Academic Decathlon Music Practice Test 2026 - Free Music Exam Practice Questions and Study Guide

Sound is produced by vibrating air, so instruments that create sound this way are grouped as aerophones. Brass players set the air column in vibration by buzzing their lips into a mouthpiece, while wind instruments (like woodwinds) start the vibration with reeds or edge tones. The other families produce sound differently: chordophones rely on vibrating strings, membranophones on vibrating membranes, and idiophones on the instrument’s own body vibrating. So brass and wind instruments belong to aerophones.