The Woodwind Family

Question 1

What does the woodwind section of the orchestra include?

Answer 1

The woodwind section of the orchestra includes oboes, clarinets, bassoons and flutes.

Question 2

What were all The woodwind instruments made of in the past?

Answer 2

In the past all these instruments were made of wood, but these days they can made of plastic, metal or wood.

Question 3

What do you have to do to all of the woodwind instruments to make a sound?

Answer 3

All the instruments have to be blown to make a sound.

Question 4

Name the five members of the strings family?

Answer 4

Flute, piccolo, bassoon, clarinet, oboe

Question 5

What is the flute?

Answer 5

The flute is the only member of the woodwind family that’s not made of wood!

Question 6

What is the piccolo?

Answer 6

The piccolo is about half the size of the flute and sounds higher.

Question 7

What were ancient flutes made of?

Answer 7

Ancient flutes were made from animal bones including swan, vulture and mammoth tusk

Question 8

Where does the woodwind family sit in the orchestra?

Answer 8

Right in the middle

Question 9

What are woodwind instruments like?

Answer 9

They are like magical spirits. Their sound leaps and twists and twirls through the air.

Question 10

How can the woodwind family play?

Answer 10

They can play delicately and sing the most beautiful melodies. But they can also be full of fury too.

Question 11

What is the woodwind section home of?

Answer 11

The highest and lowest voices in the orchestra.

Question 12

What is the highest instrument in the woodwind family?

Answer 12

Piccolo, part of the flute family

Question 13

What is the lowest instrument in the woodwind family?

Answer 13

Bassoon, it growls and rumbles lower than the double basses

Question 14

What is in between the highest and lowest instruments?

Answer 14

The clarinet and oboe. Like bassoons clarinets and oboes all make their sound when the player blows through a piece of bamboo cane, shaped into a reed

Question 15

What is the flute used in?

Answer 15

The flute is used in many different types of music including jazz, folk and orchestral.

Question 16

What is the person who plays the flute called?

Answer 16

A flautist

Question 17

Why is it funny to think that the flute is part of the woodwind section of the orchestra?

Answer 17

It’s made of metal, but in the early orchestras, flutes were made of wood

Question 18

How do you make a sound in the flute?

Answer 18

By blowing in over the hole

Question 19

How could you try to blow into something like a flute?

Answer 19

Using a bottle, you make the sound by blowing across the bottle

Question 20

How many octaves can a flute play?

Answer 20

About 3, starting on a low C

Question 21

What is the piccolo an octave higher than?

Answer 21

The flute, so when you play a printed C it will actually sound an octave higher than that

Question 22

What are oboes like?

Answer 22

Oboes, like bassoons, need a double reed to produce a sound - it’s a bit like blowing through a blade of grass between the thumbs.

Question 23

How long have oboes been used in the orchestra for?

Answer 23

About 400 years

Question 24

How many sizes of oboe are there?

Answer 24

There are 6 different sizes of oboe. One of them is called the oboe d’amore which means oboe of love.

Question 25

What are oboe reeds made from?

Answer 25

Oboe reeds are made from cane which is a type of grass

Question 26

When was the oboe that we would recognize first invented?

Answer 26

Around 1650, in the court of Louie the Son King. The oboe has developed from that.

Question 27

What is the reed made of?

Answer 27

Two pieces of cane, which are symmetrical and vibrate together when you blow down them to produce a sound.

Question 28

What happens when you put the reed in the oboe?

Answer 28

The sound changes

Question 29

How do you change the pitch on the notes?

Answer 29

Moving your fingers up and down on the various keys on the instrument

Question 30

What does the instrument start on?

Answer 30

A bottom B flat

Question 31

What is a cadenza?

Answer 31

It's a moment when one instrument takes the centre stage and has a little bit of artistic freedom, their not conducted in the same way. So however you play the cadenza is up to you, it's like a creative artist.

Question 32

What kind of an instrument is the oboe?

Answer 32

A very very expressive instrument

Question 33

Where does the oboes strength lie?

Answer 33

In its ability to deliver a beautiful solo line and its used all the time by composers. It has a kind of soul to it, the sound of the oboe which makes them unique

Question 34

What is the Clarinet used in?

Answer 34

The clarinet is used in many different types of music including jazz, folk and orchestral.

Question 35

What are the pads underneath the keys of a clarinet often from?

Answer 35

The pads underneath the keys of a clarinet are often made from something called 'fishskin', which isn't fish skin at all but is in fact the intestine of a sheep or cow.

Question 36

What does a clarinetist have to put together?

Answer 36

A clarinetist has to pug the seven parts of the clarinet together before it's ready to play

Question 37

How are plastic clarinets made!

Answer 37

Plastic clarinets are made by melting tiny pellets of plastic and forcing the liquid plastic into a mould

Question 38

What was the last of the orchestral woodwind instruments to be invented?

Answer 38

The clarinet

Question 39

What is the clarinet made of?

Answer 39

African black wood now, but in the early days it would be made of box wood and the clarinet would have had a lovely brown colour

Question 40

How many keys would the very early clarinets have had?

Answer 40

2, one on the bottom and one on the top, over the last 200 years, gradually more and more keys have been added to the clarinet that we know of

Question 41

What is the most important part of the mouthpiece?

Answer 41

The reed

Question 42

What kind of an instrument is the Clarinet?

Answer 42

A single reed instrument, different to the oboe and bassoon which are double reeds

Question 43

What will happen if you try to make a sound using a mouthpiece with no reed, what would happen?

Answer 43

It would make no sound

Question 44

What happens when you put the reed in the mouthpiece?

Answer 44

You should be able to make sound

Question 45

Why is the bassoon so awkward?

Answer 45

The bassoon is awkward to hold so bassoonists use a sling or strap to make it more comfortable to play.

Question 46

What is the bassoon split into?

Answer 46

The bassoon is split into 6 parts to make it easier to carry around. The bassoonist needs to fit the parts together to play it.

Question 47

What does an orchestra usually have?

Answer 47

Orchestras usually have two bassoons and a contrabassoon which is even bigger and lower in sound than the bassoon p

Question 48

What does a bassoonist's left thumb have to control?

Answer 48

A bassoonist's left thumb has to control up to ten keys

Question 49

What kind of reed does a bassoon use?

Answer 49

A double reed, two reeds of a cane (a sort of bamboo) and they're bunged together quite tightly

Question 50

What happens when you blow into a reed?

Answer 50

They vibrate, first of all towards each other and then away again at great speed

Question 51

What is the full orchestral range of the bassoon?

Answer 51

3 and a half octaves

Question 52

What shape is the bassoon?

Answer 52

A cone

Question 53

Why does it turn round at the bottom?

Answer 53

Because there are two tubes inside

Question 54

What are the order of the woodwind family from highest to lowest?

Answer 54

Piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon