This article aims to reason the importance of the knowledge about musical instruments by future music educators. The cognition of musical instruments include competencies necessary for the handling of the instruments by instrument teachers, ensemble leaders, teachers-arrangers and teachers-composers. Another important field of knowledge is the characteristics of instruments and their artistic possibilities that teacher has to explain for pupils in their classes while listening to the music and discussing it. Considering these activities as an essential element of music educators’ work, the ability to distinguish the timbres of the most common professional instruments by ear should be treated as one of the fundamental abilities of pedagogues.

Keywords: instrumentation, orchestration, timbre, music education.