At Different Points in History

At different points in history, different ways of classifying and grouping instruments have been used. In ancient China, instruments were grouped according to the material they were made from. All of the instruments made from wood belonged in a group together, all of the instruments made of silk were in a group together, and so on.

The system we use today divides the instruments into "families" of the orchestra: the string family, the percussion family, the woodwind family, and the brass family. This method places instruments in families based on what they are made of and how they are played.

This system works really well for Western classical music, but many uncommon and non-Western instruments do not fit into it at all. What family would the serpent on this page belong in? There are also problems with classifying certain keyboard instruments. For example, the piano has strings, but they are struck by hammers, so where does it belong?

In 1914, Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs adapted a classification system that came from ancient India. This ancient system divided instruments into four main classification groups: instruments in which the sound is produced by vibrating strings; instruments in which the sound is produced by vibrating columns of air; percussion instruments made of wood or metal; and percussion instruments with skin heads (drums). Hornbostel and Sachs took this a step further and came up with a system that has the same four top classifications, but has up to 300 sub-classifications.