aerophone, any of a class of musical instruments in which a vibrating mass of air produces the initial sound. The basic types include woodwind, brass, and free-reed instruments, as well as instruments that fall into none of these groups, such as the bull-roarer and the siren. Bagpipes and organs are hybrids with different kinds of pipes. The word aerophone replaces the term wind instrument when an acoustically based classification is desired. This classification also includes the chordophone (in which the initial sound is produced by vibration of a stretched string), the membranophone (produced by the vibration of a stretched membrane), the idiophone (produced by the vibration of a resonant solid material), and electrophone (produced or amplified by electronic means).