Domains & Types » Music » Musical instrument

Musical instrument

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A Musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as a musical instrument. (See e.g. the hardart.) A Musical... more

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Classical guitar Classical Guitar, front and side view Musical Performance Role String instruments Nylon string guitar
The classical guitar, also known as the "nylon string guitar" or "Spanish guitar" — a reference to its origin, not repertoire — is a musical instrument from the family of instruments called chordophone. The classical guitar is characterised by: ...
Guitar
Clarinet Soprano clarinet Musical Performance Role Woodwind instrument  
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a...
Cello Cello Musical Performance Role String instruments  
The violoncello (abbreviated to cello, or 'cello, plural cellos or celli—the c is , as in the ch in "checkers", thus "Chell-lo") is a bowed string instrument. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in...
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Award-Winning Work
Double bass AGK bass1 full Musical Performance Role String instruments  
The double bass (also known as the bass, string bass, upright bass, and many others) is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the symphony...
Bowed string instruments
Horn Horn Musical Performance Role    
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn. Most horns have finger-operated rotary valve; some horns like...
Harp Harp Musical Performance Role String instruments  
The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a forepillar; those lacking the forepillar are...
Harmonica Harmonica Musical Performance Role    
A harmonica is a free reed wind instrument which is played by blowing air into or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes (reed chambers) or multiple holes. The pressure caused by blowing or drawing air into the reed chambers causes a...
Koto Gogen Biwa Musical Performance Role    
The koto (琴 or 箏) is a traditional Japan stringed musical instrument derived from Chinese zither (Guzheng). The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about long and have 13 strings that are strung over 13 movable bridges along the...
Oboe Oboe Musical Performance Role Woodwind instrument Cor anglais
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a...
Trombone A trombone, sometimes considered a defining characteristic of salsa Musical Performance Role Brass instrument Bass Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone; sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. The trombone is...
Trumpet Trumpet Musical Performance Role Brass  
The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC. They are constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape, and are...
Valved brass instruments
Wind instrument
Tuba Tuba   Brass instrument  
The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid...
Violin Violin Musical Performance Role String instruments Baroque violin
The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifth. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello. A violin is sometimes informally...
Award discipline
Award-Winning Work
Art Subject
Viola Viola Musical Performance Role String instruments  
The viola (; ) is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello. The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range (the...
Tin whistle Tin whistle Musical Performance Role Fipple flutes  
The tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, pennywhistle or Irish whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It can be described as an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the flageolet, recorder, Native...
Piccolo Piccolo Musical Performance Role Woodwind instrument  
The piccolo is a small flute. Like the flute, the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C, one octave above the concert flute (making it, effectively, a sopranino flute). Music for the piccolo is written one octave lower than concert pitch....
Wagner tuba Wagner Tuba      
The Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the horn and the tuba. It was originally created for Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it, most...
Sampler An AKAI MPC2000 sampler      
A sampler is an electronic music instrument closely related to a synthesizer. Instead of generating sounds from scratch, however, a sampler starts with multiple recordings (or “samples”) of different sounds, and then plays each back based on how the...
Bass clarinet Bass clarinet Musical Artist Woodwind instrument  
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B♭ clarinet, it is usually pitched in B♭ (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B♭), but it plays notes an octave below...
Musical Performance Role
Fife Fife from the American Civil War      
A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching band. Someone who plays the fife is...
Western concert flute      
The term flute most commonly applies to the popular transverse side-blown musical instrument made of metal. The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. The flute is recognisable by its clean, pure sound. The most common variant is a...
Organum        
An organum is any one of a number of musical instruments which were the forerunners of the organ. The name comes from the Latin organum, meaning any tool in general or any musical instrument in particular (or an organ of the body), which in turn...
Pate        
A Pate is a Samoa percussion instrument. It is made from a hollowed-out log, and produces a distinctive and loud sound. it comes in different sizes.
Regal        
The regal was a small late-medieval portable organ, furnished with beating reeds and having two bellows like a positive organ. In Germany, the name was also given to the reed stops (beating reeds) of a large organ, and more especially the vox humana...
Jug        
The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug band, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The eponymous jug is just that: a jug (usually made of glass or stoneware) played with the mouth. With an...
Tama        
The talking drum is a West Africa drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "talks". The player puts the drum under one shoulder and beats the instrument with a stick. A talking drum player raises or lowers the pitch...
Babendil Một chiếc chiêng có nguồn gốc từ Philippines      
The babendil is a single, narrow-rimmed Philippine gongused primary as the “timekeeper” of the Maguindanao kulintang ensemble. The babendil usually has a diameter of roughly one foot making it larger than the largest kulintang gong and comparable...
Dabakan Dabakan      
The dabakan is a single-headed Philippine drum, primarily used as a supportive instrument in the kulintang ensemble. Among the five main kulintang instruments, it is the only non-gong element of the Maguindanao ensemble. The dabakan is frequently...
Gandingan Gandingan      
The gandingan is a Philippine set of four, large hanging gong used specifically by the Maguindanao as part of their kulintang ensemble. When integrated into the ensemble, it functions as a secondary melodic instrument after the main melodic...
Buccin Buccin      
The buccin is a visually distinctive trombone popularized in military bands in France between 1810–1845 which subsequently faded into obscurity. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians devotes but two sentences to the buccin: “A form of...