Woodwind instruments: playing with air

A tube full of shaking air

Inside a woodwind there is a tube. When air in the tube shakes, you hear a note. A long tube makes a low note, and a short tube makes a high one.

Woodwinds have holes along the tube, covered by fingers or by little metal keys. Opening a hole is like making the tube shorter, so the note goes up. Closing the holes again makes the tube long, and the note goes down.

Three ways to start the shaking

A woodwind player starts the air shaking in one of three ways. The flute and the recorder use an edge. The clarinet and the saxophone use one reed. The oboe and the bassoon use two reeds. A reed is a thin piece of cane that buzzes when you blow past it.

Flute

The player blows across a hole, like across a bottle. Mostly made of metal today. The tiny piccolo is its high little cousin.

Recorder

A simple whistle-like flute, often the first instrument children learn at school.

Clarinet

One reed on a mouthpiece. A warm, smooth sound that can play very high and very low.

Oboe

Two reeds tied together. A clear, singing sound. In many orchestras the oboe plays the note everyone tunes to.

Bassoon

A very long tube folded in half, with two reeds on a curved metal pipe. A deep, funny, rich sound.

Saxophone

One reed, but a curved metal body. Invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s (he patented it in 1846) and loved in jazz.

Why "wood" winds if they are metal?

Flutes and saxophones are made of metal today, so why are they called woodwinds? Because the family is named for how it works, not for the material. Long ago, flutes were made of wood, and a saxophone uses a reed made of cane.