How Musical Instruments Got Their Names

[@NameExplain]

Tried something different with the visuals for this one, I decided to use more stock footage/KZbin clips to make the video feel more dynamic and alive as opposed to just my usual static drawings. Plus the topic of this video lent itself to some really fun footage. Let me know what you think. Perhaps all videos will look like this one day in the future or I maybe will never make another one like it.

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

What about Darbuka?

[@Bibibosh]

I'm not a patron but I think you should do Topic on Wood Hard wood Silky oak wood Timber Plank Chip board Laminated wood Pine Bloodwood Woodworm 2by4

[@bright218]

The stock fotage was nice, but i prefer the good drawings, it's part of the channels character by this point. also, i want to say, regarding pianos, that the classification of a piano in the Hornbostel Sachs system is "Box zither sounded by hammers and a keyboard"

[@pollosasadosalcarbon]

i've been a fan since the 50k milestone or something like that and honestly i think your videos lack a lot of the personality you developed over the years with your drawings, without it it just feels like yet another top 10 youtube channel

[@Yeshanu]

If you are going to use stock videos of people playing musical instruments, for the love of God, please use ones where the people in the video actually know how to play the instruments! The violin player in one of the clips is so obviously NOT a violinist that I stopped watching.

[@PockASqueeno]

As a formerly amateur saxophonist, I must make a correction. The saxophone belongs to the woodwind family, not brass. Yes, much of the instrument is made of brass, but the reed is made of wood, and all instruments with reeds are considered woodwinds including the saxophone and the clarinet. Also, you forgot to mention the voice, my favorite musical instrument!

[@ShortNecked_GreenGiraffe]

thank you so much! I got so mad/upset when it was put into brass 😭 Also, another distinction is woodwind instruments typically make sound through one long body, and the pitch is changed by "doors" (or holes in the instrument) you open and close, whereas brass instruments typically have a system of tubes, and the pitch is changed by making these tubes longer or shorter (usually through valves, redirecting airflow, but trombone does this literally)

[@therongjr]

@@ShortNecked_GreenGiraffe Also, woodwinds typically* make sounds with reeds; brass instruments typically make sounds by buzzing the lips. *Flute- and piccolo-type instruments being an obvious exception.

[@_volder]

@@ShortNecked_GreenGiraffe There were once brass instruments using the multiple-holes-along-the-sides method! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophicleide I've heard recordings made with them; they sounded sort of like modern brass, but sort of between brass and woodwind. One reason why they lost to valved instruments is presumably because the valved ones, lacking holes along the sides, sounded more distinct from woodwinds. But that battle wasn't even very long ago, so anything composed before the mid-19th century was composed without valved brass instruments either of them in mind! (At least they did have much larger & much smaller versions of trombones for the previous few centuries, though.)

[@charliea372]

Yhea sax nothing like a brass instrument

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Woodwinds are called such because of the original mechanism is based on a tube where the holes pierced into it are open to ascend pitch (along with overtones.) Various means are used to create sound, be it blowing across the edge, slit, or notch in the pipe (flute), an internal fipple (recorder), a single-reeded mouthpiece (sax/clarinet), a double-(or more)-reed (bassoon clarinet), an encased free reed, various "capped" reeeds, etc. The sound from the pipe will not be created by lips "buzzing" together to create the foundamental and overtone pitches (as in brass instruments.) While it is true that most "reeds" are made of soft wood, especially bamboo (note some WW's use other material, even metal), the primary reason they are called woodwinds is because the origin of them in Europe was because the tubes were all made out of hard wood. Saxophone, being invented only in 19th century, were just made out of brass for convenience and structure (especially due to their conical, instead of cylindrical, shape) and that Adolf Sax was a brass maker, but the mechanism for producing sound is just like other woodwinds. Notably, most modern flutes are also made out of metal. Even clarinets have (and still are) made out of metal, and sound like clarinets, not saxophones, precisely because of their cylindrical (instead of conical shape.)

[@ericBorja520]

Fun fact! The Ukulele, despite being heavily associated with Hawaii and being used prominently in Hawaiian music, is actually of Portuguese origin. Portugal brought a few cultural icons to Hawaii such as the love of pork, malasadas, and of course the stringed instrument known originally as the "braguinha cavaquinho".

[@oldgoat381]

And that instrument was developed from what we now call the renaissance guitar! They have almost identical tuning and aren't that different in terms of size, but one has some double courses

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

@@oldgoat381 They actually have completely identical tuning, the difference was the renaissance guitar had double strings. They just simplified it and went from double strings to single strings

[@alexanders562]

Hey, that's why I could get Portuguese sausage at McDonalds on Maui. LOL Yes, that is my understanding also, only the ukulele name is Hawaiian.

[@lp-xl9ld]

Sorry, but I can't let this pass... "Synthesizer" does come from "synthesize" but its ultimate root is "synthesis", which means "putting parts together to form a larger whole". And the reason the instrument has that name is that, as originally developed, the idea was that you'd create different types of basic sound waves which could then be put together (or "synthesized") to come up with the sounds which imitate other instruments. Also, why'd you forget the bassoon...

[@PadmeP]

Makes me wonder how much research goes into the videos and why I watch things to learn, when I know the makers don't get it right.

[@poetryflynn3712]

​@@PadmeP Typically name explain does a fair amount of research - usually good enough for what he says. Note I say "good enough". He isn't an academic or anything. What he says in these videos is basically the same content you can find on Wikipedia.

[@blookarakal4417]

Despite the fact that saxophones are usually made from brass, they are considered woodwind instruments because you can only change the pitch by working the valves. On brasswind, you can adjust the pitch by adjusting how you blow.

[@jeannebouwman1970]

That's not true. Woodwinds also can change pitch like a brass instrument, namely flutes, oboes, bassoons, and recorders can. I don't know about the rest, I have no experience with them. The actual difference is in the way the sound is produced. With brasswinds, it is created by the vibration of the lips. You can make a similar sound to a brass instrument by buzzing your lips. With woodwinds, you blow air, and that air either makes a Reed vibrate, or it is split by a fipple to vibrate. So the sound of a woodwind is made by the instrument, which still makes the saxophone a woodwind instrument.

[@chlo.dia765]

The reason that the sax is woodwind is because of its 'wooden' reed. Reeds are actually made of bamboo (a grass) but musicians don't care about that technicality.

[@jeannebouwman1970]

@@chlo.dia765 not true. a flute can be made entirely out of metal, and yet it is still a woodwind. the term comes from the techniques used to play the instrument, not the material

[@chlo.dia765]

@@jeannebouwman1970 flutes originally were wooden

[@chlo.dia765]

@@jeannebouwman1970 many instruments can be made in alternative materials, much as clarinets can be plastic instead of wood and p-bones are plastic trombones. Because they are the same type of instrument, just cheaper and usually played by beginners, they are in the same family, but the family is literally called WOODwind, an instrument variety that has never been contained a material vaguely similar to wood cannot be in that family.

[@FluffyEmmy1116]

I grew up learning that Saxophone is a woodwind because it uses a reed and is more similar to Clarinet and Oboe than it is to Brass instruments that generally use a metal mouthpiece.

[@sykoskier18]

sax is 100% woodwind

[@loganricherson]

Saxophone is 100% a woodwind instrument though I do have a metal mouthpiece that I use for my saxophone

[@jasonreed7522]

Sax is a woodwind, the defining trait is not the material the body is made of but the source of the sound. From an engineering perspective instruments work by taking a mostly white noise and then having a transfer function that amplifies 1 frequency above the rest, this is the base note (middle C is 261.6Hz) and the effect on all the other frequencies is the voice of the instrument that separates the sound of a piano from a trumpet when playing the same note. Woodwinds fundamentally use wooden reeds to source the white noise, brass uses buzzing lips, strings use strings, percussion hits something to make it ring like a bell, and electronic synths just use computer generated waveforms. (And of course exceptions exist like flutes, but generally speaking the main distinction is the nature of the initial vibration source)

[@FluffyEmmy1116]

@@jasonreed7522 So in basic terms, exactly what I said. Also, username check out.

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

@@sykoskier18 I wouldn't say it's 100% woodwind, it's supposed to be the bridge between woodwind and brass, being able to be as soft and emotional as a woodwind can be, but also blast your ears off like a brass instrument. This bridge like quality is also present in the sound it produces

[@b.y.2460]

a 'Double Bass' got its name because when it was invented, there were no parts for it, so its job in the orchestra was to 'double' the bassline in the sheet music. It would play this bassline, usually a cello or trombone part, an octave lower than it was written in order to make the music sound bigger and attract more paying audience members. A double bass is not twice the size of a guitar, it is something like 10 to 15 times the size of a guitar. Also, the bugle does not have just one pitch. It theoretically has an infinite number of pitches, but naturally resonates in a number of pitches that describe a logarithmic scale based on the volume of the instrument. All brass instruments do this. The valves on a brass instrument change the volume of the air-path and thus change the set of pitches they most easily resonate at. The pitch of a brass instrument is produced by the lips of the player which are held in an 'embrasure' that sort of mimics vocal chords.

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

I'm not too sure about your explanation on the name because the history is a bit fuzzy (at least to me). The Double Bass isn't technically from the Violin family but the Viol family, which was the predecessor. Wikipedia lists the tunings of 11 different instruments in the family. Evidence of this is the small differences such as the shape of the back and the shape of the part of the body at the top that connects to the neck. So I think the name came about much later than its invention

[@b.y.2460]

@@TheTrueAltoClef I should have included a source. Here is one on KZbin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYuzZnR5etmWrJI from BBC music educator Howard Goodall. I recommend watching the whole episode, and the whole series, and most of the other series he has done.

[@AxelFuentesMusic]

The string bass also is not part of the violin family but rather the Viol family, the predecessor to the violin

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

@@AxelFuentesMusic already said that but thanks for the reaffirmation :D

[@coasterfan1017]

A piano is a keyboard instrument, but also a percussion instrument. This is because keyboard is really a type of instrument sense the groups are created by how the instrument makes sound. So since the piano makes sound by the key making a mallet hit a string, that hitting makes it a percussion instrument. Organs, which are also a keyboard instrument, falls under woodwinds, as it creates sound by have wind blow throw it. Harpsichords are string, because they pluck strings to create sound

[@PadmeP]

Yep, I've never heard of the piano described as a string instrument as described in this video (despite the strings!). Growing up in the 80s it was definately taught to me as being a percussion instrument, I wonder if it is just an uneducated assumption. Also I was taught that a pipe organ was a wind instrument, a herdy gerdy is a string instrument (despite some having a keyboard), as all harmonicas, conseteners and other squeezy things), harmoniums were wind instruments too, never heard of a "keyboard" family. Carillions are definately percussion too not keyboard as far as I'm concerned!

[@coasterfan1017]

@@PadmeP Yeah, Keyboard is definitely not a family but a description of similar instruments. It's important to think that the family themselves work very well with eachother, that being that the instruments within the families sound good together, while the Keyboard instruments don't really work with eachother

[@ryanmart5434]

As a musician, I've never heard of piano being called percussion. If you had to force it into a family, it's definitely closest to strings. Calling it percussion is a bit like calling slap bass percussion.

[@feliperamedeiros]

@@ryanmart5434 Slap bass is kind of percussion tbh 😂 but serious, the names all depends on _what_ you are classifying.

[@ryanmart5434]

@@feliperamedeiros yeah, it definitely varies based on what you are classifying in what context but we can still use everyday categories that are logical compromises and, for that purpose, calling the piano a percussion instrument makes a lot less sense than calling it a string instrument (as with the bass example)

[@tkgsingsct]

"Woodwind" isn't used by many musicians, instead referred to as "reed instruments" or "reeds," because they all produce sound using some sort of reed (the lips themselves are the "reed" for the flute and piccolo, interestingly). This includes the saxophone, which is not considered a brass instrument by anyone I know (I've been an active musician for over 40 years): the saxophone is a reed instrument. Brass instruments don't use a reed, instead the player's lips are compressed to make a buzzing sound into the instrument's mouthpiece.

[@tkgsingsct]

The piano can be considered a percussion instrument, it produces sounds by using hammers that strike something.

[@tkgsingsct]

The kazoo can be considered a reed instrument.

[@molLluaga]

Reed instruments are wood wind instruments, but not all wood wind instruments are reed instruments. With reed instruments a piece of reed vibrates and creates the base sound that can be manipulated by holes and walves. With other wood wind instruments like flute and recorder, air is blown over a sharp edge creating the base vibration. With brass instruments the lips of the player create the vibration. With string instruments the string creates the vibration.

[@iexist1349]

I’ve literally never heard anyone call a woodwind a reed instrument but that could just be where I live.

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

If you consider flute and piccolo reed instruments because the lips are the reeds, than you also have to consider brass instruments reed instruments. And you could argue singers are also reed instruments because the vocal chords act like a reed in a way

[@jeremydavidson5108]

Saxophones are woodwinds because of the reed used to play them, though yes, they're made of brass

[@EmelyPhan]

This

[@kailomonkey]

Also the brass instruments aren't simply blown like the woodwinds. You have to make the vibrations yourself by kinda blowing a raspberry. To the best of my ameteur knowledge because I could never get much out of one :P

[@moviemaestro800]

Not mentioned here, but I'm sure it will surprise few to know that the bugle's animal horn-made backstory applies to most brass instruments, hence why they are colloquially referred to as horns.

[@asahearts1]

Not mentioning the jaw harp is okay, but skipping over the lyre is a sin. Note about the theramin: Its creator used the principles involved in making the theramin to make undetectable recording devices for spying during the cold war.

[@isidoreaerys8745]

The Government has visual scanners which can use lasers to measure the motion created by pressure waves (sound) on any membrane from any distance with a line of sight. If you are in a room with a window, your conversation can be recorded. Unless you lay a vibrating dildo against the window, that’ll blast your Agent’s ear drums. Lol Also my friends brother is a nuclear scientist with the dept of defense. And he told me that the X-ray technology they’ve developed is so precise they can watch a indoor basketball game happening 50 miles away and accurately keep score. Also Lyres rock!

[@zrksyd]

I'll mention the instrument I played in band, the euphonium, which is Greek for "good sounding".

[@MellonVegan]

This random one just popped into my head: There's an instrument that was initially called the hang. Hang is simply a Swizz dialect word for hand, which is what the hang is meant to be played with. It's also called the handpan (again hand + its look resembling a pan), hang drum (referring to its percussive nature) or the space drum (also kinda looks like a UFO). The names are more or less interchangable, depending on the manufacturer and individual preference. Not a difficult etymology to figure out but I thought I'd add it here.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Professional Saxophonist (and Clarinetist/Flutist) and Music Composition Professor here. Saxophone is always considered a woodwind instrument. Brass instruments make sound through the following playing mechanism: buzzing your lips into a pipe to produce pitch (fundamental tone and overtones) with changing the size of that tube (via slide or valves) to play additional tones. Woodwinds instead of use divided airflow (such as flute or recorder) or a reeds (oboe, clarinet, etc.) to produce the initials with holes drilled into the pipe to alter which note is being produced. Originally all woodwinds in Europe were made out of hard wood (reeds are made out of soft wood--bamboo), thus the label "woodwind". Because saxophone was invented in the 19th century by a bass maker, and most importantly, required a conical, not cylindrical, shape, brass was used for the tube (much easier to design with metal.) However, the sound and pitch alteration is entire using woodwind mechanism. Of course, most flutes are no longer made out of wood either too (clarinets, CYLINDRICAL single reeds, have also been made out of metal, especially in it's largest model--the contrabass, since that is very difficult and expensibe to do with wood.). Note many woodwinds, especially for beginners, are made out of other synthetic materials, such as epoxy, plastic, binded wood, etc. for sturdiness, and still sound like the same instrument that was made out of wood, because of the mechanism to produce sound. One of the reasons why woodwind players can "double" or learn each of the other instruments easily (common gig actually), is because the similarity in mechanism, as there are many people who can play saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe, etc. quite well and move between them, but not brass, as it is entire different (and actually screws up your lips for woodwind playing. Note that the same thing is also true for brass playersm they can often double without much difficulty on other brass instruments (only needing to accommodate the pitch alteration method, which is very easy to adapt, as that is MUCH more limited than woodwinds, since the foundation for most of the pitches is just changes in lip tension.)

[@TotoDG]

"And their sole purpose is to make a nice sound..." Noise rock: "Please allow me to introduce myself."

[@peev2]

I’m a man of wealth and taste…

[@wmdkitty]

@@peev2 I've been around for a long, long years...

[@gerardvila4685]

I can go older than that. Highland bagpipes were designed to strike fear into the hearts of the highlander's enemies. And long, long before that, both the Gauls and the Romans had trumpets both to signal commands to the warriors, and to encourage their foes to get out of the way.

[@peev2]

@@gerardvila4685 Have you heard of the Bulgarian bagpipe?

[@That1CrappyGuy]

Nice video! There is one instrument you didn’t cover that I’d like to drop in here, and that’s the Sousaphone. John Philip Sousa, aka The March King, wanted to create a version of the tuba that was easier to play while marching. The result was the Sousaphone, which is a large brass instrument akin to a tuba, but it wraps around the player’s body. As mentioned in the video, the “phone” part of the word means sound, while the “Sousa” part of the name comes from John Philip Sousa. Worth noting that Sousa didn’t actually invent the Sousaphone, but rather he commissioned its creation.

[@sarahlimberger9690]

He forgot bassoon too :( but bassoon, or fagott in german/Latin means bundle of sticks, so even in the past people were making fun of the instrument

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

It had nothing to do with a Tuba, Sousa was dissatisfied by the use of Helicons in Marching Bands. Just compare what a Sousaphone and Helicon look like

[@That1CrappyGuy]

@@TheTrueAltoClef It has everything to do with tubas. Tuba is not just a single instrument, it’s a family of instruments. Helicons are tubas, as are sousaphones. I used tuba for simplicity, so if you wanna get technical then yes, it was the helicon that Sousa was dissatisfied with. That doesn’t change the fact that he wanted to make a new tuba that was easier to March with than the ones they had (helicons).

[@frednich9603]

@@That1CrappyGuy you're very close, but Sousa hated the modern design of what we know as a sousaphone, and instead wanted a helicon with the bell pointing up, which is why in sousa's band all you see are raincatcher sousaphones. He actually sued Conn for trying to use the word sousaphone on the bell front abomination, and it wasn't until after he died that the family allowed his name to be connected to it

[@That1CrappyGuy]

@@frednich9603 I never knew that, thank you for the correction!

[@TreyMichael]

Great idea for a musical instruments video! There is a correction needing to be made. Double bass gets its name from doubling the bass bass section of an orchestra. Cellos are also considered bass instruments and the contrabass (double bass) often plays the same parts however playing an octave lower. ‘Double’ has nothing to do with the size.

[@oldgoat381]

It's also a different instrument to a bass guitar in a lot of ways There's similarities, and as a bass guitarist I can ham fist my way through playing double bass, but I cannot immediately switch between the two due to their differences

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

There are alot of corrections to be made, enough for a reupload..

[@TreyMichael]

@@TheTrueAltoClef I bet and I do not doubt it… it’s getting to the point where content creators are getting sloppy with fact checking.

[@mgailp]

A bugle is capable of many notes, but the one you showed plays just one harmonic series. A good example of this is the song Taps, which has a melody moving up and down in a single harmonic series. You use your embouchure (the position of your lips & mouth) and air pressure to change the pitch. The higher you go, the closer together the notes are to each other.

[@willyzemlya]

I searched a minute ago about the bass name origin. In Portuguese and Italian, bass(baixo&basso) means low

[@TotoDG]

The same is true in Spanish (bajo). I remember checking to see how long my P-Bass was, and then I noticed that the length was almost the same as my height when I was about 7 years old; I then proceeded to show my mother how "bajo" we were at that age (unfortunately, the joke doesn't translate so well into English).

[@willyzemlya]

@@TotoDG Sim, que pena😂

[@masterrance]

Actually bugles can make multiple pitches, but just has no values. The pitch change itself comes from how you vibrate the air, which is common for brass instruments.

[@isidoreaerys8745]

And those pitches are the notes of the harmonic series. These simple instruments were used in pageantry and war, and formed the melodic character of fanfares and music with a regal, stately character

[@Jessie_Helms]

I’ve learned piano, harmonica, ganzá, and tambourine, and I’m about to buy a kalimba. Excited to see if any of these make your list

[@bobbybeige]

The saxophone is a woodwind instrument. I don’t know if you’d like to correct for accuracy.

[@alexanders562]

Bugles have multiple notes as they can move along the overtone series. BTW I not only enjoyed the video, but the thought and conversation provocation as well. Good stuff.

[@garygreen7552]

What a mess! Someone has already mentioned that the saxophone is a woodwind even though it is made of brass. Modern flutes are usually made of metal, but they are still woodwinds. The recorder was also known as the block flute and was THE flute in the time of Bach. The modern flute is also known as the transverse flute for obvious reasons. Flutes are part of the woodwind family even though they do not use reeds. The string family also has a bass. It is sometimes called the string bass, the bass viol or the double bass. Like its family members it can be played with a bow or plucked. I have always been taught that the piano is a percussion instrument since its sound is the result of a hammer hitting a string. The pipe organ is a wind instrument, often massive. The sound is created by air being blown through various kinds of pipes, some of which are wood though most are metal. The instrument is played at a console with one or more keyboards played with the hands, manuals. Most also have a pedal keyboard played with the feet. The console then has a variety of buttons, tabs and other devices that allow the player to control which pipes sound when a key is pressed. Brass instruments are unique in that the sound is created by the player "buzzing" his or her lips into the horn through the mouthpiece. This is the main reason why the saxophone is not a brass instrument. Most brass instruments have valves which allow extra tubing into the air stream which is how they can play all of the notes in a chromatic scale. The trombone slide accomplishes the same thing. The bugle can play all of the overtones of its fundamental pitch, but only those notes. That is why bugle calls sound the way they do. So much more could be said.

[@MooImABunny]

"the theremin is a very unique instrument, which creates sounds through frequencies in the air..." oouf I mean it wouldn't be fair to expect a good accurate explanation, but uh... that ain't it chief. an ok simplified explanation would be it is an electronic instrument that your hands' distances from its two antennae affect its electronics to produce varying pitches and volumes. and technically, if you're very loose with what words mean, every instrument kinda sorta 'creates sounds through frequencies in the air'. because sound is your brain's interpretation of said frequencies in the air. kinda.

[@jonathanmitchell2040]

I'd always learned that violin and fiddle both come from the same source: Latin "vitula". They just entered English through different routes (French/Italian for violin, Old English for fiddle).

[@samwill7259]

And on that *note*, another wonderful video!

[@5BBassist4Christ]

The double bass did not get it's name from being twice the size of a bass guitar. The double bass (also called upright bass or bass violone) was created hundreds of years before the bass guitar. The bass guitar was a very successful attempt to mix the double bass with the guitar. Where the double bass got it's names are: Double bass -In classical orchestras, it would double the cellos in playing the bass line. Upright bass -Because it plays upright. Bass violone -Because it is the lowest instrument in the viol family (violin, viola, and cello).

[@Benni777]

Just a fun fact: the way to pronounce ukulele is “ooo-kulele” instead of how it’s actually spelled. At least, in the Native Hawaiian language. I recently found this out, and I felt the need to spread this info for anyone to know! ☺️

[@kyled2153]

Makes sense since Hawaiian is a phonetic Polynesian language

[@rvsk]

I used to take everything that name explains to to be complete truth. After watching this video I am second-thinking a lot of the information I’ve gleaned from your channel. A bit of the information in here seems to not be fully researched or just incorrect.

[@Pedro-A-88]

Yep. So many mistakes in this video, such poor research.

[@InstrumentManiac]

very interesting info! Good job on the research.. instrument history is wild 😂

[@elliothennessy8360]

Synthesize doesn’t mean mimic, it means make. Synthetic, photosynthesis, etc. Greek “syn-“ means together (synchronized, synergy, etc) and synthesis comes from “place together.” So, combine. Which lead to it meaning create. For example, synthesis reactions in chemistry are rxns where A + B -> C. (A -> B + C is not a synthesis). Long-winded way for me to say that, presumably, some guy must have gone “we’re creating this sound out of the computer, this instrument synthesizes”

[@allanrichardson9081]

“Little or no similarity to anything found in nature?” How about the SHOFAR? Just a ram’s horn! Next scheduled to be blown in public from September 25 through October 5, 2023.

[@davidkantor7978]

I had the exact same thought.

[@mr88cet]

Saxophones are woodwinds, despite being (mostly) made of brass. Brass instruments produce their sounds by lip buzz, and vary the lengths of their tuning by valves and slides. They also play fairly-high harmonics of the base tube length. In contrast, woodwinds produce sounds by various kinds of reeds, and modify the lengths of their resonant tubes by keyed “toneholes” on the sides of their tubes. There are instruments that don’t exactly follow these conventions, the most obvious one being that flutes don’t us a solid-material reed, but are said to use an “air reed.” There are also brass instruments, like the ophicleide, that produce sound by lip buzz like other brasses, but shorten their tube lengths by keyed toneholes like a woodwind.

[@shibesthetic4061]

As a saxophone performance major rip the classification

[@fluteman4666]

As a woodworker and pan flute maker, I must make a correction: reeds are not made of wood. Reeds are made of well... reed. Arundo donax, or giant river cane, is a type of grass closely related to bamboo and the palm "tree". Wood comes from trees which are plants with growth rings and branches. Bamboo and reeds may have a woody feel, but are not trees. Woodwinds are called such because at one point, they were indeed made of wood. Many now have metal bodies.

[@ColtonRMagby]

The Saxophone is classified as a woodwind instead of brass because it uses a wood reed to make sound. It may be made of brass, but you have to buzz your lips to make sound in a brass instrument. Classification should be based on what it's made of AND how you play it, not individual components.

[@j.j.hector735]

And The Conch Shell is a Brass Instrument that’s never made of Brass

[@ColtonRMagby]

@@j.j.hector735 Never played one. Need to remember to try that sometime.

[@j.j.hector735]

@@ColtonRMagby I just learned the conch shell is formally called Horagai

[@romulo-mello]

Very interesting video! Just to add up, the electrical guitar is classified as an electrophone as well as a chordophone (bass guitar too). The piano also has more than one classification, it is a percussion, string, and keyboard instrument simultaneously (keyboard isn't actually a classification it's just a way to describe how the instrument is played). The organ is a wind keyboard instrument. Also, the difference between woodwinds and brass isn't the material of the body, but how you blow into it. In woodwinds, the player blows to vibrate a reed while brass players vibrate their own lips to produce sound (because of this, the flute is commonly considered a separate type of aerophone because it doesn't use reeds or lip vibration). So, the saxophone is actually a woodwind, not brass because it uses a reed. Glockenspiel is a keyboard percussion instrument.

[@AL_O0]

10:30 Really? I was always though that it just came from Italian, "tromba" plus the suffix "-one" meaning "large trumpet", which it literally is, so it made perfect sense to me

[@_volder]

Ya, that was a slip in the video; it's not just a "corruption" of "trumpet". The Italian & French suffixes "one" and "ette" mean "large" and "small", and the root "tromba/trumpa" meant some kind of horn, so trumpets & trombones were big & little versions of each other. (Trumpa/tromba also seems to be cognate with "drum" and other Germanic words meaning "drum" like Norwegian "tromme", so I don't think anybody knows what to think the Proto-Germanic root could have meant.)

[@sarahlimberger9690]

What about bassoon? :(

[@domagojpecar1496]

Finally someone mentioned it! Thank you! You, miss, are the woman of quality!

[@FoggyD]

TIL that Untitled Goose Game is kind of a spiritual successor to Ocarina of Time. HONK! Appreciated the Flight of the Concords footage too. Also there are variants on Scottish bagpipes, such as the NW Spanish gaita.

[@burb1175]

when he put saxophone in the brass family I lost it cuz that's so funny

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Fun fact, many percussion instruments are actually "concussion" instruments instead (meaning they are struck together instead of with a stick or mallet); these include things like crash cymbals, claves, etc.

[@AllieThePrettyGator]

The Double Bass actually never came from the violin Family origin even though it's namesake that its Double the size of the cello

[@EmelyPhan]

Saxophone are wood winds because of the mouth piece which is the same as the clarinet.

[@kevinmcqueenie7420]

As a Scotsman, while the bagpipes are associated with us, there is no doubt that we didn't invent them. The main theories are that they originated in Egypt and were spread to the British Isles, or that the Scotti brought them over from Ireland when they invaded and supplanted the Caledons (of Roman Caledonia), which ultimately led to the name of the country of Scotland as well.

[@Hairmetallurgist]

The picture you used for the oboe is actually a cor anglais, or English horn, and, though technically an alto oboe, is a completely different instrument. Its name's etymology could have a video of its own. And you missed the bassoon and contrabassoon completely.

[@dogvom]

He not only omitted the English horn, he also missed the French horn-an actual horn. Well, at least he's not playing favourites between countries.

[@1106gary]

I was waiting for the bassoon and an explanation of its German name. Very disappointed.

[@brianedwards7142]

On the edge of Lake Burley- Griffin in Canberra there is a Carillon which is a bell- tower played with a keyboard.

[@ImperiatrixMatt]

I was taught that a piano was a percussion instrument because it made a sound by hitting the strings. Also not all synthesisers have keyboards there are a lot of synthesisers which are dial based and create the sounds just from the original sine wave being based through a set of filters and gates. Vincent Clarke uses a lot of these types of synthesisers

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

There are "ethnomusicological" academic families: idiophones (instruments which body resonates, i.e. cymbals, xylophone, etc.), membranophones (instruments which the sound source is a skin over a resonator, i.e. drums), chordaphones (instruments which sounds are produced by strings, i.e., violin, piano, guitar, etc.), aerophones (instruments sound produced through airflow, i.e., woodwinds, brass, organ, etc.) and electrophones (instruments that produce sound ENTIRELY through electronic means and sources: i.e., synthesizers, computers, theramin, etc.). Then are are families identified by the way they are played: woodwinds (clarinet, saxophone, flute, et al: fingers ascend/descend on holes cut into a pipe), brass (trumpet, trombone, et al: primary sound produced by lips buzzing into a pipe), percussion (drums, cymbals, xylophone, et al: instruments which a person hits/scratches/rubs directly or together and not using strings), strings (violin, guitar, hammered dulcimer, et al: instruments where the person either plucks, strikes, or bows a string), and keyboard (piano, organ, synthesizer, et al: instruments that use an actually musical keyboard mechanism--for which you use your hands directly to play chords, counterpoint, etc.). While it is true there is some "perspective" overlap, these two systems are basically the main ways in which academics, professionals and music teachers use to define instrument categories.

[@Machodave2020]

Correction: the saxophone is actually a woodwind despite it being made of brass.

[@eliasbouchard4573]

Rip all those forgotten bassoon players

[@IndigoEuphonium]

It's not a musical education video until euphonium is forgotten again for all eternity

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Double Bass is called double bass, because it is pitched one octave lower than the bass register, thus the other name for it is Contrabass. Also, you compared the name of the Double Bass coming from the Bass Guitar, and also as if these instruments are related. However, 1) Double Bass existed before Bass Guitar, 2) Double Bass is from the viol family, whereas Bass Guitar is from the Guitar family. Double Bass was the primary instrument used in accompaniment because its size allowed it to be heard before the age of amplification. Bass Guitar came to prominence once amplification was possible, as the Bass Guitar (which is pitched the same as Double Bass actually, being also an octave below the bass register) is much more portable and easier to play.

[@hibbiea8841]

The Double Bass is normally held for Jazz and Swing music

[@nickimontie]

Great video, Patrick!

[@Henri.d.Olivoir]

As a classical pianist, I feel very happy to see this video!

[@shiningarmor2838]

I really love this channel and I'm really sorry for being "that guy", but: The sitar is most likely named after the Persian "Si" (3) and "Tar" (strings) The bass guitar and the double bass are almost unrelated, but their names are similar because they both play the bass (lowest) part in the music "Woodwind" instruments are not always made of wood (like the saxophone), and brass instruments are not always made of brass (like the serpent) "Trombone" comes from the Italian Tromba (trumpet) and the suffix for large (-one) "Tuba" comes from the German "Basstuba" which came from the Latin "Tuba" (trumpet) Another commenter already explained the Bugle's multiple pitches Another commenter already explained the etymology of "synthesizer" Once again I am truly sorry for this, and I hoped that it helped some of you.

[@jesusvera7941]

"there are few things humans have made with joy in mind" videogames, movies, dance and many other beautiful arts: are we a joke to you?

[@davidkantor7978]

There are many errors, as others have mentioned. Here are some more. In baroque times, there were several varieties of trumpet - and trumpet players who specialized in each. Actually, these various classes of trumpet may have had more to do with the specialization of the players, rather than the instruments. One class, I believe the highest, was called the clarion. I believe that means “clear” - the most clear tone. The clarinet was invented much later, and one of it’s uses or advantages was that it could imitate the sound and role of the clarion. And it was easier to play in that range. Hence, it was called the clarionette. Piccolo means small. Broadly speaking, it can apply to many subfamilies of instruments. There is a piccolo trumpet, a piccolo clarinet, a violino piccolo. Etc etc. When we say “piccolo” without reference to a particular instrument, we typically mean the piccolo flute, or flauto piccolo, in Italian. Thus, “piccolo”, by itself, is half of an instrument name, and is intrinsically ambiguous. Ocarina: you mentioned goose. I’m not sure, but I thought it means “goose egg”. I didn’t catch what you might have said about the trombone. So you might have included this. “Tromba” is Italian for trumpet. And “trombone”, therefore, means big trumpet. Here’s one thing that you got right, whereas most people have it backwards. A violin is a small viola. Most people will say that a viola is a larger version of the violin, but it’s really the other way around. The word “violin” means small viola. To say that a viola is a large violin is like saying that a cigar is a large cigarette. Not my favorite subject, but I’m groping for an analogy. Thanks- from a viola player.

[@davidkantor7978]

On that trumpet story: the name was variously clarion or clarino. Thus, an easier-to-play substitute is a clarionette.

[@owenweddle8928]

I see a lot of corrections about the saxophone, but also the bugle can make more than one pitch, it just doesn’t play chromatically. Also what about marimba and steel pan drums.

[@rosecpiotr8204]

The double bass is actually not a big bass guitar. It's called a double bass because in the orchestra, it would mostly double the bass line of the cello an octave down.

[@AFlyingMayMay]

The saxophone is a woodwind

[@ronkelley5348]

OK - ditch the stock footage of the person who does not know how to hold/play a violin…. The guitar is related to the viola da gamba (bowed string instrument family) having a common ancestor called the ‘vihuela’, which was a plucked 6 stringed instrument. Plucked it became the ‘vihuela de mano’ and this became the guitar, which probably comes from teh Italian ‘cittarone’ (also later used for the theorbo, a type of lute). The bowed version of the vihuela gets the Italian name of ‘viola da gamba’ as it is played ‘on the leg’ i.e. rested on or between the knees, in English this is the viol. The large bass viol aka ‘violone’ is the origin of the doublebass. Agree with another comment, the saxophone is a woodwind instrument, not a brass instrument. The piano used to be regarded as a percussion instrument since it creates sound by hitting strings with hammers.

[@vice166]

this video rlly makes me want to learn how to play the trombone again

[@TheJoergenDK]

Coraz is the name of a fantastic instrument out of Africa. Check out Sona Jobarteh, who plays the guitar and the coraz and also sings beautifully. I like her hit song Gambia.

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

Did you even consult musicologists or even the internet?

[@paullatimer9249]

Despite its generally metallic construction, the saxophone is *not* a brass instrument; it is a woodwind. This is because it uses a wooden reed in the mouthpiece. Pianos are also considered percussion instruments due to the hammers used to strike the strings. Harpsichords are considered stringed instruments due to the plucking action on the strings.

[@DJPJ.]

7:20 In Norwegian, Piano is also an adjektiv loosely translated to "calm".

[@gambe96]

The bit about "double bass" had me cringing mega hard. It's because it doubles the bass line, played by the violoncelli. The real name is contrabass. Violini and viole are two different families. Viole are placed in between or on the legs, and are more commonly found with tied frets to play chords. Violini play lines. They both had (in french terms) Basse, Taille, Quinte, Dessus. The modern contrabass comes from the violone, the large viola. What is in english called viola is an alto violin. Also, organs are wind instruments.

[@hibbiea8841]

The Odd One Strings are Fiddle and DoubleBass Fiddle is a Folk Instrument and Double Bass is a Jazz and Swing Instrument

[@kyled2153]

Pianos haven’t actually been shortened to just piano, the full name for it is the pianoforte and for the cello it’s still violoncello

[@aleborke5420]

so a viola is not a big violin but vice versa. nice.

[@davidkantor7978]

Correct. Despite many errors, this is one thing that he got right.

[@iralia333]

"Tar" means string in Farsi. The number prefix denotes how many strings.

[@nuberiffic]

Yeah, how did he miss that? Especially when there is the Ektar and Dotar as well. And the Shamisen from Japan, which also mean "3 strings"

[@thatgermanpotato1819]

For the part on violin, you can still pluck the strings as you play while still having the bow in hand

[@victorpaesplinio2865]

Just a little correction: a saxophone is actually a woodwind instrument and not a brass instrument. Although I never saw wood saxophones, it is classified as a woodwind because the sound is produced by a reed while in a brass instrument the sound is produced by the musician's lips.

[@KINGHB190]

Great Video 👍 Can you please make a video about the name Harry?

[@voltagestorm1787]

Fun Fact: the Saxophone is actually considered a woodwind, since it uses a reed to make sound

[@phyrakhyberusrex7936]

A hurdy gurdy or mandollin would fit into the list too!

[@nuberiffic]

...any instrument would

[@billyr2904]

Can you also do a video on language families and what languages fall under that category. E.g. Indo-european, Afro-asiatic and Sino-tibetan

[@leiocerayt]

The saxophone is (as far as I know) not a brass instrument, but a reed instrument

[@gastonflatulenza1276]

There are some factual errors here. At about 36 seconds, the instrument they call a tambourine is actually an Irish/Celtic drum called a Bodhran, which is hit with both ends of a single stick called a tipple. A double bass is called a double bass not because it is twice the size of a cello, but because traditionally it "doubles" the same part the cello plays, which means it plays the same notes as the cello but one octave lower. And, while I'm at it, the full name of a 'cello is violoncello (not violincello). And "bella" in Italian (as well as "belle" in French) means "beautiful." I don't believe it is because the end is shaped like a bell, but I'm not sure about this one. The trombone was originally called the Sackbut, which means "push-pull."

[@nuberiffic]

There's a tambourine being played in the same clip as the bodhran

[@machobatman1012]

how did a theremin make it in but something like a french horn or euphonium didn't? i get euphonium, but french horn too? also nothing against theremin, I would just consider it more unknown than a horn

[@andrewnelson2801]

I always heard that saxophones were a woodwind because of their wooden reed.

[@chlo.dia765]

The bugle doesn't make just one pitch, it can create many, although they are limited. Pitch is varied by tightening the lips. Fanfares have their limited pitches due to the limitations of the bugle, but to get round that, cornets have valves so they can play notes inbetween what the bugle can.

[@chlo.dia765]

I don't play bugle or any brass really, but I know others that do

[@johnanderson9337]

Double basses are not called double basses because they double the size of a guitar. It gets its name because around when it was introduced to the orchestra (late 15th Century) it primarily doubled the bass part played by the cello or the continuo. Hence the name

[@4eyesinthecorner399]

10:14 saxophone, though commonly mistaken for a brass instrument due to its outward appearance, is a woodwind (or reed) instrument

[@TheJH1015]

well I had hoped to see the Euphonium on here since it's possibly the MOST unknown brass instrument, and its etymology is very straightforward: Greek for 'beautiful sound' (Eu-phonos), which is the key discerning trait of the instrument. Kinda disappointed you stuck to the most well-known brass instruments honestly.

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

Love the Euphoniums, basically because in European Concert bands (known here as "Harmony Orchestras") I rarely see Baritones used, it's almost always a Euphonium

[@TheJH1015]

@@TheTrueAltoClef Dutch/Belgian perhaps? 👀 and yes in the Fanfare Orchestras, almost all baritones get replaced by euphoniums which completely destroy the tonal characterstics of the band, because baritone parts are meant to blend with both horns, trombones *and* euphoniums. Just having 4 euphoniums makes it too heavy and thick of a sound :(

[@nikita_kostin]

you forgot about the bassoon, why everyone always forgets about the bassoon? why?

[@Devon-bf9xh]

You totally skipped the bassoon

[@domagojpecar1496]

Thank you very much! I was hoping someone mentioned it!

[@jwessel1969]

I think the 'haut' in hautbois (old spelling of oboe) refers to volume and not pitch. The Medieval and Renaissance versions aka shawms were quite loud.

[@anthonyatkinson8664]

Right on the money (High (loud) wood)!Bassoon in French is a similar portmanteau of bas(low in volume or pitch) and son(sound).

[@MA-naconitor]

Great take, but the double bass isn’t called that, because it’s double the size of a guitar. The double bass used to refer to instruments which had an extra low B-string, and which especially in Baroque music used to *double* the voice of the continuo section, which included both cellos and a harpsichord.

[@gerardvila4685]

"Doubling" in this context means "playing the same notes (as the cellos, typically) but an octave lower".

[@watchletter]

The saxophone is not a brass instrument but rather a wood wind instrument because it uses a reed.

[@sheasewall7970]

that bass playing stock footage literally made me cringe to death

[@ZBisson]

Saxophones are woodwind

[@feliperamedeiros]

2:40 Today, in Brazil, the word 'guitarra' means specifically the electric guitar, as the acoustic and classical guitars are called 'violão', which is the augmentative of the word 'viola' in portuguese, much like what happened to violoncello. We have our own class of violas, called 'violas caipiras', that share a common ancestor with today's classical guitars, our 'violões'. There's also a violin like instrument called 'rebeca', played in folk music throughout the country, which is derived from the precursors of the classical bowed instruments, from Arab ancestors.

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

That's so cool!

[@Invalid-user13k]

Pianos were made differently some of sting some with mallets in the back

[@SuperJxl]

bugles make more than 1 pitch and saxophones despite being made of brass are actually woodwind.

[@_CaptainCookie]

Saxes are woodwinds not brass. This might be confusing, because the body of a sax is made of brass, but the mouthpiece is where it gets its classification. It's a double reed mouthpiece like the clarinet, and the sound is made the same way. Brass instruments are made by buzzing into the mouthpiece with your lips.

[@numburger]

In this really old video a kid didn't know how to pronounce "Ocarina" so when he was talking about Ocarina of Time he said "Oceania of Time". I freaking love that clip so much

[@MreenalMams]

In Blues, the harmonica is often called a Blues Harp.. I don't know why.. that could be a good video idea..