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Musical instrument table
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Freebase Staff for the Music Commons
A Musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can...
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Musical Performance Role
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| x name | x image | x Family | x Variations | x Instrumentalists | x article |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x Classical guitar |
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Guitar | Steel-string acoustic guitar | Julian Bream |
The classical guitar, is a plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones. It traditionally has 3 plain gut bass strings and 3 gut wound silk core treble strings and the modern adaption typically has 6 nylon strings ...
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| Plucked string instrument | Nylon string guitar | Fabrizio De André | |||
| Twelve string guitar | José González | ||||
| Six-string alto guitar | Kobol | ||||
| Eleven-string alto guitar | John Zwetsloot | ||||
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| x Clarinet |
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Woodwind instrument | Piccolo clarinet | Anton Stadler |
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...
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| Sopranino clarinet | Gervase de Peyer | ||||
| Soprano clarinet | Alan Ray Hacker | ||||
| Basset clarinet | Frederick Thurston | ||||
| Alto clarinet | Jack Brymer | ||||
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| x Violoncello |
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String instrument | Davidov Stradivarius | Luigi Boccherini |
The cello (plural cellos or celli — the c is pronounced [tʃ], as in the ch in "check", thus "chel-lo") is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as...
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| Bowed string instruments | Arpeggione | Pablo Casals | |||
| Viol | Mischa Maisky | ||||
| Duport Stradivarius | Mstislav Rostropovich | ||||
| Servais Stradivarius | Yo-Yo Ma | ||||
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| x Double bass |
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String instrument | Electric upright bass | Giovanni Bottesini |
The double bass, also called the contrabass or upright bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower...
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| Bowed string instruments | Triple contrabass viol | Serge Koussevitzky | |||
| Johnny Dyani | |||||
| Andy Gilmour | |||||
| Chris Frangou | |||||
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| x Horn |
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Brass instrument | Dennis Brain |
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about 12 feet (3.7 m) 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.
Horns have valves, operated with the left hand, to...
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| Barry Tuckwell | |||||
| Sufjan Stevens | |||||
| Dave Lee | |||||
| John Entwistle | |||||
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| x Harp |
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String instrument | Paraguayan harp | Nicanor Zabaleta |
A harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. As many other non-percussion instruments, it can also be used as a percussion instrument. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings....
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| Plucked string instrument | Clàrsach | Turlough O'Carolan | |||
| Pedal harp | Marisa Robles | ||||
| Arpa Doppia | Sidonie Goossens | ||||
| Triple Harp | Nicolas-Charles Bochsa | ||||
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| x Harmonica |
|
Claudio Sanchez |
The harmonica is a free reed wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it 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...
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| Bruce Willis | |||||
| Performing Ferrets | |||||
| Arlo Guthrie | |||||
| James Brown | |||||
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| x Koto |
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Plucked string instrument | Yusef Lateef |
The koto (琴 or 箏) is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument derived from the Chinese guzheng. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about 180 centimetres (71 in) long, and made from kiri wood (Paulownia tomentosa). They...
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| John Paul Jones | |||||
| 椎名林檎 | |||||
| x Oboe |
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Woodwind instrument | Piccolo oboe | Giuseppe Sammartini |
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...
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| Bass oboe | Heinz Holliger | ||||
| Contrabass oboe | Johann Christian Fischer | ||||
| Cor anglais | Léon Goossens | ||||
| Heckelphone | Pierre Pierlot | ||||
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| x Trombone |
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Brass instrument | Bass trombone | Chris Maden |
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...
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| Valide trombone | Charlie Irvis | ||||
| Sackbut | Fred Lonzo | ||||
| Cimbasso | Eddie Bert | ||||
| Bob Enevoldson | |||||
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| x Trumpet |
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Brass instrument | Piccolo trumpet | Maurice André |
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...
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| Valved brass instruments | Pocket trumpet | Miles Davis | |||
| Wind instrument | Baroque trumpet | Wynton Marsalis | |||
| Bass trumpet | Daniel Gula | ||||
| Slide trumpet | Keith Moon | ||||
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| x Tuba |
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Brass instrument | Wagner tuba | John Fletcher |
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...
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| Subcontrabass tuba | Roger Bobo | ||||
| Howard Johnson | |||||
| Keith Moon | |||||
| Trent Reznor | |||||
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| x Violin |
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String instrument | Baritone violin | Niccolò Paganini |
The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello.
The violin is sometimes...
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| Bowed string instruments | Bass violin | Alexander Markov | |||
| Baroque violin | Adam Scow | ||||
| Electric violin | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | ||||
| Stroh violin | Parker Zane Allen | ||||
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| x Viola |
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String instrument | Viola d'amore | Yuri Bashmet |
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 viola...
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| Bowed string instruments | Paul Hindemith | ||||
| William Primrose | |||||
| Niccolò Paganini | |||||
| Yo-Yo Ma | |||||
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| x Tin whistle |
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Fipple flutes | Kevin Crawford |
The tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, penny whistle , Irish whistle, feadóg, or feadóg stáin is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the flageolet, recorder,...
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| Flute | Mary Bergin | ||||
| Steve Buckley | |||||
| Micho Russell | |||||
| John McSherry | |||||
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| x Piccolo |
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Woodwind instrument | Dolores O'Riordan |
The piccolo (Italian for small ) is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This...
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| Flute | Garth Hudson | ||||
| Andrew Latimer | |||||
| Chris Biscoe | |||||
| Pharoah Sanders | |||||
| x Wagner tuba |
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Tuba | Barry Rogers |
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 operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it,...
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| x Sampler |
|
Aphex Twin |
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument closely related to a synthesizer. Instead of generating sounds from scratch, however, a sampler starts with multiple recordings (or "samples") of different sounds added by the user, and then plays each...
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| Kathleen Hanna | |||||
| Omar Rodriguez-Lopez | |||||
| Akira Yamaoka | |||||
| Pete Rock | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Bass clarinet |
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Clarinet | John Coltrane |
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...
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| Eric Dolphy | |||||
| David Murray | |||||
| Don Byron | |||||
| Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Fife |
|
Flute |
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 bands. Someone who plays the fife...
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| x Western concert flute |
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Flute | Transverse flute | Tarja Turunen |
The Western concert flute or C flute (most flutes are tuned to the key of C) is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist,...
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| Andrew Latimer | |||||
| Glenn Danzig | |||||
| x 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...
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| x Pate |
A pātē is a Polynesian percussion instrument. It is of the slit drum family, and therefore is also of the idiophone percussion family. It is made from a hollowed-out log, and produces a distinctive and loud sound. Different sizes of pate offer...
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| x Regal | Organ |
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...
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| x Jug |
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The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, 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...
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| x Tama | Francis Awe |
The talking drum is a Nigerian drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "talks" and can be used for drum communication. Talking drums are hour-glass shaped with two heads (made from either goat, lizard, or fish skin)...
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| x Babendil |
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The babendil is a single, narrow-rimmed Philippine gong used 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...
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| x Dabakan |
|
Drum |
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...
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| Percussion | |||||
| x Gandingan |
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The gandingan is a Philippine set of four large, hanging gongs used 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 instrument, the...
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| x Buccin |
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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 trombone...
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| x Kane |
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The kane (鉦 or 鐘 ) (IPA: kɑːnɛ) is a type of bell from Japan. The same pronunciation of the word in Japanese can also mean metal or money.
Often accompanying Japanese folk music, or min'you, is a dish-shaped bell called a "Kane" (鉦 ). It is often...
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| x Ligature |
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A ligature is a device which holds a reed on to the mouthpiece of some woodwind instruments such as the saxophone and clarinet. The ligature must allow the reed to vibrate freely without stifling its vibrations. Louis Muller invented the metal...
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| x Flute |
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Woodwind instrument | Piccolo | Severino Gazzelloni |
The Flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening or embouchure.
A musician who plays...
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| Alto flute | James Galway | ||||
| Bass flute | Jean-Pierre Rampal | ||||
| Contrabass flute | Harvey Sollberger | ||||
| Subcontrabass flute | Mike Castro de Maria | ||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Natural brass instruments | Brass instrument | Bugle | |||
| Ophicleide | |||||
| Shofar | |||||
| Conch | |||||
| Didgeridoo | |||||
| x Bugle | Natural brass instruments | ||||
| x Ophicleide | Natural brass instruments | ||||
| x Shofar | Natural brass instruments | ||||
| x Other string instruments | String instrument | Aeolian harp | |||
| Hurdy gurdy | |||||
| Washtub bass | |||||
| x Aeolian harp | Other string instruments | ||||
| x Hurdy gurdy | Other string instruments | ||||
| x Washtub bass |
|
Other string instruments |
The washtub bass, or "gutbucket," is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses have...
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| x Percussion |
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Other percussion | Mike Castro de Maria |
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. The term usually applies to an object used in a rhythmic context or...
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| Drum | Eureka | ||||
| Pandeiro | Scabland Band | ||||
| Zendrum | Roy Wilfred Wooten | ||||
| Marching percussion | Ani DiFranco | ||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Congas | Drum | ||||
| x Bongos | Drum | ||||
| x Doyra | Drum | ||||
| x Bells | Tuned Percussion | Carillon | |||
| Cowbell | |||||
| Tubular bells | |||||
| Handbells | |||||
| Gankogui | |||||
| x Electronic instruments | Denis d'or | ||||
| Dubreq Stylophone | |||||
| Drum machine | |||||
| Sampler | |||||
| Synclavier | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Denis d'or | Electronic instruments | ||||
| x Dubreq Stylophone | Electronic instruments | Performing Ferrets | |||
| x Drum machine | Electronic instruments | Gwen Stefani | |||
| x Sampler | Electronic instruments | ||||
| x Synclavier | Electronic instruments | ||||
| x Synthesizer |
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Keyboard instrument | Yamaha DX7 | Chris Maden |
A synthesizer (or synthesiser) is an electronic instrument that is capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies. Synthesizers create electrical signals, rather than direct acoustic sounds,...
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| Electronic instruments | Moog | Claudio Sanchez | |||
| Electronic keyboard | Minimoog | Mike Castro de Maria | |||
| Continuum | Gwen Stefani | ||||
| Akoustik Piano | Herbie Hancock | ||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Teleharmonium | Electronic instruments | ||||
| x Carillon | Bells | ||||
| x Other instruments | Hardart | ||||
| Kazoo | |||||
| Lasso d'amore | |||||
| Bull-roarer | |||||
| Turntable(s) | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Hardart | Other instruments |
The hardart was allegedly invented by P.D.Q. Bach and is featured in the Concerto for Horn & Hardart. The hardart uses different devices, such as plucked strings, blown whistles and popped balloons, to produce each note in its two-octave...
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| x Kazoo | Other instruments | ||||
| x Lasso d'amore | Other instruments | ||||
| x Singing bowl | Tuned Percussion | ||||
