Jaron Lanier, an Instrument

The Star Spangled Banner is a song that is played with both brass and woodwind instruments. When I first heard of brass and woodwind instruments, I thought that brass were the low pitches of the band, making the woodwinds the high pitches. Additionally, percussion is its own group and is neither brass nor woodwind. My knowledge before was incomplete, and then I finally learned the truth when defining brass and woodwinds.

According to a composer of classical music, Jaron Lanier, an instrument is, “a device where you can explore a huge range of possibilities through an interface that connects your mind and your body, allowing you to be emotionally authentic and expressive.” Brass instruments include several types of instruments, whereas woodwinds consist of a diverse type of instruments within instrument families. Brass instruments include french horn, trumpet, tuba, baritone, trombone, and others. Brass instruments are defined as instruments without reeds, whereas the woodwinds are described as instruments with reeds. A reed is a wood slip that vibrates to make sound on the mouthpiece. Those include flutes, the saxophone family, clarinet family, and many more. Although flutes don’t use a reed, they are still considered woodwinds because they use the air to make sounds. Percussion includes many different objects and are described as instruments that a person strikes. All these instruments make various sounds, but are they really different?

The most spectacular element of these musical apparatuses is their sounds. They are alike and also quite different. Each group has a particular voice and taste when being performed, along with several similarities. Before I played an instrument, my knowledge was incomplete and once I was educated about instruments, I finally learned the truth. Brass instruments only can play mid-point and low pitches; however, trumpets can hit high notes, although not as high as woodwinds. Brass instruments are the boom, bass and rumble of the band. The tuba and baritone are both part of the suspense in a song. Brass instruments taste like both metal and spit when performing the beats of a verse. While brass instruments hit the low pitches, woodwinds are hitting all types of pitches, allowing the audience to hear the melody and highness of the song. Even though the woodwinds are a big part of the calmness and smoothness of the song, clarinets and bass clarinets, along with the tuba and baritone, are important to the suspense in a song. When playing a piece, woodwind instruments tend to taste like spit, brass, and/or wood (hence the name). Finally, the percussion make all different types of sounds because they have many different shapes and sizes. Also, they are the backbone of the band. Brass and woodwinds are two separate types