(disclaimer: no wikipedia used - posted actual memory)

When I was studying music (at Temple in Philly) in the 70s, they taught us that there were 4 groups of "instruments". They were:
Percussion - things that need to be struck to make sound (piano is part of this group)
Woodwind - things that use wood to manipulate air to produce sound (early flutes were made of wood, so they are in this group)
Brass - things that use brass to manipulate, and amplify air to produce sound, and
Strings - obvious description.
My first question was ... "What about a Hammond organ?" Is that NOT an instrument? The books at the time all said no, because it didn't move air. The tone wheels use electricity to spin, and create a sine wave that is sent to an amplifier, and the "sound" comes from a speaker, thereby not creating the tone, itself. Without a speaker, and amplifier, it is not capable of moving air. Early pump organs, may complicate this argument, but the simple truth was - in order to pass that course, I needed to say that there were only 4 groups of musical instruments.

I wonder what they are teaching today's music students? With all the cyber, and virtual sonic choices we have - what's real, and what's "memorex?" (there's an OLD memory, huh?) Food for thought.