Instruments of the Orchestra

Brass

This playlist contains tracks for the most common members of the Brass family. Three tracks each for trumpet, french horn and trombone, two for tuba:

Woodwind

Here's a playlist to help you identify the most common orchestral instruments of the woodwind family. There are three tracks (one solo and two concertos) each for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon:



Don't forget that the Saxophone is also a woodwind instrument, most commonly heard in Jazz. This playlist has three jazz examples and two tracks in which the sax is used as part of an orchestra:



Strings

There are three tracks (one solo and two concertos) each in this playlist for violin, viola, cello and double bass, in descending order of pitch:

String Techniques - Pizzicato

The most common way of playing the strings in an orchestra is with the bow -ARCO (this is what you hear through most of the tracks in the above playlist). PIZZICATO is also often heard, when the players pluck the strings. In the first four tracks in this playlist, you hear the whole orchestral string section playing PIZZICATO. Then there is a solo cello playing PIZZICATO, and a duet for
violins.




String Techniques - Col legno

This is when a string player turns the bow over and plays with the wooden part of it. It is less commonly heard than ARCO or PIZZICATO. 

You can hear its strange percussive effect in the first piece in the playlist (Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique) from 8:38-8:52 and from the start of the second track (Holst's The Planets). It is in the third track (Bartok's 4th String Quartet) from 4:32-4:36.