Alta capella were town wind bands found throughout continental Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpets or sackbuts. Waits were the British equivalent. A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. ... The shawm was a Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family, made in Europe from the late 13th century until the 17th century. ... Trumpeter redirects here. ... Four sackbutts: bass, alto, tenor, bass The Sackbut (var. ... For the computer operating system, see WAITS. A band of modern-day Waits Waits or Waites were British town pipers. ...