How brass instruments work - Al Cannon - video Dailymotion

TED-Ed

What gives the trumpet its clarion ring and the tuba its gut shaking oompah-pah? And what makes the trombone so jazzy? Al Cannon shows how these answers lie not in the brass the instruments are made of, but in the journey that air takes from the musician’s lungs to the instrument’s bell.   Lesson by Al Cannon, animation by TED-Ed.

Transcript

00:00What gives the trumpet its clarion ring,

00:12and the tuba its gut-shaking oom-ba-ba?

00:17And what makes the trombone so jazzy?

00:21The answer lies not in the brass these instruments are made of,

00:25but in the journey air takes from the musician's lungs

00:28to the instrument's bell.

00:31Like any sound, music consists of vibrations traveling through air.

00:36Instruments are classified based on how those vibrations are produced.

00:40Percussion instruments are struck.

00:42String instruments are plucked or bowed.

00:45Woodwinds have air blown against a reed or sharp edge.

00:49For brass instruments, however,

00:51the vibration comes directly from the musician's mouth.

00:55One of the first things a brass player must learn is to breathe in deeply

01:00until every possible particle of air is crammed into the lungs.

01:05Once all that air is inside, it must come out through the mouth.

01:09But there, an internal battle takes place,

01:12as the musician simultaneously tries to hold their lips firmly closed,

01:17while blowing enough air to force them open.

01:20The escaping air meets resistance from the lip muscles,

01:24forms an opening called the aperture,

01:27and creates the vibration that brass players call the buzz.

01:32When a mouthpiece is held up to those vibrating lips,

01:35it slightly refines the buzz,

01:37amplifying the vibration at certain frequencies.

01:41But things get really interesting depending on what instrument is attached to that mouthpiece.

01:46A brass instrument's body is essentially a tube that resonates with the air column blowing through it.

01:52The way that sound waves travel through this column forms a limited pattern of pitches,

01:57known as the harmonic series,

01:59with notes spaced far apart at the lower end,

02:02but coming closer together as the pitch increases.

02:05The musician can alter the pitch of the note through slight contractions of the lips,

02:10and alterations to air volume and speed.

02:14Slower, warm, sighing air produces lower pitches,

02:18and faster, cool, flowing air produces higher pitches in the series.

02:23But any single harmonic series has gaps where pitches are missing,

02:28and the versatility of brass instruments lies in their ability to switch between multiple series.

02:34On instruments like the trumpet,

02:36valves can be lowered to increase the length of tubing the air travels through.

02:41While on a trombone, this is done by extending its slide.

02:45Lengthening the tube stretches the vibrating air column,

02:49reducing the frequency of vibrations and resulting in a lower pitch.

02:53This is why the tuba, the largest brass instrument,

02:56is also the one capable of playing the lowest notes.

03:00So changing the instrument length shifts its harmonic series,

03:04while slight variations of the airflow and the player's lips produce the different notes within it.

03:10And those notes finally emerge through the flared bell opening at the end.

03:15What started as a deep breath and a vibrating buzz on the lips

03:19has now been transformed into a bold and brassy tune.

03:23The musician's skillful manipulation of every part of the process,

03:27from lungs to lips to mouthpiece to the instrument itself,

03:32creates an amazing palette of pitches that can be heard in musical genres across the globe.

03:38By harnessing the power of natural resonance in a flexible and controllable way,

03:43brass instruments are great examples of the fusion of human creativity with the physics of our world.

03:57theichts 24-7000 prosecution instrumentals have been changed

04:02and it's randomized based on a single chapter of the universe.

04:03Since its apples and cultures between vision,

04:04the vision of aetrician control of the person's ahh же气候 panel of the seres

How brass instruments work - Al Cannon

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