Carnegie Hall

• Watch the video Families of the Orchestra below.
  • Which instruments did you recognize?
  • Did you see or hear any unfamiliar instruments?
  • What are some other instruments that you are familiar with?

• At the Link Up concert, you will see and hear many types of musical instruments. Each instrument has unique characteristics, such as the different ways they produce a sound, the materials used to create them, and their overall appearance. These characteristics ultimately divide instruments into four families: woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings.
• Play the four instrument family tracks below while students refer to Instrument Family Portraits (PDF). You can also use the Instrument Family Sounds (PDF) activity, which allows students to take notes as they listen.

• Pause after each instrument and ask the following questions:
  • What do you notice about this instrument?
  • What is unique about the way this instrument sounds?
• Below are some characteristics to keep in mind as you go through this activity with your students:
  • Appearance (colors, shapes, sizes)
  • Materials used (wooden tubes, metal tubes, reeds, double reeds, wooden bodies, strings)
  • Mechanisms and structures (slides, valves, bells, f-holes, finger holes, mouthpieces, bridges, bows, keys, pads, separable sections, mutes)
  • How sound is produced (breath, buzzing lips, fingers, bows, striking, shaking, scraping)
  • Show students how the families are grouped together on the stage by reviewing The Orchestra Map (PDF).

Complete the following activities to assess your students’ knowledge of the instruments and their families. For additional instrument identification assessments, refer to the Music Skills Assessment (PDF).

Part 1 (Visual)

• Complete the activity Instrument Identification (Visual) (PDF).
  • We are going to identify instruments of the orchestra. Fill in the boxes next to each image.
  • Also, write in one musical fact about each instrument. Notice that the first example is completed for you.
• Have students form pairs and check one another’s work.

Part 2 (Audio)

• Play the eight instrument identification tracks below.
• Complete the activity Instrument Identification (Audio) (PDF).
• Compare and discuss answers.
• Play tracks again as needed.

• At the culminating Link Up: The Orchestra Swings concert, you will see two ensembles performing together: a symphony orchestra and a jazz ensemble consisting of piano, bass, drums, trombone, trumpet, and saxophone or clarinet.
• Refer to The Jazz Ensemble (PDF) to look at photos of different kinds of jazz ensembles.
  • Which instruments do these ensembles have in common?
  • What are some differences that you notice between the ensembles?
• Jazz ensembles come in many different sizes. Ensembles with less than 10 members are referred to by the number of musicians in the group:

  Duo = two musicians
  Trio = three musicians
  Quartet = four musicians
  Quintet = five musicians
  Sextet = six musicians
  Septet = seven musicians
  Octet = eight musicians
  Nonet = nine musicians

• Jazz ensembles with more than 10 members, who are divided into sections, are often called big bands.
• You may notice that a jazz ensemble can include many of the same instruments as the orchestra, such as the trumpet, trombone, clarinet, flute, and bass. But some instruments used prominently in jazz—like the saxophone and guitar—are rarely found in orchestras. Sometimes jazz ensembles also feature a singer. Another defining characteristic of jazz ensembles is the importance of the rhythm section, generally made up of the piano, bass, drums, and sometimes guitar. While the rhythm section carries the beat, the other musicians in the band play the melody and have exciting musical conversations that they improvise on the spot.

• With the Instrument Family Portraits (PDF), study the instruments in their appropriate family boxes while listening to the four instrument family tracks below.
  • Symphony orchestras are designed to play many kinds of music from various times and places. Orchestras from different cities all over the world include more or less the same instruments, sitting in more or less the same places.
  • What if you designed your own orchestra to play a single special kind of music?

• Model and complete the activity My Own Orchestra (PDF).
• Share your work with Carnegie Hall by emailing linkup@carnegiehall.org.

• Students can choose up to six more instruments to add to the rhythm section to create an ensemble.
  • Which instruments do you think would sound good together? List or draw them in the activity My Own Jazz Ensemble (PDF).
• Legendary trumpet player Miles Davis created a nonet that included some instruments typically found in the orchestra, like the French horn and the tuba. The ensemble recorded a 12-track album called Birth of the Cool that was released in 1957.