usually operated by the thumb, which routes
the air to one set of tubing tuned to F or another tuned to B♭. Triple horns with five valves are
also made, tuned in F, B♭, and a descant E♭ or F. Also common are descant doubles, which
typically provide B♭ and Alto F branches. This configuration provides a high-range horn while
avoiding the additional complexity and weight of a triple.

A crucial element in playing the horn deals with the mouthpiece. Most of the time, the
mouthpiece is placed in the exact center of the lips, but, because of differences in the formation
of the lips and teeth of different players, some tend to play with the mouthpiece slightly off
center. Although the exact side-to-side placement of the mouthpiece varies for most horn
players, the up-and-down placement of the mouthpiece is generally two-thirds on the upper lip
and one-third on the lower lip. Usually, the player produces higher octave notes by increasing lip
pressure on the mouthpiece. Excessive pressure, however, makes the horn sound forced and
harsh, and decreases player endurance by about half.
TROMBONE

The trombone
(/trɒmˈboʊn/;[1] Italian
pronunciation: [tromˈboːne])
is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments,
sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the
air column inside the instrument to vibrate. Nearly all trombones have a
telescoping slide mechanism that varies the length of the instrument to
change the pitch.

Many modern trombone models also utilize a rotary valve as a means to

lower pitch of the instrument. Variants such as the valve trombone and
superbone have three valves like those on the trumpet.

The word trombone derives from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a
suffix meaning "large"), so the name means "large trumpet". The trombone
has a predominantly cylindrical bore like its valved counterpart the baritone
and in contrast to its conical valved counterparts, the euphonium and the
horn. The most frequently encountered trombones are the tenor trombone
and bass trombone. The most common variant, the tenor, is a non-
transposing instrument pitched in B♭, an octave below the B♭ trumpet and
an octave above the B♭ tuba. The once common E♭ alto trombone became
less widely used as improvements in technique extended the upper range
of the tenor, but it is now enjoying a resurgence due to its lighter sonority
which is appreciated in many classical and early romantic works.
Trombone music, along with music for euphonium and tuba, is typically
written in concert pitch in either bass or tenor clef, although exceptions do
occur, notably in almost all brass-band music where tenor trombone is
presented as a B♭ transposing instrument, written in treble clef.
BARITONE

The baritone horn, or sometimes just called baritone, is a low-

pitched brass instrument. It is a piston-valve brass instrument
with a predominantly cylindrical bore like the trumpet and uses a
wide-rimmed cup mouthpiece
like that of its peers the
trombone and euphonium. Like
the trombone and the euphonium,
the baritone can be considered
either a transposing or non-
transposing instrument.
In the UK the baritone is
frequently found in brass bands.
The baritone horn in the United
States is common in school and
university bands, the baritones
found in school inventories often
being older models as the
instrument over time is yielding
in popularity to the euphonium.
A person who plays a baritone horn is a baritone (horn) player or
baritonist.
EUPHONIUM

The Euphonium is a conical-bore, baritone-voiced brass

instrument that derives its name from the Greek word
euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" (eu
means "well" or "good" and
phonos means "of sound", so "of
good sound"). The euphonium is a
valved instrument; nearly all
current models are piston valved,
though rotary valved models do
exist. The euphonium is a non-
transposing instrument known for
its distinctive tone color, wide
range, variety of character and
agility. A person who plays the
euphonium is sometimes called a
euphoniumist, euphophonist, or a
euphonist, while British players
often colloquially refer to themselves as euphists, or
euphologists. Similarly, the instrument itself is often
referred to as eupho or euph.
TUBA

The tuba (UK /ˈtjuːbə/ or

US /ˈtuːbə/; Italian
pronunciation: [ˈtuːba]) is
the largest and lowest-
pitched musical
instrument in the brass
family. Sound is
produced by vibrating or
"buzzing" the lips into a
large cupped mouthpiece.
It first appeared in the
mid 19th-century, making it one of the newer instruments
in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba
largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for 'trumpet'.
A person who plays the tuba is known as a tubaist or
tubist. In the United Kingdom a person who plays the tuba
in an orchestra is known simply as a tuba player; in a
brass band or military band they are known as a bass
player.