A family of musical instruments is a grouping of several different but related sizes or types of instruments. Some schemes of musical instrument classification, such as the Hornbostel-Sachs system, are based on a heirarchy of instrument families and families of families. At various times, and in various different cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used. ... Hornbostel-Sachs (or Sachs-Hornbostel) is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Musik in 1914. ...

Some commonly recognized families are:

• Bassoon family
• Chalumeau family
• Clarinet family
• Crumhorn family
• Flute family
• Oboe family
• Recorder family
• Saxhorn family
• Saxophone family
• Shawm family
• Trombone family
• Viol family
• Violin family

Family relationships are not always clear-cut. For example, some authorities regard families as encompassing only instruments of different pitch range that have similar construction and tone quality. They therefore, for example, do not regard the cor anglais as a member of the oboe family, because its narrow bore and piriform bell give it a distinctly different tone quality from the oboe. A Fox Products bassoon. ... The chalumeau ( chalumeaux) is a wind instrument, the immediate ancestor of the clarinet. ... Two soprano clarinets: a B♭ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... Various Crumhorns The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Modern Oboe The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Various recorders The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. ... The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a tapered bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ... Woman playing a bass shawm, (Tobias Stimmer ca. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... Various sizes of viol, from Michael Praetorius Syntagma musicum (1618) The viol (also called viola da gamba) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted stringed musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. ... The Violin family of instruments was developed in Italy in the 17th Century. ... A cor anglais The cor anglais, or English horn, is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. ...