'Bamboo Shakers'
BackgroundLearners may be familiar with at least one of two different ways of listing and categorising musical instruments. The first of these is the conventional if somewhat inaccurate grouping of orchestral instruments into four families, Strings, Woodwind (not all of the instruments in this family are wooden, and it includes a Brass instrument, the French Horn), the Brass, and the Percussion.
The second and rather more accurate way of grouping musical instruments organises instruments into these categories: aerophones, chordophones, membranophones, idiophones, and electrophones. Angklung are ‘bamboo shakers’. They belong to the family called idiophones. Idiophones are characterised by the fact that when they make a sound, nothing in their material changes. Contrast this with the cordophones, or stringed instruments. When they are played the strings vibrate or move. When the membranophones make a sound skins move backwards and forwards. When aerophones make a sound air vibrates as it passes through them. Electrophones make sound using electricity.
Consider
Notice that all of the category names above finish with ‘-phone’. Why is this? Investigate the prefixes to each of these category names. Why, for example, are flutes categorised as ‘aerophones’? Using these five categories, list familiar instruments on a whiteboard. Here are some examples to help you decide.
An aerophone, Indian Shanai |
Idiophones, Clapsticks or Clavé |
A membranophone, an African Drum |
A Cordophone, Indian Tamboura |