My definition of each family of instruments. Woodwinds are instruments that are mostly made out of wood but not all. You have to blow in or across the instrument to get the sound. Most woodwinds have little keys that you press down on to get different pitches. Some woodwinds have reeds others don't. A lot of the woodwinds are high pitched but others liek the basson are low. Another family of istrumetns is the Brass. The Brass family is made out of brass. They can play extremely loud. You play the Brass by blowing into the end of it and pressing down keys. Brass instruemtns are large tubes with big bells on the end. The Percussion family has many instruments. To play a percussion instrument you have to hit, scrape, or shake the instrument. Some of these istrumetns are tuned and others are not. The last family in the orchestra is the srting family. The string instruments have many strings run across them from the pegs to the tailpiece. You can play this by plucking the strings or running a horsehair bow across the strings. String instruments take up more than half of the orchestra.