Types of Music Instruments
In Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music and in both solo and orchestral performances of classical music. The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, California.
Bagpipe, wind instrument consisting of two or more single- or double-reed pipes, the reeds being set in motion by wind fed by arm pressure on an animal-skin (or rubberized-cloth) bag.
Banjo, stringed musical instrument of African origin, popularized in the United States by slaves in the 19th century, then exported to Europe. Several African stringed instruments have similar names—e.g., bania, banju.
Bass drum, percussion instrument, the largest and deepest-sounding member of the drum family, usually played with a pair of large felt-headed sticks, or beaters. In modern popular-music bands the bass drum is often part of a drum set and is commonly struck by a single pedal-operated stick.
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor clefs, and occasionally the treble. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature.
Bongos (Spanish: bongó) are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed drums of different sizes. In Spanish the larger drum is called the hembra (female) and the smaller the macho (male).
The cello is used as a solo musical instrument, as well as in chamber music ensembles (e.g., string quartet), string orchestras, as a member of the string section of symphony orchestras, and some types of rock bands.
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture.
Cymbal, percussion instrument consisting of a circular flat or concave metal plate that is struck with a drumstick or is used in pairs struck glancingly together.
The double bass, or simply the bass (and numerous other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. It is a transposing instrument and is typically notated one octave higher than sounding to avoid excessive ledger lines below the staff.
Electronic instrument, any musical instrument that produces or modifies sounds by electric, and usually electronic, means. The electronic element in such music is determined by the composer, and the sounds themselves are made or changed electronically. Instruments such as the electric guitar that ...
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture.
The latter name is the Latin word for "horn", and the source of the name of the musical instrument in many Romance languages: French cor, Italian corno, Provençal corn.
A gong (from Javanese, Indonesian, Malay: gong; Chinese: 鑼; pinyin: luó; Thai: ฆ้อง Khong; Vietnamese: cồng chiêng) is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat, circular metal disc which is hit with a mallet.
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a hollow wooden or plastic and wood box (for an acoustic guitar), or through electrical amplifier and a speaker (for an electric guitar).
The hammered dulcimer is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who, in more traditional styles, may sit cross legged on the floor, or at a more modern style of standing or sitting at a wooden stand on legs.
Harp, stringed instrument in which the resonator, or belly, is perpendicular, or nearly so, to the plane of the strings. Each string produces one note, the gradation of string length from short to long corresponding to that from high to low pitch.
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard, a row of levers which the player presses. When the player presses one or more keys, a mechanism that plucks one or more strings with a small quill is triggered.
Although the song didn't use a hurdy-gurdy, the repeated reference to the instrument in the song's lyrics sparked curiosity and interest among young people, eventually resulting in an annual hurdy-gurdy music festival in the Olympic Peninsula area of the state of Washington each September.
The Jew's harp, also known as the jaw harp, mouth harp, Ozark harp or juice harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. The tongue/reed is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note.
The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance. During the Baroque music era, the lute was used as one of the instruments which played the basso continuo accompaniment parts.
The lyre (Greek: λύρα, lýra) is a string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences.
The marimba (/məˈrɪmbə/) is a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars struck with mallets to produce musical tones.
Oboes /ˈoʊboʊ/ OH-boh are a family of double reed woodwind instruments. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. Oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials.
Organ, in music, a keyboard instrument, operated by the player’s hands and feet, in which pressurized air produces notes through a series of pipes organized in scalelike rows. The term organ encompasses reed organs and electronic organs but, unless otherwise specified, is usually understood to refer to pipe organs.
Pan flute. The pan flutes (also known as panpipes or syrinx) are a group of musical instruments based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of panflutes have long been popular as folk instruments.
Piano, also called pianoforte, French piano or pianoforte, German Klavier, a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys.
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument in the group known as internal duct flutes—flutes with a whistle mouthpiece. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower.
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture.
The sitar (English: /ˈsɪtɑːr/ or /sɪˈtɑːr/; Hindi: सितार Urdu: ستار sitāra pronounced [sɪˈtaːr]) is a plucked stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani music and Indian classical music.
A synthesizer (often abbreviated as synth, also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones.
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all.
Timpani (/ˈtɪmpəni/; Italian pronunciation: ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper.
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle,[1] English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, Irish whistle, Belfast Hornpipe, feadóg stáin (or simply feadóg) and Clarke London Flageolet[2] is a simple, six-holed woodwind instrument.
The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve.
Trombone music is typically written in concert pitch in either bass or tenor clef, although exceptions do occur, notably in British brass-band music where tenor trombone is presented as a B ♭ transposing instrument, written in treble clef.
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture.
The tuba (UK: /ˈtjuːbə/ or US: /ˈtuːbə/;[1] Italian pronunciation: [ˈtuːba]) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced by moving air past the lips, causing them to vibrate or "buzz" into a large cupped mouthpiece.
Music for the viola differs from most other instruments in that it primarily uses the alto clef. When viola music has substantial sections in a higher register, it switches to the treble clef to make it easier to read.
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture.
The xylophone (from the Greek words ξύλον—xylon, "wood" + φωνή—phōnē, "sound, voice", meaning "wooden sound") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets.
Zither (/ˈzɪ.ðər/ or /ˈzɪ.θər/, German: ) is a class of stringed instruments. The word Zither is a German rendering of the Latin word cithara, from which the modern word "guitar" also derives.