The bassoon belongs to which instrument family?

• A. Strings
• B. Woodwinds
• C. Brass
• D. Keyboard instruments

Answer: (B)

Sound production method defines instrument families. The bassoon creates its sound by vibrating air inside a wooden bore, driven by a double reed placed at the mouthpiece. That reed configuration and the way the air column is excited are characteristic of woodwind instruments. It’s not a string instrument, where vibrating strings produce the sound; it isn’t a brass instrument, which relies on buzzing lips into a cup-shaped mouthpiece; and it isn’t a keyboard instrument, which uses keys to produce sound. So the bassoon fits squarely in the woodwind family because the core idea is how the sound is produced—by the vibrating air of a double reed in a wooden instrument.