Instrument Families

Instruments are grouped together in families because those instruments all have things in common, such as how they look or how a sound is made. In a symphony orchestra, [?] different instrument families combine to make beautiful music together. In a large orchestra, musicians are seated in a semi-circle, facing the conductor and the audience. The orchestra seating chart shows you the area where each musician sits on stage when the instrument families play together as an orchestra. The seating chart on the right shows one way to seat an orchestra.

The String Family

The violin, viola, cello, bass, and harp make up the string family. In most orchestras, the strings are the biggest section. String instruments look very much alike, except in size. Stringed instruments are made of [?]
and each instrument (except the harp) has [?] strings stretched across it. You play them by drawing a bow across or sometimes by plucking.


STRINGS

A string instrument cannot play a note which is [?] than the note produced by its lowest string.
A string instrument can go as high as the [?] can make it go, although the extremely high notes are not very useful.
The low strings are [?] than the high ones. String instruments are tuned using [?], which can be turned.