2. Wood Wind vs. Brass Wind Instruments
Broadly speaking, musicians distinguish between two groups of instruments: wood wind and the brass wind instruments. As you can see from the saxophone, the distinction is not made according to the material the instrument is made of, but according to how the instrument's sound is generated. In the main, wood wind instruments are those in which the air column is made to vibrate by the use of a reed, but this is a very clumsy description and will be refined further in other guides.
Brass wind instrument players generate the vibrations in the air flow through the use of their lips. The mouthpieces of their instruments do not feature additional reeds or a blowing edge to make the air vibrate. You might say that the wood wind instrument player has to make the reed vibrate, the brass wind instrument player his lips.
