The term lead instrument carries a variety of connotations. A lead instrument could be a reference to an instrument that plays the melody of a piece, an instrument that has been designed for this purpose, such as clarinet or violin, or a specific member of an orchestra that is featured as the most proficient musician of the group. In the digital music composition, lead may refer to the tone quality that is applied to a signal.

Melody and harmony

Melody may be described as a phrase or collection of musical notes played in succession. Rhythm, or harmony, occurs when one or more notes are played at the same time. A lead instrument is usually monophonic (only able to sound one note at a time), such as a horn or voice. A rhythm or backing instrument(s) may be monophonic, working together to create harmony, or polyphonic, generating harmony on its own.

Orchestra

The name given to someone who is the most advanced player of their instrument in their ensemble is the first chair or principal. Because the first chair is the leader of their section of instruments, much practice and skill is required to fill this position. In an Orchestra, musicians are divided into sections by their instruments. Within these sections, the individual musicians are arranged in terms of their technical prowess. For example, a first chair violinist will lead the violins playing the melody while another row might play the harmony.

Examples of lead instruments

Some instruments that commonly take lead are: * Voice * Guitar / Electric Guitar (most common lead in Rock music) * Trumpet * Clarinet * Saxophone * Violin

Digital music

In addition, monosynth

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

patches are often called leads, for their frequent use on

melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

parts in

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

. These patches are often

legato In music performance and notation, legato (; Italian for "tied together"; French ''lié''; German ''gebunden'') indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, the player makes a transition from note to note wit ...

, meaning filters and modulation are continued across a series of held notes, and

portamento In music, portamento (plural: ''portamenti'', from old it, portamento, meaning "carriage" or "carrying") is a pitch sliding from one note to another. The term originated from the Italian expression "''portamento della voce''" ("carriage of the v ...

can be used to create a pitch bend transition up or down to other notes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lead Instrument Musical instruments