Instrument Categories!

Have you ever gone to a music store just to look around? (I highly recommend the Long and McQuade that is just west of Chinook Center) It's a super fun family activity to check out all the instruments in a big music store like that! You don't have to buy anything but it's great to look around and see what's there. You can play a family game, trying to identify the names of different instruments or what category they might belong in. 

Did you know that there are many ways to categorize musical instruments??

This week students are learning that the 3 Big Categories are Wind, String and Percussion but you could also categorize according to:

- pitched or non-pitched (instruments that can only play one pitch are called non-pitched)

- size (big and small)

-pitch (high or low sound)

-electric or acoustic (does it need to be plugged in?)

-price (expensive or inexpensive)

-orchestra instruments (woodwind, brass, string, percussion)

-how they are played (blown, bowed, plucked, strummed, hit, bang, shake, scrape)

- genres (what style of music they are often used for - country, rock, jazz, classical, etc.)

There are even categories within categories. For example, within non-pitched percussion there are drums, shakers/scrapers, metals and woods.

Students are learning about what's inside a harmonica this week and about how some Wind Instruments don't need to be blown. The accordion has bellows that push air into the reeds to make the sound.