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A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as a player blows into a tubular resonator. Brass instruments are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" (Baines, 1993).

The view of most scholars (see organology) is that the term "brass instrument" should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above, and not by whether the instrument is actually made of brass. Thus, as exceptional cases one finds "brass instruments" made of wood, like the cornett, and " woodwind instruments" made of brass, like the saxophone.

1 Families of brass instruments

Brass instruments nowadays generally come in one of three families:

• Natural brass instruments, where the player can only play notes in the instrument's harmonic series, for example the bugle. The trumpet was a natural brass instrument prior to about 1795, and the French horn before about 1820. Natural instruments are still played in authentic performances of older music, and for some ceremonial functions.

• Valved brass instruments use a set of valves (typically 3 or 4 but as many as 7 or more in some cases) operated by the player's fingers that introduce additional tubing into the instrument, changing its overall length. This family includes the modern trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, saxhorn, euphonium, tubaThe tuba is the largest of the low- brass instruments and is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid- 19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide. There is usually only one tuba in an orchest, sousaphoneThe sousaphone is a musical instrument named after John Philip Sousa, the famous march composer and conductor. The sousaphone was developed in the 1890s by Conn at the request of Sousa, who was unhappy with the tubas used at that time by the Marine band., mellophoneThe mellophone is a brass instrument that is typically used in place of the french horn in marching bands. Like the horn, the mellophone has three valves. However, the valves are pressed with the right hand for mellophone, instead of the left for a concer, and French horn. The valves are usually piston valves, but can be rotary values. Rotary valves are the norm for the French horn and are also prevalent on the tubaThe tuba is the largest of the low- brass instruments and is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid- 19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide. There is usually only one tuba in an orchest.

• Slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing. The main instrument in this famility is the tromboneNever look at the trombones. It only encourages them. Richard Strauss The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. It is pitched lower than the trumpet, and higher than the tuba. A person who plays the trombone is called a trombonist. A tromb (although some valve trombones are also made) and the slide trombone's ancestor the sackbut. Some modern trombones also have rotary valves in addition to the slide. The folk instrument the bazooka is also in the slide family.

In the past, a fourth type was common:

• Keyed or Fingered brass instruments used holes along the body of the instrument, which were covered by fingers or by finger-operated pads (keys) in a similar way to a woodwind instrument. These included the cornett, serpent and keyed trumpet. Such instruments were difficult to play and became obsolete with the invention of the valve, though have had a renaissance with the growth of the early music movement.