Hi, I’m Nicole and I am a music lover and an instrumental music enthusiast. I used to attend concerts every now and then and I love to watch the performances of amazing and talented musicians on Youtube. Check out this inspiring musical group, PianoGuys.
That IS REALLY the Great Wall of China. The musical group’s goal was to film in front of all Seven Wonders of the World. This was their first stop, they also performed in front of the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. Isn’t that amazing?
Now, after watching that awesome performance with the breathtaking view, let me give you a short introduction of various musical instruments.Musical instruments can be classified into four families: brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds, according to their construction, tone quality and pitch range. The earliest musical instruments were constructed with wood and metal. Instruments were then developed by different generations and cultures.
Here are some images that show the name and the image of the instruments:
In 2009, scientists have found a 42,000 year-old Aurignacian vulture-bone flute in the Hohle Fels Cave in Germany. It was believed to be the oldest-known musical instrument in the world.
Lastly, piano was invented by a Italian mechanical genius, Bartolomeo Cristofori, in the early 1700s. He created this keyboard instrument that worked by pushing a key, the mechanism inside makes a hammer go up or forward to strike the strings. For more of the story behind the evolution of piano, read The “Why of the Piano by Dr. William Leland.
You might ask: why don’t I see a piano in any of the families? Piano can be argued as a Percussion because we play the piano by striking the keys. There are also an ongoing debate that piano belongs to a String because there are strings inside the piano. What do you think? A string or a percussion instrument? Or a hybrid?
Over the term, I am hoping to explore and talk to a number of instrumental musicians at the University of Oregon or in local Eugene. Students and musicians like Priscilla Dantas are talented and are genuinely passionate about music. Dantas is a Brazilian pianist and a student in the School of Music and Dance, who performed during the Oregon Coast Music Festival, described music is a way for her to express herself without any words. She originally grew up in several slums in Brazil where there were high crime rate and drug activity. She did not give up on music, and now, she has even performed with the Symphonic Orchestra of Recife. I would love to hear personal stories from different musicians.