Instrumental Ensembles

Instrumental Ensembles

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Instrumental Ensembles

What does the word 'ensemble' mean? It's pronounced 'on-som-bl'. Sounds a bit fancy, doesn't it!?

It's not actually anything particularly fancy, but just the word we use for a 'grouping' of instruments in music.

So today we are going to look at some of the common instrumental groupings which exist in the world of music.

Here are some common instrumental ensembles which you already may have heard of on the following few pages

ROCK BAND

ORCHESTRA

CHOIR

STRING QUARTET

JAZZ TRIO

WOODWIND DUO

Instrumental Groupings

Last lesson we looked at instrumental families.

We should now be aware that most instruments will fall into the following categories...

Strings

Woodwind

Brass

Percussion

Keyboards

Number of performers

Sometimes the name of the ensemble will give us a clue to how many people are playing.

For example...

Solo - means one performer

Duo - means two performers

Trio - means three performers

Quartet - means four performers

Quintet - means five performers

And so on....

Making sense of the names

So if we were told that a 'string quartet' were playing, we could assume that the ensemble would involve four performers all playing stringed instruments.

Or if the ensemble was a 'woodwind trio' we would assume that two woodwind players were performing together.

Isn't it amazing?

I don't know about you, but I find seeing people making music with other people an amazing thing! It's even more amazing when groups of people really connect and communicate with one another musically. But what's most amazing is the affect their music making can have on those they play music to. Think about the thousands of people at Glastonbury all singing the same lyrics, or a concert hall full of people all with a tear in their eye at how emotional the music makes them feel.

THAT'S amazing!

Your Task!

Your task today is to research (using the power of Google or your preferred search engine) the following instrumental ensembles in order to be able to answer the questions correctly.

You have 5 minutes allocated for each question, so don't hang around!

Good luck!

Multiple Choice

How many performers feature in a 'quintet'?

• One

• Two

• Three

• Four

• Five

Fill in the Blanks

What type of instrumental ensemble usually features ALL of the instrumental families?

Multiple Select

Which of the following instruments ARE included in a String Quartet? (Select all appropriate answers)

• Violin

• Guitar

• Viola

• Cello

• Piano

Multiple Choice

Which ensemble name most suitably fits the following instrumentation?

Vocalist, Keyboard, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drum Kit.

• Orchestra

• Rock Band

• Barbershop Quartet

Fill in the Blanks

What is the name given to a large collection of singers/vocalists?

Multiple Select

Which of the following instruments would NOT be commonly found in a Jazz ensemble?

• Trumpet

• Guitar

• Piano

• Xylophone

• Vibraphone