User:Stevenarntson/thesis project

=Disorganized Essay Example=

I've always been interested in music. When I was a kid I played clarinet in the school band (until Joanna Rundson beat me for first chair in eighth grade), and the clarinet has been around for a long time, longer than the saxophone for instance. But clarinets aren't as old as drums. Maybe the drum was the first musical instrument. I wasn't very good at drumming when I tried it. I don't have a good sense of rhythm. Other kinds of instruments have also interested me, and eventually I found out that instruments are grouped in families. There is the string family, which is instruments that have strings that are bowed or plucked. One example is the violin, which was invented in the 1700s. There have been many famous violin players, and also the violin has spread all around the world. I didn't play violin when I was in school, though, because I played clarinet.

Clarinet, which was invented about the same time as the violin, is a 'reed' instrument that has a reed you blow through to make the sound. Instead of a string vibrating, the reed vibrates. Which is different from percussion, where you strike the instrument. One funny example is the piano, which is the instrument I play nowadays. You'd think it was a string instrument, because it has strings, but it's a percussion instrument because the strings are struck with hammers. Also, xylophones are percussion instruments.

One of the weirdest instruments I know of is called the "glass harmonica." It was invented by George Washington. It's a bunch of glass bowls that make a singing sound. I don't know what ochestra family that would fit under. You don't strike it, you don't play it with a bow, and there's no reeds. I wonder where a singer would go, too. I think there's one more family of instruments. I wonder where more modern instruments would go, like digital synthesizers or electric guitars. People are still inventing new instruments.

=Organized Essay: Musical families= I've always been interested in music, and have enjoyed learning about musical instruments. When I was a kid I played clarinet in the school band, and since that time I've learned about many instruments. One useful way of thinking about musical instruments is to consider the four families of the modern orchestra, which are percussion instruments, string instruments, and woodwind and brass instruments.

Percussion instruments are some of the oldest in the world. Drums are percussion instruments, but some percussion instruments also play notes, like the xylophone.

The string family contains instruments where you make a string vibrate by either drawing a bow across it, or plucking it. Violins are examples of string instruments.

Woodwind and brass instruments are the last two families, both of which require the player to blow air through them. My own childhood instrument, clarinet, is a member of the woodwind family. The player blows air over a reed, which vibrates and causes sound. Saxophone is another woodwind instrument. Saxophones are often made of brass, but they aren't in the brass family because they use a reed to make sound. Brass instruments have air blown through them like woodwinds, but the lips are buzzed to make sound, instead of a reed. Most brass instruments are made out of brass, like trumpets, but some aren't: the didgeridoo, for instance, is usually made of wood.

Learning the four families of the orchestra can help a person group instruments and learn about them. However, there are some tricky examples. For instance, which family would the piano fit under? You might think "strings" because the piano has strings in it. But the strings in the piano are struck with a hammer, so the piano is considered a percussion instrument. Then there are various oddball instruments, such as the glass harmonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin. This instrument isn't usually included in the orchestra, and isn't in one of the four families. But neither are singers, and the human voice is the oldest musical instrument there is--the one we're born with.

=Organized Essay: Date of invention=

I've always been interested in music, and learning about different musical instruments. One of the first things I learned was that not all musical instruments were invented at the same time. Some are very old, while others are pretty new. For instance, the instrument I played in high school was the clarinet, which has been around for hundreds of years ... but not for thousands of years. One way of considering the world of instruments is to think about them in the order in which they were invented: prehistorical instruments, historical instruments, and modern instruments.

One of the simplest ways to make a sound is to hit something with something else. Drums are thousands of years old, and are still being played today.

Other kinds of musical instruments were invented more recently, but still in the past. My own high school instrument, the clarinet, was invented in the 1700s. Many other instruments were created around the world that involve blowing wind over a reed. The piano was invented at about the same time as the clarinet. Neither the piano nor the clarinet came from out of nowhere, though--they were both based on older instruments. The clarinet was based on the chalumeau, and the piano was based on early keyboard instruments like the harpsichord.

There are new instruments being made even today. When a person thinks about new instruments, they usually think of electronic ones, like synthesizers, samplers, or electrified versions of older instruments (electric guitar probably being the most common).

Humankind has been inventing new instruments for so long, it seems like maybe it's part of human nature. Prehistorical instruments like drums exist today alongside of historical instruments like the piano and modern instruments like digital synthesizers and samplers. One especially fascinating example of a new musical instrument is something called the "udar," which is an electronic instrument that is spherical in shape. Invented just a few years ago, one can see the endless possibilities of humankind creating new instruments.

=Organized Essay: Autobiographical=

When I was a kid I played clarinet in the school band, and kept at it for several years. However, I gave up when Joanna Rundson beat me for first chair in eighth grade. I didn't play music for awhile after that. Now that I'm an adult, I find that I'm still interested in music, and still playing it, whereas I saw on Facebook that Joanna Rundson became a lawyer and doesn't play music anymore. Long after my first introduction to the clarinet, and following my failed later attempts to play drums, I've finally settled on the piano as a musical instrument that allows me to express myself and give me some sense of accomplishment.

Clarinet was my childhood instrument, which I picked because it was small, and I wouldn't have to break my back lugging it to school every day. The clarinet is an old instrument, invented in the 1700s. It's a reed instrument, which means you make sound by blowing air across a reed. You could contrast this with, say, a violin, where a player makes sound by drawing a bow across some strings. Violins are called a 'string' instrument.

After my humiliation at losing first chair to Joanna Rundson, I didn't play music for a few years. However, when I was in high school I briefly tried playing drums. Drums are part of a musical family known as 'percussion'. You basically hit something in a way that makes sound. Many drums are focused on rhythm, and it turned out I didn't have good rhythm, so I wasn't very good at drums.

Years later, though, I returned to music again when I inherited an old piano. Piano is the instrument I'm still playing now. I enjoy it, just for myself. I make up simple songs, or learn to play songs by listening to the radio and playing along. The piano was invented about the same time as the violin. You might think it's a string instrument, because it has strings in it, but it's a percussion instrument, because the strings are struck by hammers.

Through my life, I've tried different instruments. One humiliated me, one frustrated me, and finally I found one that I liked. I'm glad I'm playing music today. I wonder if in the future I might play some other kind of instrument. Maybe something strange like the glass harmonica.