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A family of musical instruments is a grouping of several different but related sizes or types of instruments. Some schemes of
musical instrument classification In organology, the study of musical instruments, many methods of classifying instruments exist. Most methods are specific to a particular Culture, cultural group and were developed to serve the musical needs of that culture. Culture-based classif ...
, such as the Hornbostel-Sachs system, are based on a hierarchy of instrument families and families of families. Some commonly recognized families are: * Strings family *
Woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...
family *
Brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
family *
Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
family * Electronic family * Keyboard family (which can overlap with one or more of the above families except brass) Some less common families are: *
Idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophone ...
family * Plasmaphone family *
Hydraulophone A hydraulophone is a Tonality, tonal acoustic musical instrument played by direct physical contact with water (sometimes other fluids) where sound is generated or affected hydraulics, hydraulically."Fluid Melodies: The hydraulophones of Professo ...
family *
Free Reed A free reed aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound as air flows past a vibrating reed in a frame. Air pressure is typically generated by breath or with a bellows. In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, it is number 412.13 (a member of ...
subfamily (woodwind) * Aeolian Instrument family The keyboard family can also be referenced, though it is not an authentic instrument family. Rather, it is a common design format for instrument interfaces. There are many types of instruments in the keyboard family, such as
string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
,
brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
(and other metals),
woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...
,
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
, electronic,
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
,
idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophone ...
, and more. Instruments can also be classified by audio generation method. There are chordophones (generate sound with vibrating strings),
membranophones A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a acoustic membrane, vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument ...
(generate sound with vibrating membranes),
idiophones An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophone ...
(generate sound by vibrating the instrument body),
aerophones An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instrum ...
(generate sound by vibrating air directly), electrophones (generate sound by modifying circuits or calculating sounds and outputting to a speaker, or potentially arcing electricity or vibrating metal with an electromagnet), plasmaphones (generate sound by exciting air with plasma), and hydraulophones (generate sound by vibrating air with hydraulics). These are typically not used by everyday people or musicians, however. Family relationships are not always clear-cut. For example, some authorities regard families as encompassing only instruments of different pitch range that have similar construction and tone quality. They therefore, for example, do not regard the
cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...
as a member of the
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
family, because its narrow bore and piriform bell give it a distinctly different tone quality from the oboe.


References

{{Reflist Musical instruments