Learning music: wind, string, and percussion instruments
From Smile and Learn
9 min2nd3rd4thMusic
Summary
Sorts instruments into families — wind, string, and percussion — by how they make sound, with examples of each.
Viewer safety
All ages
Gentle animated educational content, safe to show cold; still worth a quick preview to match it to your lesson.
Our rating is a quick teacher-to-teacher guide — preview before showing.
Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
Instruments make sound in different ways: strings vibrate when plucked, wind instruments buzz with blown air, and percussion is struck or shaken.
- How does a drum make sound compared to a guitar?
- What do wind instruments need to make a sound?
- Which instrument family would a piano's hammers put it near?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: instrument, string, wind, percussion.
Try it: Name an instrument from each family: string, wind, percussion. Mime how you'd play one.