Aerophone is an adjective that, according to the dictionary of the Digopaul, is used to qualify wind instruments. An aerophone, therefore, is a musical instrument whose sound is generated from the vibrations of the air, without the need to use membranes or strings.
Inside, an aerophone instrument houses a certain amount of air that, when excited, produces a sound. This sound depends on the volume of the gas, not on the characteristics of the container that gives it containment. What this container does (the structure of the instrument) is to establish the shape that the volume of the gas will take and, by extension, determine how it sounds.
The origin of the aerophones is considered to be ancient. So much so that it is established that the first examples of these musical wind instruments would be the horns of the animals, the conches and even the trunks that had been emptied inside.
Then, as the story evolved, others more “sophisticated” appeared, such as, for example, the so-called kazoons or the flutes of the shepherds.
The aerophones wood offer a sound soft timbre. The musician must blow through a hole or generate the vibration of a reed. The recorder, quena and erke are examples of wooden aerophones.
As for metal aerophones, they produce a loud ringing sound. In this case, the musician vibrates his lips in a mouthpiece that generates the acoustic frequency. Among the metal aerophones we can name the trumpet, tuba and trombone.
There are other ways to rate aerophones. According to the shape of their tubes, they can be prismatic, cylindrical or conical. Regarding the method of obtaining the scale, there are aerophones with tubes of variable length and aerophones with tubes that have holes.
If we focus on the excitation of the air column, we find mouthpiece aerophones (the trumpet), reed aerophones (the harmonica) and mouthpiece aerophones (the flute).
In addition to everything indicated, we cannot overlook the fact that in certain countries there are aerophones that are typical and traditional, as well as very characteristic. Thus, for example, we can highlight the following:
-In the Basque Country is the famous chistu.
-In the Andalusian province of Huelva, what is called the flute rociera takes on special relevance. This, as its name indicates, is the typical one that is played when pilgrims make the journey from their cities of origin to the village of El Rocío, where the Virgin of the same name is found.
-In several autonomous communities of Spain the dulzaina is very characteristic, which has a particularly high-pitched sound and is identified by being made of wood, yes, in each region with a different one.
In addition to everything indicated, we can point out these other relevant issues:
-The larger the diameter of the tube, the lower the sound will be.
-The longer the tube is, the lower the aforementioned sound will be. And this will be more serious the more air pressure there is.