Everyone loves music, especially all of us here at Fun Kids!

With many styles and forms, it’s an important part of people’s lives almost anywhere you go in the world.

As well as enjoying our favourite pop songs, music is used for all sorts of occasions – from weddings to sporting events, from marching bands to pop bands.

Music can make us happy and want to dance, or it can make us sad and reflective. It’s a very powerful thing.

What should I play?

There are loads of instruments for you to try out, all with different styles, sizes and sounds!  They tend to be split into four families: strings, brass, woodwind and percussion.

Strings

Maybe you’ve got nifty fingers perfect for playing stringed instruments like violins, cellos or the guitar.

Stringed instruments tend to have wooden bodies with strings stretched over them – usually made of gut, steel or nylon.

Stringed instruments can be played a number of different ways. With some, such as a violin or cello, you often use a bow that you draw across the strings, called bowing.

Others, like the guitar, are commonly played by plucking or strumming the strings with your fingers.

String instruments include:

• Violin
• Guitar
• Bass Guitar
• Cello
• Harp

Woodwind

Woodwind instruments use vibrating air to produce different musical sounds. Although they are called woodwind instruments, they are not always made out of wood – they are sometimes made of metal, such as the saxophone.

Woodwind instruments tend to be quite long and stick-like, but they come in all different shapes and sizes that help the instrument create its own unique sound.

Although the flute and the bassoon are both in the woodwind family, they produce very different sounds!

Woodwind instruments include:

• Clarinet
• Flute
• Saxophone
• Bassoon
• Oboe

Brass

These instruments make sound through wind just like woodwind instruments, but their main difference is that they are usually made of brass!

Brass instruments are really just long metal tubes that flare at the far end. Because they are so long, the tubes are often twisted into different shapes to make them easier to hold.

Brass instruments include:

• Trumpet
• Trombone
• Tuba
• French Horn

Percussion

Obviously the first instrument that comes to mind in this family are the drum kits you see bands using on stage.  But there are actually loads of instruments in this family, all of different shapes and sizes.

The main reason why this family is so big is because it includes any instrument that produces a sound when struck, scraped or shaken! Often it is these beats and sounds that are used to set the rhythm and pace for all other instruments.

There are far too many percussion instruments to list, but here are a few:

• Bass drum
• Cymbals
• Snare drum
• Timpani
• Triangle
• Xylophone

Get Started!

Whatever inspires you, there are lots of instruments you could learn, and school is a great place to start – why not ask your teachers about lessons?

You’re never too young to start learning how to play music.  Did you know that Mozart, one of the most famous pianists ever, was playing piano before he was even five years old?

To help you, you could join an orchestra or band at school and enjoy making music together. It’s also a fun way to make new friends.

And remember, if you don’t like any of these instruments, then you can always use one instrument you already own – your voice! If you like singing, you could join a choir or singing group.