Orchestras

📖 In short

An orchestra is a big musical group with dozens of musicians, each playing an instrument, all playing one wonderful tune together. They're led by a conductor, called the maestro, who stands in front of them and moves a little baton to tell them when to play and how fast.

🤩 Did you know?

A big orchestra can have about 100 musicians.
The string section usually has between 20 and 32 violins.
The biggest string instrument in the orchestra is the double bass, played standing up.
A long piece played by an orchestra is called a “symphony”.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Four sections

An orchestra is divided into four sections: strings like the violin and cello; woodwinds like the flute and clarinet; brass like the trumpet and tuba; and percussion like drums and cymbals.

🔍 Strings at the front

More than half the orchestra's musicians play string instruments, and they sit at the front near the conductor in a half-circle.

💡 The conductor

The maestro knows every note of the piece, hears all the instruments together, and signals with hands and baton to make the sound loud or soft, fast or slow.

🎯 Before the concert

Before a concert starts, the oboe player plays one note, and all the musicians tune their instruments to it so they sound good together.

🧩 Test yourself

1 What do we call the leader of an orchestra?

2 Which section has the most musicians?

3 A big orchestra can have about ?? musicians.

4 Which picture shows “Orchestras”?

🎨 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons

Սէրուժ Ուրիշեան (Serouj Ourishian) · CC BY-SA 3.0