By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the trumpet evolved three straight lengths of tubing which lay parallel to each other and were united by pieces of U-shaped tubing.

Early in the seventeenth century the Trompeterkameradschaft, a professional trumpeters' union was formed. Each member of the union was identified by the part they played. The trumpet in this century was known as the natural trumpet because it had no valves, slides, or pistons. The art of playing the natural trumpet was known as "clarino" playing, which reached its peak in the works of Bach and Handel.

During the early 17th century the five-string bass was most commonly used in Austria and Germany. Leopold Mozart referred in the 1787 edition of his Violinschule to having heard concertos, trios and solos played with great beauty on instruments of this kind. The earliest known playing instructions, by Johann Jacob Prinner (Musicalischer Schlissl, 1677, autograph US-Wc) are for an instrument tuned F'-A'-D-F#-B. Much more usual, however, is the tuning F'-A'-D-F#-A cited in 1790 by Albrechtsberger, for a violone or contrabass with thick strings and frets tied at every semitone round the fingerboard. Michel Corrette's 1773 Méthode throws much light on the bass techniques and tunings in use during the 18th and early 19th centuries when the bass was enjoying some popularity as a solo instrument. Many of the virtuoso pieces from the Viennese school of that period and later abound with passages of double stopping and, in view of the tunings required, were thought by early 20th-century authorities not to have been written for the bass at all. Later research revealed that the instrument has in the past been tuned in some 40 or 50 different ways; although the repertory is quite practical with the tunings the composers envisaged (e.g. one of the '3rd-4th' tunings), much is unplayable on the modern conventionally tuned instruments. There are in fact numerous solo concertos from this period.

In Italy an early tuning (cited by Planyavsky, 1970) is Adriano Banchieri's of 1609 for his 'Violone in contrabasso', D'-G'-C-E-A-d. Later the number of strings was reduced, and three-string instruments were preferred. Even during the early 18th century a three-string bass tuned A'-D-G or G'-D-G was normal. It had no frets and with the growth of the symphony orchestra it was logical that his more powerful instrument should supersede earlier models. Not until the 1920s was the additional E' string expected of most professional players. Until then any passages going below A' were transposed up an octave, resulting in the temporary disappearance of the 16' line.

The theorbo was made in two sizes, the ordinary instrument measuring about 3 ft. 6 in., and the Paduan, also known as archlute, about 5 ft. The chitarrone, or Roman theorbo, was the largest of all, a contrabass lute in fact, and frequently stood over 6 ft. high. It differed slightly from the theorbo; the body was a little smaller than in the Paduan variety, the whole of the extra length being in the second neck. The strings over the fingerboard were of steel or brass, and the diapason strings of spun wire.

In French the oboe is called hautbois which means 'high, or loud, wood'). The oboe has a body in three sections. It has a tiny double reed, through which the musician must force air at a very high pressure. It is traditionally made from Blackwood, also called grenadille. The instrument has up to 23 holes. The double reed is fashioned from cane which is usually dried and aged for several years. The oboe encompasses two octaves.

The oboe was invented in the 17th century by the French musicians Jean Hotteterre and Michel Danican Philidor, who modified the louder shawm (the prevailing double-reed instrument). The instrument's scuccess was established at the court of Louis XIV and spread rapidly all over Europe. By 1700 most orchestras included oboes. In 1700 the French instrumentalist Jean-Pierre Freillon published the first method for the instrument: 'Véritable manière d'apprendre à jouer du hautbois'.

The next important development came in the 1800's and was the use of key mechanisms. There was no single outline for the key sytems. Generally, the Germans created simpler systems, and the French more complicated ones. Still today, the key systems do vary from oboes of one manufacturer to another.

Early oboes had seven finger-holes and two keys; by the 1700s four-keyed models were also in use. In the 1800s additional keys were added, reaching 15 or more, and the bore and sound holes were redesigned. Oboes of the French school (played in most countries today) have a very narrow bore and a penetrating, focused sound. Those of the German school have a wider bore and a more easily blending sound. After Theobald Boehm invented his key mechanism for the flute, it was French builders who applied the system to the oboe.

The oboe is the smallest orchestral double-reed instrument and very important in the orchestra. Because the oboe's pitch varies little with temperature, the oboe will play the A-note to which all othe instruments in the orchestra will tune to. The oboe also is an important soloist.

The bassoon sound is made by blowing into a double reed. The double reed is made with two pieces of cane that are tied together and put in a tube. When air is blown into the double reed, the two pieces of cane vibrate against each other. Many of the fingerings on the bassoon are quite complicated.

Double Reed instruments have existed since ancient times. The origin of the bassoon itself dates back at least 500 years, where there was in use a one-pice instrument with a double reed made of cane. One name for this instrument was the dulcian, which came from the Latin word meaning "soft and sweet." The English version was call the curtal.

During the reign of Louis the XIV (1643-1715), French instrument makers constructed a new curtal made of four separate pieces similar to today's bassoon. Its use rapidly spread throughout western Europe. Throughout the 1700's keys were added so that more notes could be played.