Our MusicSTAR Leader is Catherine Lebrun sharing passion for music with the kids.  Website - FoundationMusicPro

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard,which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.

The piano diagram has the white notes C, D, E, F, G, A & B, and the black sharp/flat notes C#(Db), D#(Eb), F#(Gb), G#(Ab), A#(Bb). One group involves three white notes with two black notes whilst the group involves four white notes with three black notes

Guitar

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a hollow wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier and a speaker.  Acoustics produce a bright sound whilst electrics produce a metal sound

Standard tuning defines the string pitches as E, A, D, G, B, and E, from lowest (low E2) to highest (high E4). Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning. 

Bass

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb, by plucking, slapping, popping, strumming, tapping, thumping, or picking with a plectrum, often known as a pick.

Most basses have four strings, which are tunedone octave lower than the lowest pitched four strings of an electric guitar. The bass's standard tuning is E, A, D, G (lowest to highest string.) 

A 5-string bass also has the standard tuning, but it also has an extra low string known as the B-string for an extended low range. So the  5-string tuning is B, E, A, D, G

Drums

A drum kit a collection of drums and other percussion instruments, typically cymbals, which are set up on stands to be played by a single player, with drum sticks held in both hands, and the feet operating pedals that control the hi-hat cymbals and the beater for the bass drum 

Here is a list of the drum kit parts

Bass drum- played by a pedal operated by the right foot, which moves a felt-covered beater 

hi-hats- (two cymbals mounted on a stand), played with sticks, opened and closed with foot pedal (can produce sound with foot only) 

snare drum- mounted on a stand, placed between the player's knees and played with drum sticks (wooden or brush sticks) 

crash cymbal- cymbal mounted on a stand that produces a loud, sharp "crash" 

ride cymbal- cymbal mounted on a stand maintains a steady rhythmic pattern, sometimes called a ride pattern 

tom-toms- two mini drums that sit on top of the bass drum

floor tom- sits on the left of the drum kit and provides an extra beat or rhythm

Great Drum Link - https://drumhelper.com/blog/music-and-mindfulness-for-stress-reduction/

trumpet

The trumpet is an instrument in the brass family.  A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter. The trumpet is constructed of mainly brass tubing bent into a rough spiral. The trumpet produces a bright, loud sound. 

The shape is actually a complex series of metals which is smaller at the mouthpiece receiver and larger just before the flare of the bell begins. It was important to carefully design these shapes to ensure the tone of the instrument is kept. In comparison, the cornet and flugelhorn have similar shapes and produce a more mellow tone

Saxophone

The saxophone is an instrument usually considered a member of the woodwindfamily. Saxophones are also known as 'the Sax' and are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece, very similar to the clarinet. 

The saxophone is very popular in its intended music type of military bands as well as, being most commonly associated with types of popular music, big bands and particularly jazz music. Many festivals use saxophones and jazz music to add excitement and entertainment to the crowd and it is also very good music to dance to.

trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. 

tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced by moving air past the lips, causing them to vibrate or "buzz" into a large cupped mouthpiece 

French Horn

The French horn is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B♭ is the horn most often used by players in professional orchestras and bands 

Violin

The violin is the a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is also the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello. sopr. 

When it is played, It is held under the chin, resting on the shoulder. The violin has a lovely tone that can be soft and expressive or exciting and brilliant. Another name for the violin is also the fiddle. This is why a person who plays the violin is called a violinist or fiddler.

Cello

The Cello is actually the abbreviation of violoncello. The reason for its name is because of its similarity to the violin. The cello is a bowed string instrument, which is played while seated. Its weight is supported mainly by its endpin or spike, which rests on the floor. It is then steadied on the lower bout between the knees of the seated player and on the upper bout against the upper chest. The neck of the cello is above the player's left shoulder, and the C-String tuning peg is just behind the left ear. 

To play the notes, the bow is drawn horizontally across the strings. Changing notes is all controlled from the top hand on the strings. This person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra 

Flute

The flute is an instrument that is played solely by blowing through the mouthpiece and changing the notes with your fingers. on the air holes. In its most basic form, the flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. In most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle,  have a duct that directs the air onto the edge .

The flute basically produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge and is a common component of a band or orchestra. Unlike today's modern flute, Early times saw flutes made from wood or bamboo.

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a single-reed mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore, and a flared bell. 

Oboe

Oboes are a family of double reed woodwind instruments. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. Oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials 

bagpipes

Bagpipes are a wind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland bagpipes are the best known in the Anglophone World, bagpipes have been played for a millennium or more throughout large parts of Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia, including Turkey, the Caucasus, and around the Persian Gulf 

banjo

The banjo is a four-, five- or six-stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity as a resonator, called the head. 

The banjo is frequently associated with country, folk, Irish traditional, and bluegrass music. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in African American traditional music, before becoming popular in the minstrel shows of the 19th century. The banjo, with the fiddle, is a mainstay of American old-time music. It is also very frequently used in Traditional Jazz. 

mandolin

A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or "pick". It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison (8 strings), It is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass. 

Dobro

The word Dobro is, in popular usage, the generic term for a wood-bodied, single cone resonator guitar. It is also an American brand of resonator guitar, currently owned by the Gibson Guitar Corporation 

The tuning is an open chord and instead of playing it like a normal guitar, it is sat on the lap and requires a tone bar and finger picks.

Pedal Steel