Exploring Musical Instruments: Types, Theory, and Structure in Music

This assignment provides an overview of various musical instruments and fundamental music theory concepts. It begins by listing different types of musical instruments, including percussion, brass, keyboard, woodwind, and stringed instruments. The assignment then identifies the combination of piano, bass, and drums as rock music and highlights harmonium, tabla, and tanpura as commonly used instruments in Indian Classical music. Furthermore, it defines essential music theory terms such as meter, scale, chord, and melody, and elaborates on different kinds of Western meter, including simple and compound duple, triple, and fourfold. The concepts of polyrhythm and colotomic meter are also explained. The assignment concludes by describing the term 'Form or Structure' in music, referring to the overall arrangement of a musical piece. This detailed exploration makes the assignment a comprehensive resource for understanding musical instruments and basic music theory. Desklib offers more solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 1
Musical Instruments
Name of the Student
Name of the Instructor
Course Code
Date

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 2
Name:
1. List the types of Musical Instruments including their subdivisions.
Answer 1: The musical instruments that are available include:
1. Percussion instruments: Drums, Triangle, Xylophone Glockenspiel, Chimes, Bells,
Cymbals, Timpani, and Tam-tam (Krishnaswami, 31).
2. Brass instruments: Tuba, Trombone, Bugle, French horn, Cornet, and Trumpet.
3. Keyboard instruments: Plucked instruments, aerated instruments, electronic
instruments, and struck instruments.
4. Woodwind instruments: Flute, Clarinet, Piccolo, Recorder, Oboe and Bassoon.
5. Stringed instruments: Harp, Bass, Viola, Dulcimer, Cello, and Violin.
2. What is the combination of Piano (sometimes guitar), Bass, and Drums called?
Answer 2: The combination of piano, bass guitar, drums followed by electric guitar is known to be
rock music.
3. What three instruments are commonly used in Indian Classical music?
Answer 3: Harmonium, Tabla, and Tanpura are the three most common instruments that are being
used in Indian Classical music (Krishnaswami, 55).

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 3
4. Define the term Meter.
Answer 4: Meter is known to be the regular example of accents or stresses which helps in providing
the beat or beat of the music.
5. Name the Kinds of Western Meter- define them.
Answer 5: The six different kinds of meter which are present in the western music include:
a) Simple duple where the beats are gathered into two thereby isolating into two.
b) Simple triple where the beats are gathered into three thereby isolating into two.
c) Simple fourfold where the beats are gathered into four thereby isolating into two.
d) Compound duple where the beats are gathered into two thereby isolating into three
(Krishnaswami, 67).
e) Compound triple where the beats are assembled into three and thereby isolating into three.
f) Compound fourfold where the beats are assembled into four thereby isolating into three.
6. Define Polyrhythm.
Answer 6: A polyrhythm is known to be the blend of various rhythms that are being played in a
concurrent way while experiencing a comparative straight beat.
7. Define Colotomic Meter.
Answer 7: Colotomic meter has been utilized for certain fixed kinds of instruments to mark
accurate intervals of time.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 4
8. Define the term Scale.
Answer 8: A scale is thought to be the blend of melodic notes which are prearranged by basic pitch
or recurrence.
9. Define Chord.
Answer 9: A harmony is characterized as the blend of at least three or above three notes which are
joined in a harmonious way.
10. Define Melody.
Answer 10: Melody is considered to be a progression of individual notes which is musically
calming in nature.
11. Describe what is meant by the term Form or Structure in Music.
Answer 11: The melodic structure or frame in music is identified as the overall arrangement or
structure of any piece of music (Quinton, Harte and Sandler, 1).

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 5
References
Krishnaswami, Subrahmanyam. Musical instruments of India. Publications Division Ministry of
Information & Broadcasting, 2017.
Quinton, Elio, Christopher Harte, and Mark Sandler. "Extraction of metrical structure from music
recordings." Proc. of the 18th Int. Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx). Trondheim. 2015.