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Instruments & Orchestra
The instruments, families and sections behind the sound you hear.
Instruments & Orchestra
The sections of the orchestra and how they work together
Strings, woodwind, brass and percussion: roles, ranges and how they blend.
Instruments & Orchestra
The string family: violin, viola, cello and double bass
Four sizes of one idea, and why the string body carries so much of the repertoire.
Instruments & Orchestra
The piano: a percussion instrument in disguise
How strings, hammers and pedals make the piano both intimate and orchestral.
Instruments & Orchestra
Woodwind and brass: how the wind sections differ
Reeds and lips, colours and blending, and why the two families are kept apart on the page.
How to use this portal. Pick a composer or a single work, listen once without reading, then come back to the guide and listen again. Music rewards the second hearing far more than the first, and the vocabulary you pick up here is meant to make that second hearing sharper.