WHAT type of musical instrument is a goombay? a) Guitar b) Piano c) Drum. - Chronicle Live WHAT type of musical instrument is a goombay? a) Guitar b) Piano c) Drum. WHAT is the US state capital of Vermont? a) Montpelier b) Gary c) San Jose. Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email WHAT is the US state capital of Vermont? a) Montpelier b) Gary c) San Jose. BLEPHARITIS is the medical term for the inflammation of which part of the body? a) Eyelid b) Finger c) Tongue. WHICH Westerner discovered the Victoria Falls in 1855? a) Christopher Columbus b) David Livingstone c) The Wright Brothers. THE 2003 film Lost in Translation is set in which city? a) New York b) London c) Tokyo. AILUROPHOBIA is a fear of what? a) Dogs b) Sheep c) Cats. GLEN MOY and Autumn Bliss are varieties of which fruit? a) Strawberry b) Raspberry c) Cherry. WHICH British singer’s real name is Thomas Woodward?

a) Tom Jones b) Elton John c) Cliff Richard. WHICH English Queen was executed on May 19, 1536? a) Catherine of Aragon b) Jane Seymour c) Anne Boleyn. THE Taj Mahal is situated on the bank of which Indian river? a) Ganges b) Yamuna c) Tiber. ANSWERS: 1c, 2a, 3a, 4b, 5c, 6c, 7b, 8a, 9c, 10b. Like us on Facebook Most Read Most Recent Most Read Most Recent musical instrument | Britannica.com Musical instrument Musical instrument, any device for producing a musical sound. The principal types of such instruments, classified by the method of producing sound, are percussion , stringed , keyboard , wind , and electronic . Children playing musical instruments. A discussion of the landmark music museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, from the documentary … Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner) Musical instruments are almost universal components of human culture: archaeology has revealed pipes and whistles in the Paleolithic Period and clay drums and shell trumpets in the Neolithic Period .

It has been firmly established that the ancient city cultures of Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, India , East Asia, and the Americas all possessed diverse and well-developed assortments of musical instruments, indicating that a long previous development must have existed. As to the origin of musical instruments, however, there can be only conjecture. Some scholars have speculated that the first instruments were derived from such utilitarian objects as cooking pots (drums) and hunting bows (musical bows); others have argued that instruments of music might well have preceded pots and bows; while in the myths of cultures throughout the world the origin of music has frequently been attributed to the gods, especially in areas where music seems to have been regarded as an essential component of the ritual believed necessary for spiritual survival. Bone whistle, c. 10,000 bc; in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, Eng. Courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Whatever their origin, the further development of the enormously varied instruments of the world has been dependent on the interplay of four factors: available material, technological skills, mythic and symbolic preoccupations, and patterns of trade and migration.

Thus, residents of Arctic regions use bone, skin, and stone to construct instruments; residents of the tropics have wood, bamboo, and reed available; while societies with access to metals and the requisite technology are able to utilize these malleable materials in a variety of ways. Myth and symbolism play an equally important role. Herding societies, for example, which may depend on a particular species of animal not only economically but also spiritually, often develop instruments that look or sound like the animal or prefer instruments made of bone and hide rather than stone and wood, even when all the materials are available. Finally, patterns of human trade and migration have for many centuries swept musicians and their instruments across seas and continents, resulting in constant flux, change, and cross-fertilization and adaptation . Flute carved from bone about 32,000 years ago, found in Dordogne, France. It is one of the oldest … © The British Museum/Heritage-Images opera The sound produced by an instrument can be affected by many factors, including the material from which the instrument is made, its size and shape, and the way that it is played.

For example, a stringed instrument may be struck, plucked, or bowed, each method producing a distinctive sound. A wooden instrument struck by a beater sounds markedly different from a metal instrument, even if the two instruments are otherwise identical. On the other hand, a flute made of metal does not produce a substantially different sound from one made of wood, for in this case the vibrations are in the column of air in the instrument. The characteristic timbre of wind instruments depends on other factors, notably the length and shape of the tube. The length of the tube not only determines the pitch but also affects the timbre: the piccolo , being half the size of the flute, has a shriller sound. The shape of the tube determines the presence or absence of the “upper partials” (harmonic or nonharmonic overtones ), which give colour to the single note . (For more on the science of sound, see acoustics .) Musician playing a shakuhachi, a Japanese end-blown flute, … E&E Image Library/Heritage-Images Music: Fact or Fiction? This article discusses the evolution of musical instruments, their structure and methods of sound production, and the purposes for which they have been used.

Although it focuses on the families of instruments that have been prominent in Western art music, it also includes coverage of non-Western and folk instruments. General characteristics Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Musical instruments have been used since earliest times for a variety of purposes, ranging from the entertainment of concert audiences to the accompaniment of dances, rituals , work, and medicine . The use of instruments for religious ceremonies has continued down to the present day, though at various times they have been suspect because of their secular associations. The many references to instruments in the Old Testament are evidence of the fact that they played an important part in Jewish worship until for doctrinal reasons they were excluded. It is also clear that the early Christians in the eastern Mediterranean used instruments in their services, since the practice was severely condemned by ecclesiastics, who insisted that the references to instruments in the Psalms were to be interpreted symbolically. Although instruments continue to be banned in Islamic mosques (but not in religious processions or Sufi ritual) and in the traditional Eastern Orthodox church, they play important roles in the ritual of most other societies. For example, Buddhist cultures are rich in instruments, particularly bells and drums (and in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, wind instruments as well).

Belief in the magical properties of instruments is found in many societies. The Jewish shofar (a ram’s horn), which is still blown on Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), must be heard by the congregation. The power of the shofar is illustrated by the story of Joshua at the siege of Jericho: when the priests blew their shofars seven times, the walls of the city fell flat. In India, according to legend , when the deity Krishna played the flute, the rivers stopped flowing and the birds came down to listen. The birds are said to have done the same in 14th-century Italy when the composer Francesco Landini played his organetto, or portative organ . In China, instruments were identified with the points of the compass, with the seasons, and with natural phenomena. The Melanesian bamboo flute was a charm for rebirth. Shofar made of ram’s horn in the form of a fish, Ethiopia, 19th century; in the Jewish Museum, New … Graphic House/EB Inc. Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Many of the instruments used in medieval Europe came from western Asia, and they have retained some of their original symbolism.

For example, trumpets , long associated with military operations, had a ceremonial function in the establishment of European kings and nobles and were, in fact, regarded as a sign of nobility. In the later Middle Ages and for long afterward, they were associated with kettledrums (known originally as nakers, after their Arab name, naqqārah), which were often played on horseback, as they still are in some mounted regiments. Trumpet fanfares, heard on ceremonial occasions in the modern world, are a survival of medieval practice. Men in traditional dress playing alphorns at a festival in the town of Mannlichen, Switzerland. Patrick Ward/Corbis Technological developments Conventional Western thinking claimed that the earliest instruments were slightly modified natural objects such as bones, shells, or gourds. They played only one pitch and then evolved into more complex forms. However, it appears that bone flutes from Neanderthal caves had finger holes, and recent archaeological finds in China included bone flutes from 7000 bc that not only have seven finger holes but an additional aperture that may have been drilled to correct a poorly placed hole.

Thus, early humans appear to have been just as sensitive to pitch and tone colour as were most other sentient creatures, such as birds, cats, dogs, and whales. None of the sounds they heard or made moved from simple to complex. Aztec clay versions of shell trumpets imitated the internal chambers of the nautilus; the instruments’ construction may indicate a sophisticated use of the overtone series to obtain varied pitches (as is done on the bugle). The stretched string of a bow can produce several pitches when it is beaten, and the string can be stopped at points along its length to produce varied sounds. In addition, a resonator such as a pot or gourd is often used to increase the volume of the sound. The player’s mouth can add variety to both volume and pitch. A tube of bamboo can become musical when it is struck on the ground, and a set of different-sized tubes can produce a melodic and rhythmic ensemble. Lifting strips of the bark from a tube and adding bridges under the strips creates a melodic zither , for which each strip produces a separate pitch. The sound can be enhanced by placing one end of the tube in a resonator, whether a gourd or a tin can.

In sum, the complexity of music depends less on technology than on human imagination. Lamellaphone with bamboo tongues, from central Africa; in the James Blades Collection. Reid Music Library, The University of Edinburgh, gift of James Blades Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies The first step in the building of any instrument is the selection and preparation of material. Wood used for wind or stringed instruments needs to be seasoned, as do the reeds used in oboes, clarinets, saxophones, and related instruments. Metals, which are widely used for strings, bells, cymbals, gongs, trumpets, and horns, must be manufactured and cast—often originally by secret processes.

Next, the construction and tuning of all instruments require skill and craftsmanship: the piercing of a tube to a uniform or expanding width, the flaring of the bell of a wind instrument to increase sonority, the measurement of the bars of a saron (for the Javanese gamelan) or of a glockenspiel , the curvature of the back of a lute or ʿūd, the internal and external structure of the body of a violin, a koto , or even a shakuhachi. All of these involve accurate workmanship from experts in wood and metal and, in many instances, a knowledge of the mathematics of sound. A Sakha group (from eastern Siberia) playing the khomus, a … Sovfoto The mathematical basis of accurate tuning systems has been the subject of philosophical and scientific speculation since ancient times; nevertheless, no single system has been deemed perfect (see also tuning and temperament ). All practical tuning systems involve a series of compromises, a fact that instrument makers have known for centuries.

An instrument maker, surrounded by guitars and lutes, carving a violin neck in a shop at Colonial … Kelly-Mooney Photography/Corbis Opium Wars The instrument maker’s skill, like that of the cabinetmaker and the silversmith, was developed by long practice, and the principles that determine both tone and intonation were discovered by trial and error. The growth of instrumental playing in 16th-century Europe stimulated the production of instruments to be used not merely for ceremonial and official entertainment but also for social occasions and private pleasure. From this time, records began to be kept of the names of makers, many of whom established family businesses that lasted for several generations. These include, for example, Andrea Amati (16th century), a violin maker in Cremona, Italy; Hans Ruckers (late 16th century), a harpsichord maker in Antwerp, Belg.; and Johann Haas (1649–1723), a trumpet maker in Nürnberg (now in Germany). In all literate cultures there are known families or guilds of instrument makers, e.g., for the Middle Eastern ʿūd, South Asian sitar and vina , or Japanese tsuzumi drums.

Around the world, instrument makers have long signed their products. Although similar respectful positions are held by instrument makers in cultures without a written record, their reputation is far less likely to spread beyond their particular time and place. Typically ornate Hardanger fiddle (detail), a Norwegian folk instrument. © Wulffenstejn Hardanger Fiddle/hardingfele.com Instrument makers have always represented a blend of conservatism with the ability to quickly seize on and use a new constructional technique, a new tool , or a new material. Their contribution to both the history of music and the history of musical instruments has been enormous and little appreciated. The older makers of instruments were craftsmen who took delight in the appearance of their work. In some cases, additions are purely decorative, as when pictures were painted on the inside of harpsichord lids or elaborate patterns were carved onto Indian vinas or inlaid into Persian lutes and drums. The rare set of 9th-century court instruments found in Nara, Japan, includes stunning examples of such artisan skills from all over East Asia. Equal beauty is found on many of the anonymously constructed instruments of Oceania.

Often these additions are symbolic or totemic; the patterns on the Australian didjeridu identify the clan of the performer, and shapes and patterns on instruments in New Guinea reflect aspects of the environment and culture . Similarly, the dragon heads on the end of Tibetan and Chinese woodwinds have a symbolic meaning in those cultures. Most modern Western instruments reject ornamentation, but overall design and finish are as important as they have always been. Modern technology has in many cases simplified or improved the construction of instruments. In the past, for example, the tubes of horns and trumpets were made from a sheet of brass cut to the right width, which was rolled into shape, leaving the edges to be joined by brazing. In modern manufacture the tube is drawn in one piece, and there is no seam. Evolution of design has been particularly notable in the construction of woodwind instruments, not only in the fixing of the metal keys and the mechanism that controls them but also in the piercing of holes in such a way that they are acoustically correct. This achievement was due mainly to the pioneering work of Theobald Boehm , who was not only a flute maker but also a performer and composer.

His system, designed for the flute, was later applied to the clarinet , the oboe , and the bassoon . The early 19th century saw a revolution in the manufacture of brass instruments as well: the addition of pieces of tubing of different lengths through which the air could be directed by the depression of valves (or pistons), enabling an instrument to produce all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, in place of its earlier limitation to the notes of the natural harmonic (overtone) series. Newer techniques of cutting and beating metal have created distinctive modern instruments, such as steel drums. The discovery of plastics in the 20th century also has influenced the manufacturers of instruments; for example, some makers have used plastic instead of quill or leather for the plectra that pluck the strings of the harpsichord, and plastic recorders have been built. Mechanization has made possible the mass production of instruments of all kinds. Insofar as this makes it possible for people to acquire an instrument at a moderate price, mass production is a good thing, and in education it has been beneficial to schools working on a small budget.

A natural development has been the provision of kits consisting of the separate parts of an instrument, which can then be assembled by the purchaser. It remains true, however, that the production of an instrument of the finest quality still demands the highest degree of individual skill. A violin glued together from mass-produced parts cannot be the equal of one that has been meticulously constructed from the first by an individual craftsman who will not be satisfied with his work until every detail of it has been tested. Children in Irish costumes play recorders while marching in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day … Rudi von Briel/PhotoEdit Technology has been of service to music by providing composers with instruments they have asked for, by eliminating some defects of instruments, and by making instruments more widely available to the community in general. Richard Wagner , for example, suggested the need for a baritone double-reed instrument akin to the oboe; the resulting heckelphone has been featured in Richard Strauss ’s opera Salome (1905) and subsequent works. Wagner also ordered a special type of tuba for use in his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung , 1869–76).

Not all modern changes in construction have been wholly advantageous, however. It is easier to play in tune on a modern woodwind instrument, but the older examples, being less cluttered with metal fittings, had a purer tone. Similarly, the modern horn is to most listeners inferior in tone quality to its 18th-century predecessor. Among Western orchestral instruments, only the trombone and the stringed instruments have remained, apart from minor modifications, unchanged in structure over the centuries (though the substitution of wire strings for gut has materially altered the tone of the violin). In contrast, the rate of technological change in electronic instruments has been almost bewilderingly fast. Classification of instruments Instruments have been classified in various ways, some of which overlap. The Chinese divide them according to the material of which they are made—as, for example, stone, wood, silk, and metal. Writers in the Greco-Roman world distinguished three main types of instruments: wind, stringed, and percussion. This classification was retained in the Middle Ages and persisted for several centuries: it is the one preferred by some writers, with the addition of electronic instruments, at the present day.

Some 16th-century writers excluded certain instruments from this classification; the musical theorist Lodovico Zacconi went so far as to exclude all percussion instruments and established a fourfold division of his own—wind, keyed, bowed, and plucked. Musician playing a changgo, a Korean two-headed drum. Korea Britannica Corp. A different fourfold classification was accepted by Hindus at least as early as the 1st century bc: they recognized stringed instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments of wood or metal, and percussion instruments with skin heads (i.e., drums). This ancient system—based on the material producing sound—was adopted by the Belgian instrument maker and acoustician Victor-Charles Mahillon , who named his four main classes autophones, or instruments made of a sonorous material that vibrates to produce sound (e.g., bells, rattles); membranophones , in which a stretched skin is caused to vibrate (e.g., drums); aerophones , in which the sound is produced by a vibrating column of air (wind instruments); and chordophones , or stringed instruments.

In their highly influential studies of musical instruments, the Austrian musicologist Erich von Hornbostel and his German colleague Curt Sachs accepted and expanded Mahillon’s basic division, creating the classification now used in most systematic studies of instruments. The name idiophones was substituted for autophones, and each class was subdivided according to a method similar to that used by botanists. A fifth class, electrophones , in which vibration is produced by oscillating electric circuits, was added later. The Table gives examples of instruments that fall within the various categories. Classification and examples of some musical instruments Idiophones polyphonic (producing harmony and simultaneous melodic lines) many synthesizers Many instruments can be played using more than one system of tone production and hence might reasonably appear in several subcategories. The double bass , for example, is usually considered a chordophone whose strings may be bowed or plucked; sometimes, however, the body of the instrument is slapped or struck, placing the double bass among the idiophones.

The tambourine is a membranophone insofar as it has a skin head which is struck; but, if it is only shaken so that its jingles sound, it should be classed as an idiophone, for in this operation the skin head is irrelevant. Open flue stops are the foundation of organ tone, but the instrument also has a number of free reed stops, so that the organ belongs equally to the first and second order of aerophones. Modern composers not infrequently require players to treat their instruments in unorthodox ways, thus changing their position in the classification system. It must be understood that the Sachs-Hornbostel system was created for the purpose of bringing order to the massive collections of musical instruments in ethnographic museums. It is directly analogous to the various book classification systems of libraries and, like them, is arbitrary. Musicians themselves generally think of instruments in terms of their technological features and playing method. To them, therefore, it is logical to group keyboard instruments together, ignoring the fact that in the Sachs-Hornbostel system such instruments fit into several categories. Tambourine with snare and jingles, detail from an early 14th-century English manuscript (add.

… Reproduced by permission of the British Library, London History and evolution There has been speculation about the origin of instruments since antiquity. Older writers were generally content to rely on mythology or legends . In the 19th century, partly as a result of theories of evolution put forward by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer , new chronologies based on anthropological evidence were advanced. The British writer John Frederick Rowbotham argued that there was originally a drum stage, followed by a pipe stage, and finally a lyre stage. The Austrian writer Richard Wallaschek, on the other hand, maintained that, although rhythm was the primal element, the pipe came first, followed by song , and the drum last. Sachs based his chronology on archaeological excavation and the geographic distribution of the instruments found in them. Following this method, he established three main strata. The first stratum, which is found all over the world, consists of simple idiophones and aerophones; the second stratum, less widely distributed, adds drums and simple stringed instruments; the third, occurring only in certain areas, adds xylophones , drumsticks, and more complex flutes.

In the 21st century, ethnomusicologists have questioned assumptions about the evolution of instruments from simple to complex; see above Technological developments . The development of musical instruments among ancient high civilizations in Asia, North Africa , and the Mediterranean appears to have emphasized stringed instruments. In Central and South America, wind and struck instruments seem to have been most important. It is not always easy to say whether instruments are indigenous to a particular area, however, since their cultivation may well have spread from one country to another through trade or migration. Nevertheless, it is known that the harp was used from early times in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India and was imported into China after the end of the 4th century ad. In Greece it was regarded as a foreign instrument: the standard plucked instrument was the lyre , known in its fully developed form as the kithara (or cithara). Apart from the trumpet, the only wind instrument in normal use in Greece was the aulos , a double-reed instrument akin to the modern oboe. The Egyptians used wind instruments not only with double reeds but also with single reeds and thus may be said to have anticipated the clarinet.

Peculiar to China was the sheng, or mouth organ; the Chinese also used as an artistic instrument the panpipes ( xiao ), which in Greece had a recreational function. Sheng; in the Horniman Museum, London. Courtesy of the Horniman Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd. In medieval Europe, many instruments came from Asia, having been transmitted through Byzantium , Spain , or eastern Europe. Perhaps the most notable development in western Europe was the practice, originating apparently in the 15th century, of building instruments in families, from the smallest to the largest size. A typical family was that of the shawms , which were powerful double-reed instruments. A distinction was made between haut (loud) and bas (soft) instruments, the former being suitable for performance out-of-doors and the latter for more intimate occasions. Hence, the shawm came to be known as the hautbois (loud wood), and this name was transferred to its more delicately toned descendant, the 17th-century oboe.

By the beginning of the 17th century the German musical writer and composer Michael Praetorius , in his Syntagma musicum (“Musical Treatise”), was able to give a detailed account of families of instruments of all kinds—recorders, flutes, shawms, trombones, viols, and violins. Percussion instruments Drum ensembles have achieved extraordinary sophistication in Africa, and the small hand-beaten drum is of great musical significance in western Asia and India. The native cultures of the Americas have always made extensive use of drums, as well as other struck and shaken instruments. In Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, xylophones and, since the introduction of metals, their cousins the metallophones play significant roles. Europe, however, has not placed great emphasis on drums and other percussion instruments. (See also percussion instrument .) Kenyah boys playing the jatung utang (a type of xylophone) … © Gini Gorlinski Stringed instruments Many varieties of plucked instruments were found in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; but bowed instruments eventually came to characterize the area, and they played an important role in the rest of Eurasia and in North Africa as well.

The idea of playing a stringed instrument with a bow may have originated with the horse cultures of Central Asia , perhaps in the 9th century ad. The technique then spread rapidly over most of the European landmass. The European fiddle existed in various forms: by the 16th century these had settled down into two distinct types—the viol , known in Italy as viola da gamba (leg fiddle), and the violin , or viola da braccio (arm fiddle). The viol has a flat back, sloping shoulders, and six or seven strings; the violin has a rounded back, rounded shoulders, and four strings. The viol, unlike the violin, has frets—pieces of gut wound at intervals around the fingerboard—which make every stopped note (i.e., the string being pressed by the finger to produce a higher pitch) sound like an open (unstopped) string. The violin, being the smallest member of the family, came to be known by the diminutive violino: the tenor of the family was called simply viola, while the bass acquired the name violoncello , a diminutive of violone (“big fiddle”).

(See also stringed instrument .) Man playing a bass viol, from Christopher Simpson’s The Division-Violist (1659); in … Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum, London; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd. Keyboard instruments Only in Europe did the keyboard develop—for reasons that are not clear. The principle of the keyboard has been used successfully to control bells (the carillon), plucked and struck stringed instruments (the piano and harpsichord), and wind instruments (the organ , the accordion , and the harmonium). Of all instruments, the organ showed the most remarkable development from the early Middle Ages to the 17th century. Originally, sound was admitted to the pipes by withdrawing sliders or depressing levers. Both of these methods were clumsy: they gave way to a reduction in the size of the levers, which eventually could be depressed by the fingers, while the larger pipes were controlled by pedals. A further development was to separate the various rows of pipes, so that each row could be brought into action or suppressed by means of a draw stop .

Once a manageable keyboard had been produced, it could be applied to the portable organ, carried by the player, which was already in use by the 12th century. Scientific experiments with the monochord , a stretched string that could be divided into various lengths by means of a metal tangent, were followed by the construction of an instrument with a whole range of strings and a keyboard similar to that of the organ—the clavichord . A similar adaptation of the plucking of stringed instruments led to the harpsichord , the ingenious mechanism of which had been perfected by the 16th century. It is curious that a similar method was not applied to the dulcimer , which was struck with hammers, until the early 18th century, when the Italian maker Bartolomeo Cristofori constructed the first pianoforte , so-called because, unlike the harpsichord, it could vary the tone from soft (piano) to loud (forte).

(See also keyboard instrument .) The Bruckner Organ, 18th century; in the church of the Abbey of Sankt Florian, Austria Toni Schneiders Wind instruments In Europe the practice of constructing instruments in families continued from the 17th century onward. English composers wrote for the tenor hautbois, the intermediate oboe d’amore, and the bass, or baritone, oboe. The clarinet (the name means “little trumpet”) emerged at the end of the 17th century and, like the oboe, developed into a family extending to a contrabass clarinet in the 19th century and later a subcontrabass. It established itself only gradually in the orchestra in the course of the 18th century. Trumpets and horns were used in most areas of Eurasia for ceremonial and military purposes. They remained relatively unchanged until the early 19th century, when valves were added to European instruments. This modification also led to the creation of new types.

A pioneer in the field was the Belgian instrument maker Antoine-Joseph Sax , who in 1845 built a family of valved instruments called saxhorns , using the bugle as the basis for his invention . Similar instruments were widely adopted in military and brass bands, but only the bass, under the name bass tuba, became a normal member of the orchestra. Sax also invented the saxophone , a single-reed instrument like the clarinet but with a conical tube. This, too, was made in various sizes, which came to be used both in military bands and in jazz ensembles. The saxophone never became a normal member of the symphony orchestra, but the alto and the tenor have been used by art-music composers, largely as solo instruments, and occasionally a complete quartet of four different sizes has appeared in an orchestral work. (See also wind instrument .) Alto saxophone. musical instrument - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Devices that produce musical sounds, musical instruments may be used for ritual or ceremony, entertainment, or private enjoyment.

The vast numbers of such devices have been classified in a variety of ways, but no system can be completely satisfactory because there are too many different elements. The system that has been most generally accepted is a classification based on the way in which sound is produced by the instrument. In this system instruments are divided into aerophones, or wind instruments; chordophones, or stringed instruments; membranophones, or drums; idiophones, or percussion instruments other than drums; and electrophones, or electronic instruments. (See also electronic instruments; percussion instruments; stringed instruments; wind instruments; band; orchestra.) Article Contributors Families of Musical Instruments Cool Stuff > Music Families of Musical Instruments Musical instruments are grouped into families based on how they make sounds. In an orchestra, musicians sit together in these family groupings. But not every instrument fits neatly into a group. For example, the piano has strings that vibrate, and hammers that strike. Is it a string instrument or a percussion instrument? Some say it is both! Brass Brass instruments are made of brass or some other metal and make sound when air is blown inside. The musician's lips must buzz, as though making a "raspberry" noise against the mouthpiece.

Air then vibrates inside the instrument, which produces a sound. Brass instruments include trumpet , trombone , tuba , French horn , cornet , and bugle . Percussion Most percussion instruments make sounds when they are hit, such as a drum or a tambourine. Others are shaken, such as maracas, and still others may be rubbed, scratched, or whatever else will make the instrument vibrate and thus produce a sound. Percussion instruments include drums , cymbals , triangle , chimes, tam-tam , glockenspiel , timpani , bells , and xylophone . Strings Yes, the sounds of string instruments come from their strings. The strings may be plucked, as in a guitar or harp; bowed, as with a cello or a violin; or struck, as with a dulcimer. This creates a vibration that causes a unique sound. Stringed instruments include the violin , viola , cello , bass, harp , and dulcimer . Woodwinds Woodwind instruments produce sound when air (wind) is blown inside.

Air might be blown across an edge, as with a flute; between a reed and a surface, as with a clarinet; or between two reeds, as with a bassoon. The sound happens when the air vibrates inside. Instruments INDIA | Milapfest Instruments INDIA Sign up to receive regular updates Instruments INDIA Explore the fascinating genre of Indian music through our archive of images, sounds and videos. Instruments India is a rich and varied resource, and you can discover the background of each instrument, how it is played, and the type of setting it is normally played in. If you are a beginner, student, expert or music lover, you can now enjoy a preview to a performance, find out more about a concert you have just seen, or get some background information on instruments in different settings. Instruments India is the result of a partnership between MILAPFEST and LIVERPOOL HOPE UNIVERSITY, and the archive of instruments is a dynamic resource, which will grow on an ongoing basis. Welcome to our website, and enjoy your discovery! Featured Video The Mandolin The violin The violin used in Indian classical music is similar to the one used in Western classical traditions. In Carnatic music, the tuning is the same.

The tuning is slightly modified for the Hindustani violin, but the playing style remains the … › The Veena The veena is among the oldest of Indian musical instruments. From the references to Vedic writings, it can date back to around the first millennium B.C. Temple sculptures from the 2nd century B.C. show a type of veena being played. … › The Udukkai The udukkai is an hourglass shaped, membranous drum used in devotional and folk music throughout India. The udukkai is played with the hand and the pitch may be altered by tightening the lacing in the middle. It is made of … › The Thavil The thavil is a percussion instrument used for accompanying the nadaswaram, a wind instrument used in Hidu religious music and as a solo instrument in Carnatic music. It consists of a barrel shaped drum carved out of jackfruit wood, with … › The Tar Shehnai The Tar Shehnai is an esraj (bowed string instrument) with an added mechanical amplifier. This amplifier fixed to the sound board of the instrument is modeled on the gramophone sound box to project a stronger, more directional sound.

The amplifier … › The Tanpura The tanpura is an instrument that acts as the reference chord in Indian classical music. It has a resonator and 4 strings, but no frets, as the notes are always played whole. The name is derived from tana or musical … › The tabla The tabla is the percussion instrument most commonly used in north Indian classical music. The instrument consists of two drums, called bayan (left) and dayan (right) as per the hand they are most commonly played with. The drums consist of … › Musical Instruments of the Indian Subcontinent | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Musical Instruments of the Indian Subcontinent See works of art Works of Art (17) Essay The music of the Indian subcontinent is usually divided into two major traditions of classical music: Hindustani music of Northern India and Karnatak music of Southern India, although many regions of India also have their own musical traditions that are independent of these. Both Hindustani and Karnatak music use the system of ragas—sets of pitches and small motives for melody construction—and tala for rhythm.

Ragas form a set of rules and patterns around which a musician can create his or her unique performance. Likewise, tala is a system of rhythmic structures based on the combination of stressed and unstressed beats. Within these rhythmic structures, musicians ( 1996.100.1 ) can create their own rhythmic patterns building off the compositional styles of others. One of the main differences between North Indian and South Indian music is the increased influence of Persian music and musical instruments in the North. From the late twelfth century through the rise of British occupation , North India was under the control of a Muslim minority that was never able to extend its sphere of influence to South India. During this time, the music of North India began to acquire and adapt to the presence of Persian language, music, and musical instruments, such as the setar, from which the sitar got its name; the kemancheh ( 1998.72 ) and santur, which became popular in Kashmir; and the rabab [alternately known as rebab and rubab], which preceded the sarod.

New instruments were introduced, including the tabla and sitar ( 1999.399 ), which soon became the most famous Indian musical instruments worldwide. Legend has it that the tabla was formed by splitting a pakhavaj drum in half, with the larger side becoming the bayan and the smaller side the dahini. The barrel-shaped pakhavaj drum, which was the ancestor of both the tabla and the mrdangam, has been depicted in countless paintings and prints. New genres of music were formed as well, such as khyal and qawwali, that combine elements of both Hindu and Muslim musical practice. Hindustani classical music is known largely for its instrumentalists, while Karnatak classical music is renowned for its virtuosic singing practices. Instruments most commonly used in Hindustani classical music are the sitar, sarod, tambura, sahnai, sarangi, and tabla; while instruments commonly used in Karnatak classical music include the vina, mrdangam, kanjira, and violin . The use of bamboo flutes, such as the murali, is common to both traditions as well as many other genres of Indian music.

In fact, many of these instruments are often used in both North and South India, and there are many clear relationships between the instruments of both regions. Furthermore, often instruments that are slightly different in construction will be identified by the same name in both the south and the north, though they might be used differently. Throughout its history, the peoples of India have developed numerous systems for classifying musical instruments, many of which were based on morphological characteristics. The ancient Hindu system divided instruments into four categories: stretched (strings; 2008.141.2a,b ), covered (drums; 89.4.165 ), hollow (wind; 1986.12 ), and solid (bells; 89.4.154 ). This system is widely known to be the inspiration for the Western system of instrument classification put forth by Mahillon in 1880, which renames these groups—chordophones, membranophones, aerophones, and idiophones—basing the distinction on the way in which sound is created and not exclusively on construction.

VOCABULARY A note on spelling: All terms used for Indian musical instruments and musical concepts are common transliterations of the original terms. Subsequently, there are numerous possible methods of rendering the same term in English and inevitable discrepancies in spelling. The spellings adopted here are the ones used by The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001). Kanjira (Khanjari) The kanjira is a frame drum of South India. It consists of a skin (usually iguana) stretched and pasted on a circular wooden frame. There are often three or four slots in the side of the frame, in which bell-metal jingle-disks are suspended from metal crossbars. The name kanjira is related to the khanjari and kanjani of North and East India and Nepal. The kanjira is tuned to various pitches by wetting the skin. It is held at the bottom of the frame by the left hand, which also varies the tension of the skin, and is beaten with the fingers of the right hand. Kemancheh The kemancheh is one of the world’s earliest known bowed instruments.

It has been altered and changed as it has traveled to other parts of the world ( 1998.72 ). Some argue that the kemancheh is the predecessor of many other stringed instruments such as the rabab, the sarangi, and the Chinese erhu. Mrdangam The mrdangam is an elongated barrel-shaped drum found predominantly in South India ( 1986.467.18 ). It is derived from the pakhavaj and is used as the primary rhythmic accompaniment in Karnatak music as well as in religious Kirtan music. In the east (Bengal, Orissa), this barrel-shaped drum is known as the khol. Murali The murali is a transverse flute made of bamboo. It is used in a variety of musical genres and is often associated with the Hindu deity Krishna. Pakhavaj The pakhavaj is a barrel-shaped drum with two heads, each of which contains tuning paste, or siyahi.

The history of the pakhavaj is unknown, yet as the predecessor of both the Hindustani tabla drums and the mrdangam of Karnatak music, it served as the primary accompaniment for much of Indian classical music. It appears in the musical iconography of Hindu religious painting and in the artworks of the royal Muslim courts of the Mughal empire. Rabab The rabab is a stringed instrument with a skin-covered resonator that can be bowed or plucked depending on performance tradition. It is found in various forms throughout North Africa, the Near East, South Asia, and Central Asia. Similar to the way the setar and the vina were adapted to eventually become what is known today as the sitar, the rabab was adapted to become the sarod. However, there are many musicians in India today who still play the rabab and it is quite popular in several music genres. Sahnai (Shenai) The sahnai is a double reed instrument of North India and Nepal. In South India, a double reed instrument called the nagasvaram is used. Both instruments have seven equidistant fingerholes and no thumbhole.

Frequently, the instrument’s flared open end is made of metal while its body is made of wood or bamboo; however, they are not exclusively made in this fashion. Sarangi A sarangi is a bowed stringed instrument with a skin-covered resonator ( 89.4.200 ). The typical sarangi is made by hand, usually from a single block of tun wood about 66 to 69 centimeters long ( 46.34.43 ). The three playing strings are made of goat gut, and the sympathetic strings (usually as many as thirty-six, though the number varies) of brass and/or steel. However, the design of sarangis varies from region to region ( 1982.143.2 ). For example, the Nepalese sarangi is generally much smaller than its Indian counterpart, and not all sarangis have sympathetic strings. Sarod The sarod is a relatively new instrument to South Asia, having been around for less than 200 years. The sarod is a plucked stringed instrument with a skin-covered resonator and sympathetic strings.

Like the sitar, it is primarily used in Hindustani music and is accompanied by the tabla. Setar The word setar means “three strings.” Other instruments in this family include the two-stringed dutar and the single-stringed ektar. As Indian musicians adopted the setar, they added more and more strings. Early sitars, which evolved from the setar, have six strings, while more contemporary ones include six playing strings and thirteen sympathetic strings. A Persian setar in the Museum’s collection is a miniature that was made primarily for the purpose of decoration. Many such instruments exist in India. Sitar The sitar is easily India’s most famous musical instrument overseas, having been popularized in the West by George Harrison of the Beatles, who studied with Ravi Shankar, one of the greatest sitarists of the twentieth century. The sitar has its roots in both the Persian setar as well as in the vina. Like many stringed instruments used in classical Indian music, the modern sitar ( 1999.399 ) has sympathetic strings that sound only when one of the primary strings is struck on the same note.

These strings, which are never played by the performer, resound in sympathy with the playing strings, creating a polyphonic timber that many have come to associate with India through the popularity of this instrument. It is interesting to note, however, that the addition of the sympathetic strings is a relatively recent development in Indian music starting in the late nineteenth century ( 89.4.1586 ). The use of sympathetic strings is known to have existed in other parts of the world prior to their initial use in India. Tabla The tabla is actually two drums played by the same performer. Both drums have compound skins onto which a tuning paste, or siyahi, is added to help generate the wide variety of tones these drums can produce. The bayan is the larger of the two drums and is generally made of metal or pottery. The siyahi on the bayan is off-center, which allows the performer to add variable pressure on the skin, changing the pitch of the instrument with the palm of his or her hand while striking it with the fingertips. The smaller drum is called the dahini, or sometimes referred to as the tabla. Dahini are usually made of heavy lathe-turned rosewood and provide much higher pitch sounds than does the bayan.

Tambura The tambura is a long, stringed instrument made of light hollow wood, with either a wooden or a gourd resonator. It is typically used in accompaniment with other instruments, providing a drone pitch. Some of the tamburas in the Museum’s collection are not full-sized instruments, but rather miniatures created for their aesthetic appearance. The artistic craftsmanship on the inlay in these objects is beautiful. India has a long history of creating musical instruments as decorative objects, and that tradition is represented in the Museum’s collection. Vina Along with the pakhavaj, the vina is one of the most commonly depicted instruments in Indian iconography. The vina has taken many forms in both South and North India. In North India, it was called the bin or the rudravina, and was the predecessor of the sitar. It was often built of two large gourd resonators connected by a piece of bamboo, with frets held on with wax. Most of the vinas depicted in iconography are rudravinas. In the South, the vina—or saraswati vina—continues to be the most popular stringed instrument in classical music.

In its basic shape, the vina is a hollow wooden stringed instrument with two gourd resonators (though there can often be more than two or sometimes only one gourd resonator). The gottuvadyam, or chitravina, is another important instrument in Karnatak music. Unlike the rudravina and the saraswati vina, the gottuvadyam has no frets and is played with a slide using a method similar to that of the Hawaiian slide guitar . Allen Roda March 2009 Citation Roda, Allen. “Musical Instruments of the Indian Subcontinent.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (March 2009) Related Art, Music & Dance | The Islands of The Bahamas Art, Music & Dance People to People As creative as they are resourceful, many Bahamians express their artistic nature through their colourful art, infectious music or exuberant dancing. Taking their inspiration from the beauty of their people and their islands, much of the local artwork is bright, bold and strikingly original. Music is also in the very bones of the people.

African rhythms, Caribbean Calypso, English folk songs, and the uniquely Bahamian 'Goombay' (the Bantu word for rhythm, which also refers to the type of goatskin drum used to produce the rolling rhythmical beat) echo in the air. Rake and scrape bands have been playing goombay music since the time of slavery, when with few resources, bands fashioned their drum out of a pork barrel and goatskin, scraped a metal file over a carpenter's saw, made maracas from seed pods and played a home-made bass violin (a washtub with a string through it that was tied to a three-foot stick). Dances such as the Bahamian Quadrille and the Heel and Toe Polka are accompanied by rake and scrape music, although today's bands use saxophones, electric guitars or other instruments in addition to saws and goombay drums. To hear a louder, more boisterous version of goombay music, join the famous 'Junkanoo' celebrations, where you'll get to watch the parade participants 'rushin' and perform the Jump-In-Dance.

At times outside the regular – and frequent – festivals, many people consider the best expressions of Bahamian culture are the religious hymns which resemble the American slave songs brought to The Bahamas during the Loyalist period, and the congregational gospel singing (in all but the strictest churches), which is accompanied by hand clapping and spiritual dancing. See where to find music and art by Island by clicking on the links below

Question: What type of musical instrument is a goombay?
Answer: Drum