Lore:Instruments

Accordion
 n "squeeze boxes" are popular amongst Colovian travelers. 

The Orcs of the Wrothgarian Mountains also commonly play accordions which are jokingly called "Orc-cordians". 

Bell and Chimes
  
Argonians from   sometimes wear tail bands with bells attached to them. 

Wind chimes are often made with a variety of materials such as fox bones , driftwood , brass, silver, scrap metal, seashells, fragments of scrib , and ogre bones to name a few.

Reachfolk use bells and chimes in their rituals. They believe that their sound draws the attention of the spirits. 
 

Drum
Drums are a common instrument throughout Tamriel and are commonly used by bards, armies, and tribes.

They can be made from a wide variety of materials, such as the back-teeth of bull alits which make acoustically impressive drum bases , guarskin drumheads , wooden bases, elk skin drumheads  and giant snake skin drumheads  to just name a few. 

The Bosmer celebrate the life of revered Spinners by creating a drum out of their skin. 

War drums are used by the Imperial Legion, Orcs, and the Yokudans.  

Orcs are known for their penchant for percussion instruments in general.  Iron Orcs utilized drums during executions. 

Reachfolk witches use bristle-pine drums to wake the spirits during magical rituals.  

Totem of the Brotherhood is a drum artifact related to Hircine. 

The Tsaesci are known to have pellet drums. 

 

Esraj
Common amongst the Khajiit.
 

Flute and Fife
  
Flutes and fifes are common instruments, with there being many variants such as slide-flutes , kazoos , and nose-flutes  for example.

They can be made from a variety of materials such as silver , moon-sugar cane , armbones  and hand-carved kwama limbs. 

The ancient Yokudans had instruments similar to modern flutes made of gold but the knowledge of how to play these has been lost. 
 

Frog-caller
An Argonian instrument similar to Vossa-Satls, they use frogs  to produce music.

 

Gong
Dead-Water Tribe warriors wear battle gongs on their arms and strike them to frighten enemies. 

Reachfolk use gongs in their rituals. They believe that sound of gong draws the attention of the spirits. 
 

Harp
 

Horn
Dragonhorns are legendary artifacts crafted primarily by the Dragonguard, used as weapons against the  . They are magical warhorns carved out of the horns of dragons, inscribed with various arcane runes, and are capable of producing a tonal sound that incapacitates dragons. 

Old Orsinium possessed a horn called the Horn of Beasts which had been crafted by Zbulgat the Wild-Walker. This horn summoned the creatures of the Wrothgarian Mountains. Bears, echatere, and hundreds of other wild creatures rallied to defend the city walls when the horn was blown, however King Golkarr blew the horn three times during a single moon cycle, and on the third blare the horn cracked. This horn was later recovered from Old Orsinium by the House of Orsimer Glories museum. 

 

Lyre
 

Lute
Lutes are a common instrument throughout Tamriel and are commonly used by bards. The   was created by a merciless music teacher from Summerset Isle. Anyone that strummed it was cursed to never let it go until they played the perfect melody. 

 

Marimba
One known type of marimba is an Argonian style marimba made of carefully-selected resonant reptile teeth. 

Music Box
Music boxes are used all over Tamriel and play a specific song.

The Altmer are known to make clockwork nightingales that when wound up can fly across a room whilst singing. 

 

Organ
 

Pungi
Pungis are often used by snakecharmers in Hammerfell. 

The Maormer of Pyandonea are also known to use pungis to charm snakes of all sizes. 

 

Qanun
Mostly played by Khajiit

 

Tambourine
Tambourines are made from a variety of materials such as cherrywood , silver, and the skin of hoarvors.  The Baandari use tambourines. 

Tanbur
 

Trombone
 

Trumpet
 

Violin
  

Vossa-satl
An Argonian instrument which uses living frogs from several species to create the instrument's unique sound. 

 

Whistle
Whistles are one of the most common instruments across Tamriel, with them being used for a variety of reasons. 

There are various types of whistles relating to animal training and hunting such as dog whistles , birdcall whistles used by foresters  

 

References