Brass instruments are essentially long pipes that widen to a bell-like shape at the end. The sound is produced by the sympathetic vibration of air in the pipe in sympathy with the players vibrating lips. Pitch and harmonics are controlled primarily by the players embouchure, lip tension and air flow in combination with either slides, valves or keys. Brass instruments are defined by the way the sound is made rather than by the material used to construct the instrument, therefore some instruments in the brass family can be made from wood.
Modern brass instruments generally fall into one of three categories: Natural, Valve and Slide.
Natural Brass
These are lengths of brass tubing each producing a specific series of notes in a harmonic series. Examples of natural brass instruments are Bugle, Natural French Horn and Post Horn. Notes are altered by the players’ embouchure and speed of airflow via the buzzing of the lips.
Valve Instruments
Valve instruments use a series of valves that introduce additional lengths of tubing into the instrument, changing its overall length and lowering the fundamental tone and associated harmonic series. Typically, there are three or four valves but there can be more on some instruments. Valves are usually piston valves, but rotary valves can also be found on many brass instruments. Piston valves move vertically up and down opening and closing the valve tubing while rotary valves use a revolving plate mechanism operated by a valve lever.
Slide Instruments
Slide instruments use a length of tubing that the player can slide to lengthen the instrument and therefore change the fundamental tone and harmonic series. Most common of these instruments is the trombone.
Bore
Most modern brass instruments have a mixture of conical and cylindrical bore but they can be divided into conical bore and cylindrical bore instruments. Conical bore brass instruments are instruments where the tubing constantly increases in diameter from the mouthpiece to the bell flare. Generally, these instruments have a more mellow tone and include cornets, flugelhorns, tenor horns, baritones, euphoniums and tubas. Cylindrical bore brass instruments have a constant diameter tube from mouthpiece to bell flare. These have a brighter tone quality and include the trumpet and trombone.
At Ackerman Music we stock a large variety of brass instruments from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Besson, Jupiter, Vincent Bach, Conn and B&S.
