Brass Energy

For thousands or years people have been making sound energy like we do today with brass instruments. They didn't always have brass instruments to use but they made the sound in the same way. They would pick up a large seashell, break off the small end and blow into it hard to make a sound. Or take an animal horn, hollow out the inside, cut off the end and blow into it. The horn made another sound. It sounded differently from the seashell but they "played" it the same way.

Take an empty paper towel roll or pipe. Put your lips together and then press them against the end of the tube. Blow hard. Be sure to keep your lips together except enough to let out a little bit of air. You should make a sound. That is the same kind of sound energy that other brass instruments make - they work the same way. If you use tubes of different lengths and widths you will get a different sound. Just like the woodwinds, the length and width of the tube determines the pitch of the sound you hear.

Until 200 years ago almost all brass instruments were made of one long piece of tube. Sometimes the tube was bent around on itself and sometimes it was left straight. The only way the player could change the sound he made was by changing the shape of his lips or by changing how hard he pressed his lips onto the mouthpiece. This kind of instrument made it very hard to play very many different notes.

Musicians used to have extra sets of tubing that they put onto their instruments to change its length so that they could get different pitches. This helped some but not very much. What changed brass instruments the most was when the valve was invented. Now all a player has to do is press down on a valve and this cuts off or adds sections or tubing that the air goes through. This makes it so that you can play a lot more notes.

Making Sound Energy with Brass Instruments