Most people think they have a fairly good idea what woodwind instruments are.  Demand a definition rather than a list of examples, however, and even woodwind players look uneasy.  Despite the name, not all woodwinds are (or were) made of wood.  The saxophone is the obvious exception.  Nor do they all use a wooden reed as a tone generator.  The flute, as an “air reed” instrument, uses the principle of a sharp edge splitting the airstream.  In fact, as the following table makes clear, just about every common denominator worth considering as part of a working definition has at least one important exception.

Woodwinds: In Search of a Definition

Perhaps the best that can be said by way of definition – and it is not much of one -- is that woodwind instruments are musical instruments that are or were made of wood and/or use a reed as a sound generator.  In other words, they all have some connection with wood.  This definition effectively distinguishes them from brass instruments, but still makes the woodwind family seem more like a collection of disparate instruments rather than a homogeneous group. 

Classifying woodwind instruments into subcategories is much easier.  This is done according to the way the sound is produced.  The clarinets and saxophones comprise the single reed category, while the double reed category is made up of the oboe and bassoon. [A third member, the Cor Anglais or English Horn, only rarely makes an appearance in the wind band]. In the wind band, the flute and piccolo stand apart since they depend upon an “air reed”.  The humble recorder follows a similar principle, but is not considered a regular member of the secondary school or college wind band.