Meet the Woodwind Family

[classical music] Now you might think a woodwind is any instrument made of wood, and a long time ago that was mostly true.

But these days the family is really about how you make the sound, not what the instrument is built from.

Every woodwind starts with your breath.

You blow air into it or across the instrument, and that moving air is what gets the sound going.

Now there are two main ways woodwinds turn your breath into music.

The first way is by blowing air across an opening, kind of like when you blow across the top of an empty water bottle and get that low hooting sound.

The flute works similarly to that.

Go find an empty water bottle later and try it.

You'll basically be playing a giant very out-of-tune flute.

The second way uses something called a reed.

A reed is a thin piece of cane, a kind of plant, almost like a stiff blade of grass, and when you blow past it, it vibrates very fast and makes the sound.

Some woodwinds use a single reed like the clarinet and the saxophone.

Others use two reeds tied together that buzz against each other, and we call those double reeds.

That's the oboe and the bassoon.

And here's my favorite woodwind fact, the one that surprises just about everyone.

The saxophone is a woodwind even though it's made of shiny metal and looks like it belongs over with the brass instruments.

Why? Because it uses a reed.

In the woodwind family, it's the reed that counts, not the metal.

[classical music] Now you might think a woodwind is any instrument made of wood, and a long time ago that was mostly true.

But these days the family is really about how you make the sound, not what the instrument is built from.

Every woodwind starts with your breath.

You blow air into it or across the instrument, and that moving air is what gets the sound going.

Now there are two main ways woodwinds turn your breath into music.

The first way is by blowing air across an opening, kind of like when you blow across the top of an empty water bottle and get that low hooting sound.

The flute works similarly to that.

Go find an empty water bottle later and try it.

You'll basically be playing a giant very out-of-tune flute.

The second way uses something called a reed.

A reed is a thin piece of cane, a kind of plant, almost like a stiff blade of grass, and when you blow past it, it vibrates very fast and makes the sound.

Some woodwinds use a single reed like the clarinet and the saxophone.

Others use two reeds tied together that buzz against each other, and we call those double reeds.

That's the oboe and the bassoon.

And here's my favorite woodwind fact, the one that surprises just about everyone.

The saxophone is a woodwind even though it's made of shiny metal and looks like it belongs over with the brass instruments.

Why? Because it uses a reed.

In the woodwind family, it's the reed that counts, not the metal.