Pipe Organ

music · instrument · air-powered · classical

Air powers the sound. A pipe organ works by pushing pressurized air through different pipes, kind of like how your voice uses air to make sounds. When you press a key, you open a pipe and let air flow through it to make a note.

Each pipe plays one note. Every single pipe in an organ produces just one tone at one pitch. That means an organ needs lots of pipes to make all the different notes, organized into groups called ranks.

Ranks create different sounds. A rank is a whole set of pipes that all sound similar in quality and loudness but cover different pitches, like having 50 pipes that all sound like a flute but go from low notes to high notes. Most organs have many different ranks so the player can mix and match sounds.

Stops control the music. The organist uses special controls called stops to choose which ranks of pipes to use. You might turn on the flute rank, add the trumpet rank, and blend them together to create exactly the sound you want.