Many students at our school don’t even realize how much our music department has to offer. Our school has a junior high concert band, a senior high concert band, a marching band, a jazz band, a guitar class, a junior high chorus, a senior high chorus, the musical, etc. If you like singing in the shower or are even a tiny bit interested in jamming out, you should think about joining.

We have two teachers who are in charge of all of these. Mr. Marini is the band teacher and Mr. Klixbull is the choir and guitar teacher. You may have seen them in the halls before. They help make our music department fun. This is both of their first years at our school. They have helped change the music department for the better. 

It is said that playing an instrument helps increase the capacity of your memory. Learning to play an instrument helps stimulate your brain cells and improve functions like memory capacity and abstract reasoning skills. They also tested to see what instrument is best for your brain. They believe that the piano helps make your brain run more efficiently. You probably didn’t know that 21 million Americans play the piano. 

People think that the smartest instrument is the guitar. They probably think this because you can play notes and chords all at the same time. To play the guitar, you typically use both hands. One hand goes on the fretboard to hold down strings. While the other hand plucks or strums the strings. They also think it is the easiest instrument to learn because to play the guitar you don’t need to know note names, only what string and fret they are on. 

The oldest musical activity is drumming. We have so many different types of drums now. Like the snare drum, bass drum, even cymbals and other things. Snare drums use to be used to send coded instructions to soldiers. The first drums, made in 5500 B.C., were made from things like alligator skin. A lot of the time, drummers act as the timekeepers of a song. 

The drum might be the oldest instrument but the trumpet is the oldest brass instrument. It is thought to be more than 3,500 years old. To play the trumpet, you just vibrate your lips together as you blow into the mouthpiece. The trumpet is a loud instrument that doesn’t have a lot of notes they can play. Trumpets can be different sizes, like most other instruments. A good example is the piccolo trumpet. The piccolo trumpet is a smaller trumpet that has 4 keys instead of 3. It is also higher pitched than the trumpet. 

The piccolo is the highest-pitched orchestra instrument. The piccolo is like a smaller flute. It has fewer keys than the flute, but you put your fingers in the same spots. The piccolo can play all the same notes as a flute, it is just an octave higher. To play the flute you blow air across the mouthpiece, not into it like most people think.

The flute is considered an early instrument. It dates back to Germany over 35,000 years ago. The flute, and piccolo, are the only woodwind instruments that don’t use a reed. You play the flute by blowing across the mouthpiece, just like a piccolo. The flute is a quieter instrument and is easily drowned out by other instruments. The flute has a total of 16 keyholes. 

The standard saxophone has 23 keys. The saxophone is the only woodwind instrument that is made out of brass. It has a single reed, that you play by blowing into the mouthpiece and reed. The saxophone is said to be one of the easiest instruments to play. There are eight different sizes of saxophones in the sax family. The saxophone is the only instrument that was invented by only one person. The saxophone is normally used to bring balance to songs. 

The clarinet is another instrument that uses a single reed. It is part of the woodwind family. You play the clarinet by blowing on the mouthpiece and reed, just like you would with a saxophone. The clarinet is considered one of the newer orchestral instruments. They are typically made out of wood, but they can be made out of other materials like brass too. 

There are so many more instruments than these. If any of these instruments sounded interesting to you then you might want to give the band a chance. Many think that everyone has an instrument and that it describes who you are, you just have to find it. 

links

https://pianopower.org/16-benefits-of-playing-an-instrument/

https://drumhelper.com/blog/facts-about-drums/

https://hellomusictheory.com/learn

https://blog.sheetmusicplus.com/2013/01/30/top