Instrument List

Wind instrument

• accordina (a type of harmonica/accordion hybrid) — a type of Harmonica/Accordion hybrid, the bellows for the accordion bit with buttons/keys receive their air though the user blowing into the instrument like an harmonica
• accordion — The accordion is a rectangular free-reed bellows-driven instrument with a keyboard & buttons.
• algozey — The algozey is a wooden, beaked double-flute traditionally played by goat herders in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan.
• alphorn — The alphorn, or alpine horn, is a conical wood horn used for communication in mountains.
• alto clarinet — The alto clarinet is a clarinet in E♭ or sometimes F, normally with a curved neck.
• alto flute — The alto flute is a concert flute in G, lower in tone than the flûte d'amour.
• alto saxophone — The alto saxophone is a woodwind invented by Adolphe Sax which is between the tenor and soprano in size.
• Anglo concertina (historical hybrid between English and German style concertinas) — bisonoric and button layout like the german and reeds and hexagonal ends like the english, this concertina was created to rival the popular german variant imported into england.
• arghul — The arghul is a traditional Egyptian double-pipe, single-reed woodwind instrument.
• bagpipe — The bagpipe is an instrument consisting of a series of enclosed reeds fed by a bag of air.
• bandoneón — The bandoneón is a type of bisonoric concertina popular in parts of South America and in Lithuania.
• bansuri — The bansuri is a transverse alto flute, which is the North Indian counterpart to the venu.
• baritone horn — The baritone horn is a piston valve brass instrument with a wide-rimmed cup mouthpiece which is pitched in B♭, one octave below the B♭ trumpet.
• baritone saxophone — The baritone saxophone is the largest and lowest-pitch saxophone in wide use.
• baroque trumpet — A baroque trumpet is a natural trumpet modelled on the instruments used between the 1500s and the 1700s. It lacks valves but may have vents.
• barrel organ — A barrel organ is a mechanical musical instrument typically operated by a person turning a crank which turns a barrel which has music encoded onto it.
• bass clarinet — The bass clarinet is a clarinet, typically pitched an octave below the soprano B♭ clarinet.
• bass flute — The bass flute is a flute, pitched one octave below the C concert flute, with a tube about 1.5 meters long.
• bass harmonica — The bass harmonica is a type of octave harmonica where the lowest note (E) is the same as that on a bass guitar.
• bass oboe — The bass oboe is a double reed woodwind instrument which is about twice the size of a regular oboe.
• bass recorder
• bass saxophone — The bass saxophone is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family (not counting the subcontrabass tubax). It is similar in design to a baritone saxophone, but it is larger, with a longer loop near the mouthpiece.
• bass trombone
• bass trumpet — The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet similar to the valve trombone.
• basset clarinet
• basset horn
• bassoon
• bawu — The bawu is a Chinese wind instrument. Although shaped like a flute, it is actually a free reed instrument, with a single metal reed. It is played in a transverse (horizontal) manner.
• bayan
• bazooka — The bazooka is a brass musical instrument several feet in length which incorporates telescopic tubing.
• bellow-blown bagpipes — Bagpipes played by pumping air into a bellow and then from the bellow into the chanter(s).
• birch lur (wooden natural horn) — a wooden or birch bark natural horn known from Viking age/Middle Ages.
• boatswain's pipe
• bombarde — conical bore double-reed musical instrument from Brittany
• brass
• bronze lur (bronze age natural horn) — chiefly scandinavian bronze horns ritualistically buried in pairs. from the bronze age.
• bugle
• buisine — The buisine was a type of straight medieval trumpet usually made of metal.
• button accordion
• calliope
• Cembalet (an electric piano with reeds) — an electromechanical piano with stainless steel reeds and amplified pick-up
• chalumeau — The chalumeau is a single-reed woodwind instrument of the late baroque and early classical era.
• chamber organ — A chamber organ is a small pipe organ.
• chirimía (oboe-like double-reed from South-America) — a relative of the shawm, it was introduced to central and south-america by the spanish in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
• chromatic button accordion
• chromatic harmonica
• clarinet
• claviola (free reed aerophone with pitching pipes.) — free reed melodica like instrument that is worn like an accordion, with differenting length pipes which control the pitch
• concert flute — The concert flute is the most common variant of the flute and is commonly referred to as just "flute".
• concertina
• conch — conch shell
• contrabass clarinet
• contrabass flute
• contrabass recorder
• contrabass saxophone
• contrabassoon
• cornamuse — The cornamuse is a double reed instrument from the Renaissance, similar to the crumhorn but with a closed bell.
• cornet — The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet.
• cornett — The cornett (not to be confused with the cornet) is an early wind instrument.
• crumhorn — Crumhorn used in the 14th to 17th centuries in Europe
• daegeum — The daegeum is a large transverse flute from Korea which is made of bamboo.
• descant recorder / soprano recorder — A descant or soprano recorder is the most common size of recorder and is often learnt by children.
• diatonic accordion / melodeon
• didgeridoo
• đing buốt — edo village traditional flute, four finger holes, blowing reed
• đing năm — The đing năm is a gourd mouth organ used by minority ethnic groups in the central highlands of Vietnam.
• ding tac ta — The ding tac ta is a free reed wind instrument played by the Ê Đê minority in Vietnam. It is made of a bamboo tube with three holes and a gourd wind chamber.
• dizi — The dizi is a Chinese transverse flute typically made of bamboo. In Chinese, it is sometimes just called 笛 (di), but in Japanese 笛 (fue) is a more generic word referring to a whole class of flutes rather than this specific instrument.
• double reed
• duck call — A duck call is a tool used to emulate the sound of a duck.
• duduk — The duduk is a traditional Armenian double reed woodwind instrument.
• dulcian — The dulcian is a double reed bass woodwind instrument which is a 16th century ancestor of the bassoon.
• dulzaina
• E-flat clarinet — The E♭ clarinet is a member of the clarinet family.
• end-blown flute
• English concertina (unisonoric concertina) — unisonoric concertina with hexagonal sides and concertina reeds.
• English flageolet (english "improved" flageolet) — working to improve on its design, the english flageolet had 6 finger holes in front and one thumb hole in the back.
• English horn (also known as Cor anglais) — neither a horn nor english, it is a transposing member of the oboe family, pitched at F
• euphonium
• fife — A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore.
• fipple flute
• flabiol (small catalan fipple flute) — small catalan flageolet used in the cobla ensemble, unlike other tabor-pipe likes it can also be played with two hands.
• flageolet (french 16th century fipple flute) — while today it is obscure, it was developed and improved for 400 years, the French flageolet has 4 holes in front and two thumb holes in the back
• flugelhorn
• flumpet — The flumpet is a hybrid brass horn instrument that shares the construction and timbre qualities of a trumpet and flugelhorn.
• flute — A flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening.
• flûte d'amour — The flûte d'amour is the mezzo-soprano instrument of the flute family.
• fourth flute — The fourth flute is a recorder with a lowest note of B♭, a fourth above the treble/alto recorder.
• free reed
• French horn
• fujara — The fujara is a large folk shepherd's fipple flute originated from central Slovakia.
• garklein recorder
• German concertina (bisonoric concertina) — more usually square than hexagonal, with long plate reeds
• gralla — The gralla is a traditional Catalan double reed instrument in the oboe family.
• great bass recorder / c-bass recorder
• guan — The guan is a Chinese double reed wind instrument made from hardwood or bamboo.
• härjedalspipa (fipple flute from Härjedalen, sweden) — six holed fipple flute used traditionally in pastoral settings like its cousin the spilåpipa.
• harmonica — The harmonica or blues harp is a type of mouth organ commonly found in blues, American folk, jazz, country and rock and roll music.
• harmonium
• heckelphone
• helicon
• hichiriki — The hichiriki is a double reed Japanese flute used as one of two main melodic instruments in Japanese gagaku music.
• hmông flute — family of Hmông flutes
• horn
• hotchiku — The hotchiku is a Japanese end-blown bamboo flute.
• hue puruhau (Māori traditional large bass gourd) — large gourd (hue) with no finger-holes, it is blown like a jug and has a booming bass sound.
• hulusi — The hulusi is a Chinese free reed wind instrument which has three bamboo pipes which pass through a gourd.
• Indian bamboo flutes
• jug — an empty jug (usually made of glass or stoneware) played with the mouth
• k'lông pút — The k'lông pút is an instrument from the central highlands of Vietnam played by ethnic groups such as the Xơ Đăng and the Bahnar. It consists of a number of different sized bamboo tubes laid horizontally which are played by the musician clapping their slightly cupped hands in front of the tubes in order to push air into the tubes.
• kagurabue (bamboo transverse flute) — traditional six holed bamboo flute used in Gagaku no Kagaku
• kaval — The kaval is a chromatic end-blown flute from the Balkans and Anatolia.
• kèn bầu — The kèn bầu is a double reed instrument from Vietnam.
• kèn lá — The kèn lá is an instrument used by the Hmong minority of Vietnam which consists of a leaf which is curled up and positioned in the mouth so it vibrates when it is blown.
• keyed brass instruments — Keyed brass instruments use holes along the body of the instrument in a similar way to a woodwind instrument.
• khèn Mèo — The khèn Mèo is a mouth organ used by the Hmong people. It has bamboo pipes (typically six) which each have a free reed.
• khene — The khene is a mouth organ from Laos and north-east Thailand which is also used by some ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. It typically consists of 14 bamboo pipes arranged into two rows which are connected to a small, hollowed-out hardwood windchest.
• khlui — The khlui is a vertical duct flute from Thailand which is generally made of bamboo.
• ki pah — cow horns without fingerholes. with mouthpiece and free reed
• kōauau (Māori traditional small, ductless and notchless flute) — A small, ductless and notchless flute, made of wood or bone. part of the traditional Māori instruments Taonga pūoro
• kōauau ponga ihu (Māori traditional tiny gourd nose flute) — nose flute made of gourd with it two holes, while it is tiny, it has a huge sound
• kortholt — The kortholt is a woodwind instrument that was popular in the Renaissance period.
• launeddas — The launeddas is a typical Sardinian woodwind instrument, consisting of three pipes.
• limbe — The limbe is a Mongolian transverse flute.
• low whistle
• mellophone
• melodica
• mirliton — Mirliton is a generic term for membranophones played by a performer speaking or singing into them, and which alter the sound of the voice by means of a vibrating membrane.
• mouth organ — A mouth organ is a generic term for free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed.
• musette de cour
• nabal — The nabal is a long, straight brass horn used in Korean traditional music.
• nadaswaram — The nadaswaram is a South Indian double reed wind instrument.
• nagak
• nai — Nai, Romanian Panflute
• natural brass instruments — Natural brass instruments only play notes in the instrument's harmonic series.
• natural horn — Valveless ancestor of the modern (French) horn.
• ney — Persian / Turkish / Arabic end-blown flute with five or six finger holes and one thumb hole.
• nguru (Māori traditional small vessel flute) — A small vessel flute like the ocarina or xun. Made of wood, soapstone or bone and shaped like a whale's tooth. part of the traditional Māori instruments Taonga pūoro
• nohkan — The nohkan is a high-pitched bamboo transverse flute from Japan.
• Northumbrian pipes — Northumbrian (small)pipes
• nose flute — The nose flute is a flute played by the nose commonly found in countries in and around the Pacific.
• nose whistle — The nose whistle (also known as the Humanatone) is a simple instrument played with the nose. The stream of air is directed over an edge in the instrument and the frequency of the notes produced is controlled by the volume of air.
• oboe — Oboe (soprano)
• oboe d'amore — Oboe d'amore / Oboe d'amour (mezzo-soprano)
• oboe da caccia — The oboe da caccia is a double reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family, pitched a fifth below the oboe and used primarily in the Baroque period of European classical music.
• ocarina — The ocarina is a type of vessel flute which has a mouthpiece extending from the body.
• ophicleide
• organ
• pan flute
• pang gu ly hu hmông — a kind of a "slide whistle" form. Hmông flute
• pi — Pi is a family of quadruple reed oboes from Thailand.
• pi nai — The pi nai is a type of pi normally used in the piphat ensemble.
• pí thiu — Pí thiu or Pí khui vertical flute
• piano accordion
• piccolo
• piccolo oboe — The piccolo oboe is the smallest and highest pitched member of the oboe family.
• piccolo trumpet
• pipe organ
• piri — The piri is a Korean double reed instrument made of bamboo, used in both the folk and classical (court) music of Korea. Related to the Chinese guan and Japanese hichiriki.
• pocket trumpet — The pocket trumpet is a compact size B♭ trumpet, with the same playing range as the regular trumpet.
• poi āwhiowhio (Māori traditional swung whistling gourd) — A hollowed out gourd (hue) with one to three holes, swung around creating a whistling, chattering sound that resembled birds
• porotiti (Māori traditional humming discs) — Whirring, spinning disks of many shapes, sizes and materials. When blown on, they also create a well of different humming sounds.
• pōrutu (Māori traditional hardwood flute) — A longer version of the kōauau, made of hardwoods such as mānuka, mataī, or black maire. Like the pūtorino, it has 2 voices, the male (trumpet) and female (flute).
• post horn — The post horn is a valveless coiled brass instrument used to signal the arrival or departure of a post rider or mail coach.
• practice chanter — Looks like a recorder, but with double reeds and bagpipe fingering system. Mostly used to learn how to play the pipes, but are occasionally played in their own right.
• pūkaea (Māori traditional trumpet made of wood.) — A traditional Maori trumpet made of wood. A war and announcement trumpet. part of the traditional Māori instruments Taonga pūoro
• pūmotomoto (Māori traditional long flute) — A long flute with a notched open top and a single finger hole near the end. part of the traditional Māori instruments Taonga pūoro
• pūpakapaka (Māori traditional long necked conch trumpet) — A pūtātara with a long wooden mouth piece, it has a deeper timbre than the pūtātara
• pūtātara (Māori traditional conch shell trumpet) — Trumpet made of conch shell, it has a beautifully carved wooden mouthpiece. It was for signalling, but also ceremonial and ritual use.
• pūtōrino (Māori traditional wide ranged flute.) — A flute with a wide range, made of wood, tapered at each end. part of the traditional Māori instruments Taonga pūoro
• quena — The quena is a traditional bamboo flute from the Andes.
• rauschpfeife — A wooden double-reed instrument with a conical bore from the 16th and 17th centuries
• recorder
• reed organ
• reeds
• rehu (Māori traditional long flute) — A long flute with a closed top and a transverse blowing hole and finger holes like the pōrutu.
• rondador — The rondador is a set of chorded bamboo panpipes from Ecuador.
• ryuteki — The ryuteki is a Japanese transverse flute used in gagaku.
• sackbut
• saduk — A cross between a saxophone and a duduk invented and played by Alexander Berne
• samba whistle — The samba whistle is a tri-tone whistle used in samba music and other Brazilian music styles.
• sáo meò
• saó ôi flute — saó ôi (flute of the Muong)
• sáo trúc — The sáo trúc is a Vietnamese transverse flute made of bamboo.
• sarrusophone — The sarrusophone is a family of transposing musical instruments, intended to serve as a replacement in wind bands for the oboe and bassoon.
• saxophone
• Schwyzerörgeli — The Schwyzerörgeli is a type of diatonic button accordion used in Swiss folk music.
• Scottish smallpipes — Like (and developed from) the Northumbrian smallpipes, but with Great Highland Bagpipe fingering.
• serpent
• shakuhachi — The shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute.
• shawm — Shawm, Medieval and Renaissance instrument, predecessor to the oboe
• shehnai — The shehnai is a double reed conical oboe, common in North India, West India and Pakistan, made out of wood, with a metal flare bell at the end.
• sheng — The sheng is a Chinese free reed instrument consisting of a number of vertical pipes.
• shinobue — The shinobue is a high-pitched transverse bamboo flute from Japan.
• sho — The shō is a Japanese free reed instrument modelled on the Chinese sheng, although the shō tends to be smaller in size.
• shofar
• shruti box — The shruti box is similar to a harmonium and is used to provide a drone accompaniment.
• siku — The siku is a traditional Andean panpipe.
• single reed
• slide brass instruments — Slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing.
• slide whistle — Slide whistle (infamous 'Clangers' sound)
• sopilka — Sopilka (generally) refers to a type of fife used in Ukrainian traditional music.
• sopranino recorder
• sopranino saxophone
• soprano clarinet
• soprano flute
• soprano saxophone
• sousaphone
• spilåpipa — The spilåpipa is a Swedish fipple flute with eight finger-holes on the top, but no thumb-holes. It has a modal tuning.
• subcontrabass recorder
• suling — The suling is a bamboo flute from Southeast Asia.
• suona — The suona is a Chinese shawm frequently used in the folk music of northern China.
• Swedish bagpipes — Swedish bagpipes are a type of bagpipes from Sweden.
• syrinx — Greek Panflute
• taepyeongso — The taepyeongso is a Korean double reed wind instrument which has a conical wooden body with a metal mouthpiece and cup-shaped metal bell.
• taragot — The taragot is a Turkish/Hungarian/Romanian reed instrument related to the saxophone and clarinet.
• tenor horn / alto horn
• tenor recorder
• tenor saxophone
• tenor trombone — The tenor trombone is a trombone pitched in B♭.
• theatre organ — Theatre organ, such as the Wurlitzer
• three-hole pipe (european 11th century pipe) — Ancient pipe originating in Europe, with analogies all over the world, it is often combined with tabor drums.
• tiêu — The tiêu is a Vietnamese end-blown flute related to the Chinese xiao.
• tin whistle
• Tonette (plastic fipple flute) — introduced in 1938, it was a popular American educational instrument.
• tràm plè — a variant of the "Hmông flute". flute blowers lips enclose the blowing hole with the vibrating "free reed" inside
• trắng jâu — trắng jâu bass form of trắng lu
• trắng lu
• transverse flute
• treble flute
• treble recorder / alto recorder
• trikiti (Basque button accordion) — diatonic button accordion used in traditional basque ensemble
• trombone
• tromboon — The tromboon is an instrument created by attaching the reed of a bassoon to the body of a trombone.
• trumpet
• tuba
• tubax — The tubax is a modified saxophone which is more compact due to the tubing being folded more times.
• txistu (Basque fipple flute) — fipple flute that became a symbol for the Basque folk revival.
• uilleann pipes
• valve trombone
• valved brass instruments — Valved brass instruments use a set of valves which introduce additional tubing into the instrument.
• venu — The venu is a bamboo transverse flute used in the Carnatic music of South India.
• vessel flute — A vessel flute is a type of flute with an enclosed rather than cylindrical body.
• vibrandoneon (accordina with piano keys) — wood accordina with piano keys invented in Italy
• Vienna horn — The Vienna horn is a type of musical horn used primarily in Vienna, Austria, for playing orchestral or classical music.
• Wagner tuba
• whistle (small, simple, singletoned flute) — simple, often single-toned and round-bodied whistle often used for regulation (sport, traffic, ...).
• willow flute
• wind instruments
• woodwind
• wot — The wot is a circular panpipe from Laos and the Isan region of northeastern Thailand.
• Xaphoon — The Xaphoon is a keyless chromatic single-reed woodwind instrument.
• xiao — The xiao is a Chinese end-blown flute.
• xun — The xun is a vessel flute from China which has a blowing hole at the top.
• żaqq — The żaqq is a Maltese bagpipe made from the complete skin of an animal (typically a premature calf, goat or dog). The chanter consists of two side-by-side pipes and a bull's horn is normally attached to the end.
• zhaleika — The zhaleika is a single reed hornpipe from Russia.
• zurna

String instrument

• 12 string guitar
• 17-string koto — A koto with 17 rather than 13 strings, sometimes described as a bass koto.
• acoustic bass guitar
• acoustic fretless guitar — Acoustic guitar without frets.
• acoustic guitar
• aeolian harp
• ajaeng — The ajaeng is a bowed Korean zither with 7 (sometimes 8 or 9) strings.
• alto violin
• Appalachian dulcimer
• archlute — The archlute is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo and the Renaissance tenor lute
• archtop guitar — An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a distinctive arched top, which is particularly popular with jazz players.
• arpeggione (bass viol with guitar frets and tuning) — Invented in 1823, it had a body like a medieval fiddle, but had frets and tuning like the guitar.
• autoharp
• baglama
• bajo sexto — The bajo sexto is a Mexican string instrument with 12 strings in 6 double courses.
• balalaika
• Baltic psalteries
• bandora — The bandora is a large long-necked plucked string instrument that has been described as a kind of bass cittern.
• bandura — Bandura, modern day Ukrainian zither
• bandura — Bandura, Ukrainian 14th century lute
• bandurria
• banhu — The banhu is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the huqin family. It is also called banghu for its use in bangzi opera.
• banjitar — The banjitar is a six-string banjo with the neck of a guitar.
• banjo
• banjo-ukelele (banjo ukulele hybrid) — small fretted hybrid instrument with a banjo body and a ukulele neck, popular in the 1920-30
• banjolin (banjo and mandolin/violin hybrid) — reinvented several times in different lands, it combines banjo body and neck of mandolin, it is tuned like it and the violin.
• barbat (ancient asian/persian lute) — ancient central asian/persian string instrument ancestor of the iranian oud. it was an important instrument in pre-islamic iran and persia. the current "Persian barbat" is more similar to the oud
• baritone guitar
• baryton — The baryton is a bowed string instrument which shares some characteristics with instruments of the viol family, distinguished by an extra set of plucked strings. It was in regular use in Europe up until the end of the 18th century.
• bass guitar — Bass (modern, typically electrical, but not always)
• berda (begeš, large bass serbo-croatian plucked stringinstrument) — Bass member of the Serbo-Croatian tamburica orchestra, it is contrabass like. it has four thick metal strings
• berimbau
• bisernica (prim, small serbo-croatian plucked stringinstrument) — smallest member of the Serbo-Croatian tamburica orchestra, it is usually the lead or "prim" instrument. it can either have one double string and three single strings (prim/bisernica) or two double strings and two single strings (bisernica)
• biwa — The biwa is a short-necked Japanese fretted lute which is played with a large triangular-shaped plectrum.
• Blaster Beam (long metal bar with strings) — Very long metal bar fitted with strings and electric pickups, it makes a deep ominous booming sound and is often used in score.
• bolon — The bolon is a traditional harp-lute played in several African countries.
• bouzar / gouzouki (hybrid of bouzouki and guitar) — guitar-bouzouki hybrid with guitar body and 4 pairs of strings like the bouzouki, developed separately several different luthiers, among them Stefan Sobell (bouzar) and Davy Stuart (gouzouki)
• bouzouki
• bowed piano — A piano whose strings are bowed, using nylon filament or other materials
• bowed psaltery
• bowed string instruments
• brač (basprim, serbo-croatian plucked stringinstrument) — second smallest member of the Serbo-Croatian tamburica orchestra, there are often two, first and second bass. it can either have three double strings or two double strings and three single strings
• bugarija (kontra, serbo-croatian plucked stringinstrument) — chord rhythm member of the Serbo-Croatian tamburica orchestra, it is guitar like. it has one double string D and three single strings
• bulbul tarang — The bulbul tarang is a string instrument from India and Pakistan.
• buzuq — The buzuq is a long-necked fretted lute related to the Greek bouzouki and Turkish saz which is associated with the music of Lebanon and Syria.
• cavaquinho — The cavaquinho is a small plucked string instrument of Portuguese origin with four wire or gut strings
• cello
• čelo (čelović or csello, counter serbo-croatian plucked stringinstrument) — counterpoint member of the Serbo-Coatian tamburica orchestra, it is guitar like like the bugarija. it can either have two double strings and two single strings (čelović) or now four single strings are more common. (čelo/čelović/) the čelović is a different pitch than the čelo
• chakhe — The chakhe is a three stringed crocodile shaped plucked zither from Thailand.
• chanzy — The chanzy is a three-stringed Tuvan lute.
• Chapman stick
• charango — The charango is a small South American lute.
• chikuzen biwa — The chikuzen biwa is a biwa with either four strings and frets or five strings and frets popularised during the Meiji period.
• chitra veena — The chitra veena is a 20 or 21-string fretless lute in Carnatic music.
• citole — The citole is an archaic musical instrument, similar and a distant ancestor of the modern guitar.
• cittern
• cizhonghu — The dahu, also known as cizhonghu or xiaodihu, is a large Chinese bowed string instrument in the huqin family.
• classical guitar
• classical kemençe — Turkish bowl-shaped kemenche, mainly used in classical Ottoman music
• clavichord
• Clavinet
• cò ke — The cò ke is an instrument used by the Mường ethnic minority in Vietnam. It is similar to the đàn nhị, consisting of a cylindrical wooden soundbox covered in snakeskin and two strings which are played with a horsehair bow.
• concert harp
• craviola (guitar/Viola caipira like plucked string instrument) — An instrument designed by brazilian composer Paulinho Nogueira, it is distinctly asymmetric in contrast to typical guitar.The timbre is like a combination of the harpsichord (pt:cravo) and the Viola caipira. Craviolas can be six-string or twelve-string (either nylon or steel) and are produced solely by company Giannini.
• Cretan lyra — The Cretan lyra is a Greek pear-shaped, three-stringed bowed musical instrument, central to the traditional music of Crete and parts of Greece.
• crwth
• cuatro — A class of South-American guitars
• cümbüş (Turkish oud like) — created by Zeynel Abidin who name himself after the instrument, it's a banjolin like modern Turkish instrument
• cymbalum
• đàn bầu — The đàn bầu is a one-stringed Vietnamese zither.
• đàn nguyệt — The đàn nguyệt or đàn kìm is a two-stringed Vietnamese lute with a long neck and a circular, flat body.
• đàn nhị — The đàn nhị is a Vietnamese stringed instrument with a small, cylindrical body, covered at one end with snakeskin. The bow passes between the two strings and the instrument has no frets. This instrument is of Chinese descent but has relatives all over Asia.
• đàn tam — The đàn tam is a three-stringed fretless lute from Vietnam.
• đàn tam thập lục — The đàn tam thập lục is a relatively recent imported addition to Vietnamese instruments. A dulcimer with thirty-six strings, struck with two small rubber-clad dubs. It has many counterparts in various countries, such as the "santoor" in India and also the "cimbalon" in Hungary.
• đàn tranh — The đàn tranh is a a long Vietnamese zither with sixteen strings and high, movable bridges. The strings are plucked with plectrums, while the left hand is used for ornamenting the notes by pressing the strings.
• đàn tứ — The đàn tứ or đàn đoản is a traditional Vietnamese moon-shaped lute with a short neck.
• đàn tứ dây — A latter-day construction in the form of a four-stringed, square-bodied bass guitar
• đàn tỳ bà — The đàn tỳ bà is a four-stringed Vietnamese lute with a pear-shaped body. Like the Chinese pipa from which is derived, it has greatly elevated frets at the neck.
• daruan — The daruan is a Chinese plucked lute.
• diddley bow — The diddley bow is a single-stringed American instrument which is typically homemade. It consists of a single string of baling wire tensioned between two nails on a board over a glass bottle, which is used both as a bridge and as a means to magnify the instrument's sound.
• dilruba — The dilruba is a bowed string instrument from Northern India, mostly used in religious music and light classical songs
• diyingehu — The diyingehu is a Chinese bowed string instrument, with four strings and tuned like the double bass.
• djoza (ancient Iraqi bowed string instrument) — its origins can be sourced almost 5000 years ago, this Iraqi string instrument is the forefather of several instruments around the world. Its name means coconut or acorn, while originally made of walnut, it is today of coconut and fish-skin or heart-membrane.
• dobro — Dobro, resonator guitar
• dolceola — A dolceola is a musical instrument resembling a miniature piano, but which is in fact a zither with a keyboard.
• dombra — The dombra is a long-necked lute from central Asia.
• domra — The domra is a long-necked Russian string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.
• donso ngɔni — Six-stringed lute-harp from Wassoulou, West Africa. Traditionally played by hunters, its resonator box is made of calabash covered by animal skin.
• doshpuluur — The doshpuluur is a long-necked Tuvan lute.
• double bass — The double bass, also known as contrabass or upright bass as well as many other names, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument of the violin family in the modern symphony orchestra.
• dramyin — The dramyin is a traditional Himalayan long-necked lute with seven strings.
• dulce melos — A European mediaeval struck string instrument, similar to the psaltery and a possible ancestor of the piano. Essentially it is a dulcimer with keys.
• dutar — The dutar is a long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran and Central Asia.
• duxianqin — The duxianqin is a one-string zither which is likely derived from the Vietnamese đàn bầu.
• ektara — The ektara is a one-string instrument used in traditional music from Bangladesh, India, Egypt, and Pakistan.
• electric bass guitar
• electric cello
• electric fretless guitar — Electric guitar without frets.
• electric grand piano
• electric guitar
• electric harp
• electric lap steel guitar
• electric sitar
• electric upright bass
• electric viola
• electric violin
• erhu — The erhu is a bowed Chinese instrument with two strings.
• esraj — The esraj is a bowed string instrument from Eastern and Central India, mostly used as an accompanying instrument
• fiddle
• five-string banjo — A five-string banjo is a banjo with five strings.
• folk harp
• fortepiano
• four-string banjo — A four-string banjo is a banjo with four strings.
• fretless bass — variety of bass guitars without frets
• gadulka
• gaohu — The gaohu is a Chinese bowed string instrument developed from the erhu and tuned a fourth higher.
• gayageum — The gayageum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument which normally has 12 strings.
• gehu — The gehu is a Chinese bowed string instrument, with four strings and tuned like the cello.
• geomungo — The geomungo is a traditional Korean zither, based on the Chinese guqin, which typically has 6 strings.
• German harp — German/Bohemian harp
• ģīga — The ģīga is a two-stringed bowed zither found in Latvia.
• gittern (medieval lute-like guitar forerunner) — a medieval round-backed string instrument ancestral to the guitar
• grand piano
• Greek baglama
• gudok
• guitalele — The guitalele is a guitar-ukulele hybrid, combining the small size of a guitalele with the six strings of a classical guitar.
• guitar
• guitarrón chileno — The guitarrón chileno is a Chilean guitar-like plucked string instrument which typically has 25 strings.
• guitarrón mexicano — The guitarrón mexicano is a very large and deep-bodied Mexican guitar-like instrument with six strings which is traditionally played in mariachi groups.
• guitars (DO NOT USE)
• gumbri — The gumbri or sintir is a three-stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute from North Africa.
• guqin — The guqin is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family.
• gusli — Gusli, an ancient Slavic musical instrument, Russian
• gut guitar — A classical guitar strung with gut strings.
• guzheng — The guzheng or zheng is a Chinese plucked zither, with 18 to 23 or more strings and movable bridges.
• haegeum — The haegeum is a traditional Korean string instrument.
• hammered dulcimer
• hardingfele
• harp — The harp is a plucked string instrument consisting of multiple strings stretched across a vertical frame.
• harp guitar — The harp guitar is a guitar-based string instrument with any number of additional unstopped strings which can accommodate individual plucking.
• harpsichord
• Hawaiian guitar
• heike biwa — The heike biwa is a biwa with four strings and five frets used to play Heike Monogatari.
• huqin — Huqin is a Chinese family of bowed string instruments.
• hurdy gurdy
• igil — The igil is a Tuvan bowed string instrument with two strings.
• Irish bouzouki
• Irish harp / clàrsach — An Irish/Scottish harp.
• jeli ngɔni (West African four-stringed grigot lute) — Four-stringed banjo-like lute from West Africa, traditionally played by griots. Made of hollowed out wood with an animal hide as membrane.
• jing'erhu — The jing'erhu is a Chinese bowed string instrument, similar to the erhu, so named because is played in Beijing opera.
• jinghu — The jinghu is a Chinese bowed string instrument with two strings used primarily in Beijing opera.
• jouhikko — The jouhikko is a traditional, 2 or 3 stringed bowed lyre, from Finland and Karelia.
• kamalen ngɔni (modern ngoni made of calabash with more strings) — modern derivative of the donso ngɔni, it comes with more strings and is made of calabash, it became an important instrument in the rise of the Wassoulou music in the 80's and 90's
• kamancheh — The kamānche is a Persian bowed string instrument.
• kanklės — Kanklės, Lithuanian plucked string
• kantele — Kantele, Finnish traditional plucked string
• kanun — Kanun, Arabic plucked strings
• kemençe of the Black Sea — Turkish box-shaped kemenche, mainly used for folk music.
• kemenche — Various types of stringed bowed musical instruments having their origin in the Eastern Mediterranean
• khim — The khim is a hammered dulcimer from Thailand and Cambodia.
• kinnor
• kithara
• kokyu — The kokyu is a Japanese bowed string instrument.
• komuz — The komuz is a fretless string instrument used in Central Asian music, seen as the Kyrgyz national instrument.
• kora
• koto — The koto is a traditional Japanese string instrument with 13 strings that are strung over 13 movable bridges along the width of the instrument.
• krar — The krar is a five or six-stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Eritrea and Ethiopia.
• langeleik
• laouto — The laouto is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family.
• lap steel guitar
• laúd (spanish plucked chordophone) — a spanish plucked cittern, it is also played in the spanish diaspora.
• lautenwerck
• lavta — The lavta is a plucked string instrument from Greece and Turkey.
• lirone — The lirone (or lira da gamba) is the bass member of the lira family, a bowed string instrument with between 9 and 16 strings and a fretted neck.
• liuqin — The liuqin is a Chinese string instrument which has four strings and a pear-shaped body and resembles the pipa.
• lute
• luthéal — The luthéal is a kind of hybrid piano which extends the register possibilities of a standard piano, created by Georges Cloetens
• lyre
• mandocello — The mandocello is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family, the equivalent to the cello in the violin family
• mandoguitar (mandolin / electric guitar hybrid) — unison course tuned 12 stringed electric guitar body with mandolin neck, it is tuned an octave higher than a conventional guitar, thus having the tonal range of the mandolin.
• mandola
• mandolin
• mandolute — A mandolute is a North African fretted string instrument which combines a traditional oud string format with five pairs of metal strings
• marxophone — A type of fretless zither.
• Mexican vihuela — Mexican vihuela, used by mariachi bands
• minipiano — The minipiano is a type of piano in which the sound producing mechanism is positioned below the keyboard, allowing an economical use of space.
• morin khuur / matouqin — The morin khuur or matouqin is a Mongolian bowed string instrument which has two strings. The scroll is normally carved in the shape of a horse's head.
• musical bow
• ngɔni — Plucked string instrument made of wood or gourd from West Africa.
• nyatiti — The nyatiti is a five to eight-stringed plucked string instrument from Kenya.
• nyckelharpa — The nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish string instrument.
• nylon guitar — A classical guitar strung with nylon strings.
• octave mandolin — The octave mandolin is a fretted string instrument with four pairs of strings tuned in fifths, G, D, A, E (low to high), an octave below a mandolin.
• oktawka — Small Polish traditional fiddle.
• orpharion — A plucked instrument from the Renaissance.
• orphica (late 18th century portable piano with shoulder strap) — portable piano with shoulder strap invented in 1795, it is a descendant of the Baroque Bauchladenspinett and a sort of early precursor of the keytar
• oud
• Paraguayan harp — The Paraguayan harp is a 32-48-string diatonic harp used in Paraguay and Venezuela.
• pedal piano — The pedal piano is a kind of piano that includes a pedalboard, enabling bass register notes to be played with the feet, as is standard on the organ.
• pedal steel guitar
• piano
• piano spinet (small drop action piano) — small piano with drop action stickers manufactured from around 1930 to the early 1990s.
• pipa — The pipa is a four-stringed plucked Chinese instrument with a pear-shaped body.
• plucked string instruments
• Portuguese guitar — The Portuguese guitar is a plucked string instrument associated with fado. It has twelve steel strings, strung in six courses.
• prepared piano — A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers.
• psaltery
• ravanahatha — The ravanahatha is an ancient bowed violin, once popular in Western India and Sri Lanka.
• rebab
• rebec
• resonator guitar
• Rhodes piano
• ruan — Ruan is a family of Chinese plucked lutes.
• rudra veena — The rudra veena is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani classical music.
• samica (solo serbo-croatian plucked lute) — also known as dangubica or kuterevka, it is similar to the bisernica and the ancestor of the entire tamburica ensemble. this plucked long-necked lute has two double strings and is played solo.
• sanshin — The sanshin is an Okinawan string instrument which consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings. It is traditionally played with a plectrum made of horn worn on the index finger.
• santoor — Santoor, Indian dulcimer
• santur — Santur, Middle Eastern
• sanxian — The sanxian is a Chinese lute with three strings.
• sarangi — The sarangi is a short-necked, bowed string instrument from India, Nepal and Pakistan.
• Saraswati veena — The Saraswati veena is an Indian plucked stringed instrument used in Carnatic music.
• šargija — The šargija is a long necked plucked lute used in the folk music of the Balkans.
• sarod
• satsuma biwa — The satsuma biwa is a biwa with four strings and frets popularised during the Edo period.
• saw duang — The saw duang is a two-stringed instrument used in traditional Thai music which has a cylindrical soundbox made of wood and a snakeskin resonator.
• saw sam sai — The saw sam sai is a three-stringed bowed instrument from Thailand.
• saw u — The saw u is a Thai bowed string instrument which has a soundbox made from a coconut shell with a cowskin resonator.
• saz — The saz is a long-necked fretted lute
• setar — The setar is a long-necked three-stringed lute found in Iran and Central Asia.
• shamisen — The shamisen, samisen or sangen is a three-stringed instrument from Japan which is played with a large triangular-shaped plectrum called a bachi. The body traditionally uses cat or dog skin, unlike the Chinese sanxian and Okinawan sanshin.
• shichepshin — The shichepshin is a traditional bowed string instrument of the Circassian peoples.
• shudraga — The shudraga is a Mongolian fretless lute with three strings.
• sitar — The sitar is a plucked stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani music and Indian classical music which is descended from a similar but simpler Persian instrument called the setar.
• slide guitar
• soprano violin
• Spanish acoustic guitar
• spinet (A smaller harpsichord, strings at an angle) — A smaller harpsichord, often with the strings at 30 degrees from the keyboard.
• spinettone (extralong spinet with deep bass register) — an exceptionally long spinet, with multiple strings choirs, its bass-tones where produced by long strings, not thicker strings.
• steel guitar
• steel-string guitar — The steel-string guitar is a modern form of acoustic guitar that is strung with steel strings.
• strings
• Stroh violin — The Stroh violin is a violin with a metal resonator and horn rather than a wooden body.
• struck string instruments
• suka — The suka is a once-extinct fiddle from Poland.
• sursingar (large lute-sarod from India) — used in the Hindustani style Dhrupad music, it has steel and bronze strings and is played with a metal pick.
• swarmandal — The swarmandal is an Indian zither.
• table steel guitar
• tack piano — The tack piano is a permanently altered version of an ordinary piano, which has tacks or nails placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the hammers hit the strings, giving the instrument a tinny, more percussive sound.
• taishogoto — The taishōgoto is a Japanese string instrument with 2-12 strings and keys which are used to fret the strings.
• talharpa — The talharpa is a four-stringed bowed lyre from northern Europe, mostly played in Estonia.
• tambura (Macedonian/Bulgarian long-necked lute) — do not confuse with: Serb-Croat "tamburica" ensemble. Persian/Turkish ancient things evolved/came from "tanbur". unrelated Indian drone "tanpura" related Indian "pandour"
• tanbur (Persian/Turkish ancient long-necked lute) — the ancient ancestor of many related lute like instruments.
• tangent piano
• tanpura (Indian drone long-necked lute) — Usually accompanying sitar on ragas, the fretless instrument comes in different sizes: largest; male-voice, smaller; female-voice and smallest; the instrument-accompanying "tanpuri"
• tar (lute) — The tar is a long-necked, waisted lute found in Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and other areas near the Caucasus region. Not to be confused with the drum of the same name.
• tenor banjo — A tenor banjo is a four-string banjo with tenor tuning, usually C G D A.
• tenor guitar — Slightly smaller, four-string version of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar
• tenor violin — A tenor violin is an instrument with a range between those of the cello and the viola.
• theorbo
• tiple
• tololoche — The tololoche is a traditional musical instrument from northern Mexico, similar but smaller than the European double bass.
• tonkori — The tonkori is a plucked string instrument played by the Ainu of northern Japan and Sakhalin.
• topshuur — The topshuur is a two-stringed lute from Mongolia and Tuva.
• toy piano
• treble violin
• tres
• tromba marina — A tromba marina is a triangular bowed string instrument used in medieval and Renaissance Europe that consists of a body and neck in the shape of a truncated cone resting on a triangular base.
• tumbi — The tumbi is a high pitched, single string plucking instrument associated with folk music of Punjab.
• Turkish baglama
• tzoura
• ukeke — The ukeke is a Hawaiian musical bow made of koa wood, 16 to 24 inches long and about 1½ inches wide with two or three strings fastened through and around either end, tuned to an A major triad.
• ukulele — The ukulele is a small guitar-like instrument commonly associated with Hawaiian music. It generally has four nylon or gut strings.
• upright piano
• ütőgardon — The ütőgardon is a folk musical instrument played primarily in Transylvania. It is similar in appearance to a cello, but played percussively like a drum. Instead of being played with a bow, its strings are plucked and beaten with a stick.
• valiha — The valiha is a bamboo tube zither from Madagascar
• vichitra veena — The vichitra veena is a plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music.
• vielle
• Vietnamese guitar — The Vietnamese guitar is similar to a normal guitar, but with scalloped fingerboard resulting in elevated frets similar to the đàn nguyệt.
• vihuela (Spanish string instrument.)
• viola
• viola caipira — The viola caipira (or simply viola) is a steel-string guitar from Brazil which has ten strings in five courses.
• viola d'amore
• viola da gamba
• viola organista
• violin
• violino piccolo — The violino piccolo is a stringed instrument of the baroque period. Most examples are similar to a child's size violin in size and are tuned a third or a fourth higher.
• violins (violin family)
• viololyra (cretan lyra / violin hybrid) — Inspired by the violin in 1920, Hellenic luthiers combined parts of the old Cretan lyra with the violin.
• violoncello piccolo (for violoncello use "cello") — The violoncello piccolo is a Baroque string instrument which is between the viola and cello in size and typically has five strings.
• violone — Violone, The largest/deepest member of the Viol family
• violotta
• virginal — The virginals is a smaller and simpler rectangular form of the harpsichord with only one string per note
• Warr guitar
• washtub bass
• wire-strung harp
• xalam
• yangqin — The yangqin is a Chinese hammered dulcimer.
• yatga — The yatga is a traditional Mongolian plucked zither, similar to the Chinese guzheng.
• yaylı tanbur (Turkish bowed lute) — The yaylı tanbur is a bowed lute from Turkey derived from the older plucked tanbur.
• yehu — The yehu is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the huqin family, made from a coconut shell.
• yueqin — The yueqin is a Chinese "moon-shaped" plucked lute.
• zhonghu — The zhonghu is a Chinese bowed string instrument developed from the erhu and tuned a fourth or a fifth lower.
• zhongruan — The zhongruan is a Chinese plucked lute, the tenor-ranged size in the ruan family.
• zither

Percussion instrument

• afoxé — The afoxé is a Brazilian instrument typically consisting of a gourd wrapped in a beaded net.
• afuche / cabasa
• agogô — The agogô is a single or multiple bell used in samba music with origins in traditional Yoruba music.
• akete — The akete are drums commonly used in Nyabinghi music.
• alfaia — The alfaia is a Brazilian cylindrical drum.
• amadinda — Amadinda, southern Uganda giant xylophone, made on with resonating hardwood bars
• aman khuur (mongolian jew's harp) — there are two types: temür/tömör khuur (steel) and khulsan khuur (bamboo)
• ankle rattlers
• anvil — The anvil is a tool normally used by blacksmiths which is sometimes used as a percussion instrument.
• ashiko (cone shaped west african frame-drum) — conical goatskin frame-drum originating with the Yoruba people of West Africa, it is also found in Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin American cultures.
• atabaque — The atabaque is a tall Brazilian hand drum.
• atarigane — The atarigane is a Japanese gong which is struck using a deer horn mallet.
• balafon — Balafon, Malian 'gourd xylophone'
• bamboo angklung
• bangu — The bangu or danpigu is a Chinese frame drum, struck by two bamboo sticks. It is usually played along with the clappers ban (Chinese: 板, bǎn) and both instruments are known collectively as guban (Chinese: 鼓板, gǔbǎn).
• barrel drum
• bass drum
• Batá drum — A Batá drum is a double-headed drum originating from Nigeria.
• bell tree — A bell tree is a percussion instrument, consisting of vertically nested inverted metal bowls.
• bells
• bendir — Bendir, frame drum from North Africa, doesn't have jingles
• bicycle bell — A bicycle bell is a percussive signaling instrument mounted on a bicycle for warning pedestrians and other cyclists.
• bin-sasara — The binzasara is a Japanese percussion instrument made of many small slats of wood connected by a spine of string with handles at each end.
• bodhrán
• body percussion — Percussion performed by parts of the body.
• bones
• bongos
• brushes
• buk — The buk is a Korean drum. While buk is a generic term for drum, it normally refers to a shallow barrel-shaped drum with a wooden body.
• cajón — Cajón, Peruvian box drum
• calabash — An African percussion instrument, made of a dried gourd plant. Struck with hands or objects.
• carillon
• castanets
• caxixi — The caxixi is a shaker originating in Brazil which is made of a small wicker basket containing seeds or other small particles.
• celesta
• çevgen — A pole with bells and/or zills used in the traditional Ottoman military bands
• chacha — Chacha, west Indian rattle
• chande — The chande is a drum used in the traditional and classical music of South India.
• chap — Chap are a pair of cymbals used in Thai and Cambodian music. They are larger, flatter and thinner than the cymbals known as ching.
• chau gong — The chau gong is a large gong made of brass or bronze which is almost flat except for the rim.
• chime bar — A chime bar is a percussion instrument consisting of a tuned metal bar similar to a glockenspiel bar which is mounted on a wooden resonator and played with a mallet.
• ching — Ching are a pair of small hand cymbals used in Thai and Cambodian music.
• claves
• congas
• cowbell
• cristal Baschet
• crotales
• cuíca — The cuíca is a Brazilian friction drum often used in samba music.
• cylindrical drum — A cylindrical drum is a straight-sided and generally two-headed drum.
• cymbals
• daf — The daf is a large Persian frame drum used in popular and classical music. The frame is usually made of hardwood with many metal ringlets attached and the membrane is usually goatskin.
• daire — A larger version of tef, used to indicate the rhythmic structures (usul) in makam music.
• daluo — The daluo is a Chinese large flat gong whose pitch drops when struck with a padded mallet.
• darbuka — The darbuka is an hourglass-shaped goblet drum from Greece, the Middle East and India.
• davul — Davul, turkish drum
• dhol — Double headed drum from India.
• dholak — dholak, classical North Indian hand drum
• djembe
• dohol — The dohol is a large cylindrical drum used in Iran and Afghanistan.
• doyra
• drums (generic drums, for the set of drums typically used in modern music, use "drumset") — variously sized drums
• drumset
• duggi (indian clay kettle drum) — made of clay with two layers of goat skin, it is used as a rhythmic accompaniment to shehnai players and is one of the instruments of the Baul community.
• dulcitone (idiophone keyboard instrument with tuning forks) — keyboard instrument where keyed hammers hit tuning forks - making this tuned percussion
• dunun — Dunun is a family of West African cylindrical drums.
• electronic drum set
• finger cymbals
• finger snaps
• foot percussion — Percussion performed with the feet, such as foot tapping and clogging.
• frame drum
• friction drum
• friction idiophone — Friction idiophones are idiophones where the sound is created by the instrument being rubbed.
• frottoir
• gankogui — Gankogui, iron bell
• ganzá — The ganzá is a cylinder-shaped Brazilian rattle used in samba music.
• garifuna drum — The garifuna drum is a membranophone from the Garifuna culture in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.
• ghatam — Ghatam, a South Indian Carnatic music percussion instrument
• glass harp — A glass harp is a musical instrument made of upright wine glasses.
• glockenspiel
• goblet drum — Goblet drums are single-headed drums with a goblet shaped body.
• gong
• gong bass drum — A gong bass drum is a large single drumhead which resembles a gong.
• gongs
• gramorimba — The gramorimba is a lithophone, similar to a xylophone whose bars are made of stone.
• güiro
• handbells
• handclaps
• hang — Percussion instrument made from two steel sheets that are attached together creating a recognizable 'UFO shape'.
• hi-hat — A hi-hat is a typical part of a drum kit, consisting of a pair of cymbals mounted on a stand.
• hourglass drum
• hue puruwai (Māori traditional shaking gourd) — Gourd (hue) shakers with seeds intact
• idiophone — An idiophone is a musical instrument which creates sound by the instrument as a whole vibrating without the use of strings or membranes.
• janggu — The janggu or janggo is a double-headed hourglass shaped drum which is the most widely used drum used in the traditional music of Korea.
• jew's harp
• jing — The jing is a large gong used in traditional Korean music.
• kanjira — The kanjira is a South Indian frame drum.
• kartal — The kartal is an Indian percussion instrument with jingles, played with the hands, mainly used in Kirtans, Bhajans and in Rajastani folk music.
• kettle drum
• khong wong — The khong wong is a gong circle consisting of a number of gongs in a horizontal circular rattan frame. The player sits in the middle.
• khong wong lek — The khong wong lek is a gong circle used in Thai classical music. It has 18 tuned bossed gongs and is smaller and higher in pitch than the khong wong yai.
• khong wong yai — The khong wong yai is a gong circle used in the music of Thailand. It has 16 tuned bossed gongs and is larger and lower in pitch than the khong wong lek.
• khulsan khuur (bamboo mongolian jew's harp) — used for folksongs, particularly by young girls.
• kkwaenggwari — The kkwaenggwari is a small flat brass gong, typically about 20cm in diameter, which is used primarily in the folk music of Korea.
• klong khaek — The klong khaek is a double-headed barrel drum from Thailand. The heads are different sizes.
• klong song na — The klong song na is a barrel drum from Thailand. It is played with the hands and is used in the piphat ensemble.
• klong that — Klong that are large barrel drums from Thailand. They are played in a pair using wooden sticks and are used in the piphat ensemble.
• klong yao — The klong yao is a goblet drum from Thailand which is usually decorated with a colourful skirt.
• kös — A Turkish drum used in the traditional Ottoman military bands
• kotsuzumi — The kotsuzumi or simply tsuzumi is an hourglass-shaped Japanese drum with cords that can be squeezed or released to increase or decrease the tension of the heads.
• krakebs — Krakebs are large metal castanet-like instruments which are the primary rhythmic component of Gnawa music.
• kudüm — Turkish pair of small, hemispherical drums
• lamellophone — Lamellophones are a family of musical instruments which have one or more long thin plates - "lamella" or "tongues" - which are fixed at one end and free at the other end. The free end is plucked, causing the plate to vibrate.
• lithophone — A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes.
• madal — Madal, hand drum originating from Nepal
• maddale — Maddale is a double-headed drum from Karnataka, India. It is the primary rhythmic accompaniment in Yakshagana.
• maracas
• marimba
• marímbula — The marímbula is a plucked box musical instrument from the Caribbean.
• mark tree — A mark tree consists of many small chimes arranged in order of length which hang from a bar. The chimes are played by sweeping a finger or stick through the length of the hanging chimes.
• mbira — The mbira or kalimba (also known by many other names) is an African thumb piano.
• mendoza
• metal angklung
• metallophone
• morsing (indian jew's harp) — An Indian version of the jew's harp, played as a percussion instrument in Carnatic music and Rajastani folk music.
• mridangam — The mridangam is a double-sided drum from India.
• mukkuri (Ainu jew's harp) — The mukkuri is an Ainu jew's harp.
• nagadou-daiko — The nagadou-daiko is an elongated barrel-shaped Japanese drum.
• não bạt / chập chõa — Various types of cymbal. Also called chũm chọe
• naobo — The naobo are Chinese cymbals, specially used in Beijing opera.
• ocean drum
• ōtsuzumi — The ōtsuzumi is an hourglass-shaped Japanese drum, larger than the kotsuzumi.
• pahū pounamu (Māori traditional gong made of jade and bone) — A gong made of jade and pilot-whale bone with a striker made of a hardwood, akeake.
• pakhavaj — The pakhavaj is an Indian barrel-shaped, two-headed drum used in Hindustani music.
• pātē — The pātē is a Polynesian slit drum made from a hollowed-out log.
• percussion
• phách — Phách are small wooden sticks beaten on a small piece of bamboo or a wooden block. The sound produced is used to keep time.
• pkhachich — The pkhachich is a traditional shaken percussion instrument of the Circassian peoples.
• primero — The primero is a tenor garifuna drum.
• qilaut — The qilaut is an Inuit frame drum which has a handle and is made of caribou skin.
• quijada — The quijada is a traditional Latin percussion instrument made from the jawbone a mule, horse, or donkey that is cleaned of tissue and dried so the teeth can loosen and act as a rattle.
• quinto
• rainstick
• rammana — The rammana is a frame drum used in classical Thai and Cambodian music which forms one part of thon and rammana.
• ranat ek — The ranat ek is a Thai xylophone which consists of 21 wooden bars suspended by cords over a boat-shaped trough resonator and struck by two mallets.
• ranat kaeo — The ranat kaeo is a Thai instrument similar to a xylophone consisting of glass bars of varying lengths.
• ranat thum — The ranat thum is a xylophone from Thailand consisting of 18 wooden bars suspended by cords over a boat-shaped trough resonator. It is similar to the ranat ek but lower in pitch.
• ratchet
• rattle
• reco-reco — The reco-reco is a scraped percussion instrument from Brazil.
• repinique — The repinique is a cylindrical drum from Brazil.
• rhythm sticks
• riq — The riq is a type of tambourine used as a traditional instrument in Arabic music.
• rōria (Māori traditional jew's harp) — thin quiet jew's harp-like instrument made of wood or bone.
• rototom — The rototom is a drum which has no shell and is tuned by rotating.
• sabar — The sabar is a drum from Senegal which is normally played with one hand and one stick. The body is an elongated cylinder with tapered ends. The head is made of goatskin and is attached to the body using pegs.
• sapek clappers
• saron — The saron is an Indonesian musical instrument which is used in the gamelan. It normally has seven bronze bars placed on top of a resonating frame.
• segunda — The segunda is a bass garifuna drum.
• sênh tiền — The sênh tiền is a Vietnamese instrument which is a combination of clappers, a rasp and a jingle, made from three pieces of wood with old Chinese coins attached.
• shakers
• shekere — The shekere is a shaker from West Africa consisting of a gourd with beads woven into a net which covers the gourd.
• shime-daiko — The shime-daiko is a small Japanese drum with a short but wide body which has a higher pitch than a normal taiko.
• singing bowl
• sistrum — The sistrum is a metal rattle associated with ancient Iraq and Egypt.
• slit drum — A slit drum is a hollow percussion instrument made of wood or bamboo with a slit at the top.
• snare drum
• song loan — The song loan is a traditional Vietnamese instrument consisting of a hollow wooden body (about 7 cm in diameter) attached to a flexible spring with a wooden ball on the other end and played with the foot.
• spoons
• steelpan
• struck idiophone — Struck idiophones are idiophones where the sound is created by the instrument being struck. These are the most common type of idiophone.
• surdo — The surdo is a large bass drum used in Brazilian music, most notably samba.
• t'rưng — The t'rưng is a bamboo xylophone from the central highlands of Vietnam which is played by ethnic groups such as the Bahnar and the Ê Đê.
• tabla — The tabla is a pair of hand drums used in Hindustani classical music and in the traditional music of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
• tabor (one-handed sidedrum) — Side drum, often with one or more snares, worn by one person and beaten by one hand, it is often combined with tabor pipes.
• taiko — Japanese traditional drum beaten with sticks called bachi.
• talking drum
• tamborim — The tamborim is a small frame drum from Brazil.
• tambourine
• tanbou ka — Tanbou ka or Tambu ka (a small high-pitched drum)
• tap dancing — Tap dancing is a type of dance in which the dancer wears special shoes that make a clicking sound as the dancer's feet strike the floor.
• taphon — The taphon is a traditional barrel drum from Thailand.
• tar (drum) — A tar is a single-headed frame drum from North Africa and the Middle East.
• tef — A Turkish version of tambourine / daf, made from animal skin and played with the fingers.
• temple blocks
• temür khuur (steel mongolian jew's harp) — used in folkmedisine and shamanistic rituals
• thavil — The thavil is a barrel shaped drum from South India.
• thon — The thon is a goblet drum with a ceramic or wooden body used in classical Thai and Cambodian music which forms one part of thon and rammana.
• ti bwa — ti bwa, percussion instrument made of a piece of bamboo laid horizontally and beaten with sticks
• Tibetan water drum
• timbales
• timpani — Timpani (Kettle drum)
• tinya — The tinya is a small drum used in the traditional music of the Andes.
• tom-tom — A tom-tom (or just tom) is a cylindrical drum with no snare, commonly found in a standard drum set.
• triangle
• trống bông — The trống bông is a wooden Vietnamese drum with a single drumhead which is played with both hands.
• tubular bells
• tuned percussion
• txalaparta
• typewriter — A typewriter, used for percussion (either keys or bells)
• udu — The udu is a Nigerian idiophone consisting of a water jug with an additional hole.
• vibraphone
• vibraslap
• washboard
• waterphone
• whip
• wind chime — Wind chimes are chimes constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells or other objects, designed to be hung outside and played by the wind.
• wood block
• wooden fish — A wooden fish is an idiophone often used during Buddhist rituals in East Asia.
• Wurlitzer electric piano — The Wurlitzer electric piano is an electric piano where flat steel reeds are struck by felt hammers.
• xiaoluo — The xiaoluo is a Chinese small flat gong whose pitch rises when struck with the side of a flat wooden stick.
• xylophone
• xylorimba — The xylorimba is an extended-range xylophone.
• yonggo — The yonggo is a barrel drum with a dragon painted on its shell which is used in daechwita, a genre of traditional Korean music.
• zabumba — The zabumba is a bass drum from Brazil.
• żafżafa — The żafżafa or rabbaba is a Maltese friction drum consisting of a container (made of tin, pottery or wood) covered with animal skin with a long Arundo donax reed attached.
• zarb — The zarb is a goblet drum from Persia.
• zill — Zills are tiny metallic finger cymbals used in belly dancing and other similar performances.

Electronic instrument

• analog synthesizer (uses analogue circuits to produce sound) — using analogue circuits and techniques to produce sound electronically, the first types where created in the 1920's with thermionic valves and other electromechanical machineries.
• bass pedals
• bass synthesizer — A bass synthesizer is used to create sounds in the bass range.
• chamberlin (An electromechanical piano)
• clavioline (electronic keyboard, forerunner to analogue syntheziers) — an early analogue synthezier, it had a vacuum tube oscillator and high/low pass filtering to produce vibrato
• continuum
• Denis d'or
• disk drive — as using drives for producing music, harddrives, floppy, cd or other.
• drum machine
• Dubreq Stylophone
• ebow
• electronic instruments
• electronic organ
• elektronium (electronic keyboard accordion) — in the form of a piano accordion, the keys control the output, pitch and sound, bellows control only volume. Sold by Hohner since 1952, it has gone through many modernisations through the years.
• EWI — EWI (an acronym for electric wind instrument) is the name of Akai's wind controller.
• farfisa
• floppy disk drive — Floppy Drives configured to produce tones while reading, software is used.
• guitar synthesizer — A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of systems that allow a guitar player to play synthesizer sound.
• Guitaret (electric lamellophone) — small white electric thumb piano with metal tines and an electromagnetic pickup.
• guitorgan (el guitar / el organ hybrid) — Invented in 1966 by vox, and in 1969 by Bob Murrell, it is an electric guitar with electronic organ wiring and knobs added.
• Hammond organ
• hard disk drive — Harddisk configured to produce tones in pattern.
• keyboard (electronic or digital keyboard)
• keyboard bass
• keytar — An electric keyboard slung over the shoulder by a strap like a guitar, it has soundcontrols placed on the neck
• laser harp — A laser harp is an electronic musical instrument consisting of several laser beams to be blocked, in analogy with the plucking of the strings of a harp, in order to produce sounds.
• Lyricon — The Lyricon is an electronic wind instrument.
• marimba lumina — A marimba lumina is a MIDI controller that lets a musician play music via a control surface based on the layout of a marimba.
• mellotron (An electromechanical piano)
• Minimoog
• Moog
• omnichord
• ondes Martenot
• ondioline (early analogue synth with various sounds and "vibrato" keyboard) — one of the first analogue synths, it had a filter bank with 15 sliders for different sounds, and a "vibrato" inducing keyboard based on the ondes Martenot's.
• Pianet (an electromechanical piano) — An electromechanical piano (not to be confused with electronic piano) designed and produced by Hohner in the 1960 and 70s.
• Reactable — The Reactable is an electronic musical instrument consisting of a round translucent table on which blocks are placed.
• sampler
• synclavier
• synthesizer
• telharmonium (gigantic electronic organ transmitted through telephone wires.) — considered the first electromechanical musical instrument, an early electronic organ.
• theremin
• trautonium (monophonic electric instrument from 1930's) — electric instrument from the 1930's with a resistor wire and moving metal plate, invented by Friedrich Trautwein and championed by Oskar Sala and Paul Hindemith and then later Peter Pichler.
• tubon (Joh Mustad Tubon) — electronic bass organ proto-keytar
• video game console (sound chip from gaming consoles) — Sound chip in various video game consoles used for music, chiefly in bit-tunes and chip-tunes
• vocoder
• voice synthesizer
• wavedrum
• wind synthesizer (synthesizer played like a wind instrument) — wind synthesizer or wind controller, it is connected to a midi controller and is played like a wind instrument.

Other instrument

• bass — Bass is a common but generic credit which refers to more than one instrument, the most common being the bass guitar and the double bass (a.k.a. contrabass, acoustic upright bass, wood bass). Please use the correct instrument if you know which one is intended.
• bullroarer — A bullroarer consists of a piece of wood attached to a long cord which is then swung in a circle.
• chainsaw — A powered tool primarily used in the cutting of wood
• chimes — Chime or chimes can refer to multiple different instruments, including tubular bells, wind chime, chime bar and mark tree. Please use the correct instrument if you know which one is intended.
• chirimía and drum (pair of double-reed and drum. from South America.) — much like the pipe and tabor, the chirimía and drum is a South American cousin.
• effects — Effects refers to devices which enable a musician to modify the sound of an instrument.
• electric piano — An electric piano is an electro-mechanical musical instrument. Depending on the type of electric piano, the tones may be produced by strings, reeds or tuning forks.
• gamelan
• gizmo (Elguitar/bass effect device) — An effects device to be clamped on the bridge, it produces "synthesizer-like" sounds
• glass harmonica — The glass harmonica is an instrument made of a series of glass bowls mounted on a spindle which is then turned. It is played by touching the rims of the bowls with a finger.
• hardart
• kazoo
• lasso d'amore — The lasso d'amore, whirly tube or corrugaphone is a corrugated plastic tube which is spun in a circle.
• musical box
• musical saw — A musical saw is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. It is usually played by bowing the non-serrated edge.
• other instruments — Other instruments. If you can't find an instrument, please request it.
• pūrerehua (Māori traditional bullroarer) — made of wood, bone or stone it has a long string attached, when spun around it produces a deep, loud whizzing sound that can be heard from far away.
• suikinkutsu — A suikinkutsu is a type of Japanese garden ornament which uses dripping water to create music. Although it is also known as a Japanese water zither, it is named after the sound the koto (a Japanese zither) makes and is not actually a string instrument.
• talkbox — A talkbox is an effects device which enables a musician to modify the sound of an instrument.
• taonga pūoro (Māori traditional instrument ensamble.) — Traditional musical instruments of the Māori people of New Zealand. Consists of gourds (hue), shell flutes (pu), wooden flutes (koauau), wind roarers and other natural materials.
• tape
• turntable(s)
• vacuum cleaner
• żummara — The żummara is a Maltese instrument similar to a kazoo. It is made out of a piece of bamboo reed covered on one end by greaseproof paper tied with string. A melody is then hummed into a hole in the reed producing a rough raspy sound. Not to be confused with the Egyptian/Iraqi zummara which is an instrument similar to a chalemeau.

Unclassified instrument

• pipe and tabor (pair of flute and drum, each played by one hand.) — Originally an early European combination of a drum (tambourine) and pipe (fipple flute) were pipe was played by one hand and drum beaten by the other. It was chiefly used for dancing music. There are analogies all over the world of this get up.
• te kū (Māori traditional single string bow) — also just "kū", a mouthbow with a single string, struck with a light implement of bone or wood.