Woodwind Family

• Historically, all woodwind instruments that make up the woodwind family used to only be made of wood. Now they are made of wood, metal, plastic and some are a combination. Nearly all woodwinds are narrow cylinders or pipes, with finger holes for fingering the notes, an opening at the bottom of the instrument, and a mouthpiece at the top. A musician will blow wind through the mouthpiece to produce the sound and open and close the holes with their fingers to change the pitch.
  
  

Reeds and Sound

• The mouthpieces for some woodwinds, such as the clarinet, oboe and bassoon, use a thin piece of wood named a "reed." The reed will vibrate once a player blows across it. The clarinet uses a single reed while the oboe and bassoon use double reeds (two reeds joined together).
  
  

Flute and Piccolo

• The flute is the soprano voice of bands, orchestras, and woodwinds, and is one of the few woodwinds that is only made of metal. The instrument is a long tube that has a mouthpiece near one end and is held horizontally when being played. The player blows across an oval-shaped hole in the mouthpiece while pressing the levers (keys) on the flute to produce the sound. The piccolo is a transverse flute that is smaller in size and is pitched an octave higher above the standard flute. The instruments' range can reach nearly three octaves and will reach the highest pitch of a modern orchestra.
  
  

English Horn

• Part of the oboe family, the English horn is also called an alto oboe due to it being tuned one-fifth lower in pitch than the standard oboe. It is very similar in size to the oboe and is usually played by the third oboe player in an orchestra or band.
  
  

Saxophone

• While using the same mouthpiece of the clarinet, the saxophone uses a single reed, has a metal body, and is a widened version of the conical bore of the oboe instrument. There are multiple types of saxophones including the alto, tenor, soprano and baritone. These saxophones all have a range of about two and half octaves. The baritone saxophone is the largest sax and projects the lowest pitch. This saxophone is curved at the bottom. However, the soprano saxophone is typically straight and looks more like a clarinet.
  
  

Clarinet

• The clarinet is a single-reed woodwind that has a long tube made of wood with a mouthpiece on one end and a bell-shaped opening at the bottom. The instrument consist of tone holes that are covered by metal levers for changing the pitch. They are manufactured in four keys, but B-flat is the most common.
  
  

Oboe and Bassoon

• The oboe and bassoon are two of the primary double-reed woodwinds. Noted as the smallest and highest pitched double-reed woodwind, the oboe is a cylindrical shaped wooden instrument with keys on the length of the body. The bassoon, on the other hand, is a large woodwind. It contains eight feet of cylindrical wood tubing and is split into four different joints: the bass joint, tenor joint, double joint, and bell joint. According to Oracle ThinkQuest, "the bell joint is slightly flared and is attached at the bottom to the bass joint. This is set in turn to the tenor joint which is then set into the double joint." The mouthpiece is located on a crook that is connected to the tenor joint.