Exploring Instruments

Membranophones? Aerophones? How about strings? Percussion? You need not be a music instructor to benefit from a packet of 24 worksheets that introduce aspiring musicians to the various instrument families.

Using the San Francisco Children's Orchestra web site, first graders build listening and instrument identification skills. Each child wears head phones, listens to ID, and finds various instruments on the included worksheet. 

Is your class familiar with the tale of Peter and the Wolf? If they are, they will have fun testing themselves on how well they can identify each character by listening to the piece. This presentation acts as a quiz where the class works...

Students examine the characteristics of the four families of instruments. They read an eBook, unscramble instruments and categorize them in the correct families, take a quiz, and explore the San Francisco Symphony website.

Students design an instrument. In this sound, vibration and pitch lesson, students learn about the characteristics of sound, vibration and pitch.  Students design a guitar using the assembled craft materials and demonstrate how they...

After a review of orchestral instruments and instrument families, learners make their own. They listen to the song "Simple Gifts" and identify the instruments heard in the piece. Then they draw an instrument of their own invention,...

Learners explore musical pitch. In this cross curriculum musical instruments and "sound" physics lesson, students identify and describe common traits of woodwind instruments. Learners research "pitch" and what causes pitch fluctuation by...

Students make predictions and explore how pitch is altered in string instruments. In this acoustic science lesson plan, students learn the types and parts of string instruments and create their own. They listen to classical music and...

Students name the different families in an orchestra, name many of the instruments in each family, listen to an orchestral recording to identify the flute and oboe and listen to the melody of a piece.

Young scholars identify brass, woodwind, string, and percussion instruments and group them into appropriate families in this technology-based Music lesson for 2nd through 5th grades. Each students is required to have a handheld device or...