crook, in brass musical instruments, detachable piece of metal tubing inserted between the mouthpiece and the main tubing or in the middle of the tubing to lengthen the air column produced. This manipulation allows the player to obtain notes not included in the harmonic series of the original air column. Crooks were in use at least by about 1600 and were used extensively by the late 18th century. They were superseded in the 19th century by valves, which, unlike crooks, allowed instantaneous changes in basic air-column pitch.
If such a piece of tubing is straight rather than curved, it is called a shank. In woodwind instruments a crook is a curved piece of tubing connecting the mouthpiece with the body and to a detachable tube that holds the reed.