The
keyboard section of an
orchestra or
concert band includes
keyboard instruments. Keyboard instruments are not usually a standard member of a 2010-era orchestra or concert band, but they are included occasionally. In orchestras from the 1600s to the mid-1750s, a keyboard instrument such as the
pipe organ or
harpsichord normally played with an orchestra, with the performer improvising chords from a
figured bass part. This practice, called
basso continuo, was phased out after 1750 (although some Masses for choir and orchestra would occasionally still have a keyboard part in the late 1700s).