To learn more about the different instruments, click the appropriate instrument on the image above.

The Brass section is often used to provide a blazing wall of sound, usually in the form of a fanfare but can also produce a soft, mellow tone.  it is used less than the Strings and Woodwind, but its bright, forceful tone can be extremely effective when contrasting their smoother textures.   The versatility of the Brass section is best heard on its own in the Brass Band.

All Brass instruments descend from hollow animal horns or tree branches and work on the principal of wave in pipes.  The pitch of the note depends on the length of tubing in which the air column vibrates, and the force with which the player blows.  Unlike the woodwind instruments, lengths of tubing are effectively added using valves to produce different notes as opposed to covering and uncovering holes in the fixed length of the pipe.  Early instruments such as the bugle, could only produce notes in the Harmonic Sequence and was thus restricted to fanfares or piercing melodies, but with the invention of valves in the late 18th century, these boundaries were removed.  There is still however no perfect design of brass instrument, unlike the other sections, and it is left largely to the artist's ability to coax the instrument to play in tune.

You can learn more about Brass by reading about the Trumpets, Trombones, French Horns and Tuba.