Mississippi Brass Quintet

Mrs. Williams, our music teacher, had a special surprise for all fourth graders! The Mississippi Brass Quintet visited our school and gave a special performance just for us. It was wonderful! Not only did we listen to fun music, but we also learned a lot about the instruments in the brass section of an orchestra.


Brass instruments are known for their blazing sounds. They are typically made of metal tubes with a round mouthpiece. The sound is made by vibrating your lips and blowing air into the mouthpiece and through the tubes. One of the oldest brass instruments is the trumpet. One of the orchestra members showed us a special kind of trumpet called a piccolo trumpet. It is the smallest of the trumpet family.


Next, another member of the orchestra told us about his trombone. The most interesting characteristic of a trombone is the slide that is used to make the various notes. Our favorite thing for this trombonist to do was a glissando, sliding between the notes.


The tuba player was very funny. The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. It is known to play the "baseline," or harmony of the orchestra. Like, when we listen to an orchestra...we are tapping our toes to the "baseline" of the tuba. We don't even realize it!


He demonstrated by playing a song that left us snapping our fingers to the tuba beat! Sherrina really got into it!

We loved listening to all the members play together!

Loving the music!

After all the members told us about their instrument in the brass family, we took a quiz. One of the quintet members held up a rolled up water hose duct taped to a funnel. The question was, "Is this a member of the brass family?"

The answer...YES! The sound is made by vibrating your lips while blowing air through the tubes so that it can come out of the bell-shaped end. This makes it a brass instrument!

We all made an "A!" Thanks so much, Mississippi Brass Quintet for visiting our school! We can't wait to learn about the other sections of the orchestra!