List of musical instruments

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This list contains musical instruments , i.e. items that have either been specially manufactured to make music with the tones they produce , or that are regularly used to make music in a secondary function. Parts of musical instruments are not listed, nor are the categories with which musical instruments are classified. The most widespread classification contains the Hornbostel-Sachs system, first published in 1914 . General terms can be found there. In addition, a large number of other classifications of musical instruments are known.

Instruments that are manufactured in different tunings and designs are only listed individually if they are widely used. In some cases, instrument types are also included if they have a regional or cultural connection.

See also: List of Mechanical Musical Instruments , List of Traditional Chinese Musical Instruments, and List of Musical Instrument Abbreviations

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

  • Fadno , single traditional wind instrument of the seeds from which green stems of the angelica excised
  • Bassoon , woodwind instrument with double reed
  • Fanfare trumpet, natural trumpet
  • Fakürt , wooden natural trumpet in Hungary
  • Fangufangu, a bamboo nose flute on the Polynesian island of Tonga
  • Fangxiang , a rarely played metallophone in Chinese music
  • Field whistle → drum whistle , flute without keys
  • Fiddle , German term for the fiddle or the violin
  • Fidel or fiddle, medieval stringed bowed instrument
  • Finger piano , similar to the thumb piano, an outdated term for lamellophones that are widely used in Africa under different names
  • Flageolet , a beaked flute . Medieval woodwind instrument similar to the recorder
  • Bottle, blown → blown bottle
  • Bottle game → Bouteillophone , impact idiophone from a row of glass bottles
  • Flautino, old name for recorder and flute register on the organ
  • Flexaton , shaking idiophon with two clappers
  • Floor-cymbal, cymbals on a stand
  • Flabiol , a one-handed flute. Longitudinal flute played with one hand
  • Raft zither , several single-stringed staff zithers , the strings of which are stretched along a tube, are connected to one another at the sides and are played with both hands in central Africa
  • Floyera , collective term for traditional Greek shepherd's flutes
  • Fluier , collective term for Romanian flutes
  • Grand piano , upright piano with horizontally arranged strings
  • Wing harp , also pointed harp . A form of the upright harp
  • Flugelhorn , brass instrument
  • Flutina → French accordion . Hand traction instrument
  • Fortepiano → fortepiano . Keyboard instruments in which the strings are struck by a hammer mechanism
  • Fourth flute → soprano recorder in b 2
  • Frigideira , Brazilian percussion instrument
  • Frottoir , washboard used in Zydeco music
  • Fue, Japanese word for longitudinal and transverse flutes. These include the Shakuhachi and the Hichiriki
  • Fujara , Slovak shepherd's flute
  • Furulya , wooden notch flute in Hungary
  • Fyell , short shepherd's flute in Albania

G

H

I.

J

  • Hunting horn , brass instrument
  • Hunting oboe → oboe da caccia , a woodwind instrument similar to the baroque oboe
  • Jaltarang , vessels filled with water are beaten with sticks. Rare melody instrument in North Indian music
  • Janggu , a two-skinned Korean hourglass drum
  • Jarana Jarocha , small guitar from Mexico
  • Jegog , xylophone made from long bamboo tubes in West Bali . Named for its own style of music
  • Jiegu , historical hourglass drum from the Chinese Tang Dynasty
  • Yoke lute → lyre , plucked instruments, the strings of which run parallel to the ceiling up to a distant cross bar (yoke)
  • Jouhikko , two-stringed strings in Finnish folk music similar to the Talharpa
  • Jewish harp, colloquially for jew's harp
  • Jug , wind instrument from a jug
  • Jurupari , a ritual wind instrument used by Indians in the Amazon in Brazil made of palm leaves, clay and plant roots

K

L.

M.

N

  • Nacaire , also Nakir, Nakaire, Nakers . Medieval European kettledrum
  • Message drum, functional name for any skin drum or slit drum that is used to transmit messages
  • Nadaswaram , also Nagasvaram , a South Indian cone oboe
  • Nafa, a log drum in Polynesia, also in the music of Tuvalu
  • Nafīr , historical oriental natural trumpet that is still used ritually in Morocco and Malaysia
  • Nail violin , historical string instrument that uses nails instead of strings
  • Nail piano , a nail violin is combined with a keyboard over which a rotating band is guided to the nails
  • Naghāreh → Naqqara
  • Nagoya harp → Taishōgoto , Japanese box zither, the strings of which are shortened using a typewriter-like keyboard
  • Naqqara , a pair of kettle drums widespread in the Orient, Central Asia and South Asia
  • Nose flute , nose-blown flutes that are mainly played in Southeast Asia and Oceania
  • Nose pipe → nose flute
  • Natural trumpet , valveless trumpet
  • Natural French horn, valveless French horn
  • Nay , also Nei, Ney , longitudinal flute of Persian, Arabic and Turkish music
  • Ndonga , a bowl lyre from Baganda in Uganda
  • Negarit , a large barrel drum that is no longer played in Ethiopia. War drum of the rulers
  • Ney-e Anban , bagpipe in Iran
  • Ngoma , drums in Central and East Africa
  • Ngoni , West African plucked bowl lute with four or seven strings. Donso Ngoni and Kamele Ngoni are bridge harps similar to the Kora
  • Nibelungen tuba , also Wagner tuba . Mixed form of tuba and french horn
  • Nissan , flat kettle drum in the folk music of Northern India (in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha )
  • Njarka , small strings played in Mali
  • Nolkin, Sucked Trumpet played by the Mapuche in Chile : an aerophone whose tones are produced by sucking in air
  • Nun's violin, also nun's trumpet → Trumscheit , historical string instrument
  • Nyatiti , eight-string plucked lute from Kenya
  • Nyckelharpa , also Nychelfiol, Nyckelgiga, Schlüsselfidel . A string instrument, slightly larger than a violin, in which the pitch is determined by pressing a key
  • Nzumari , conical double reed instrument on the East African coast

O

P

  • Paetzold flute, modern type of recorder, very large and square
  • Pahu , single-headed drums from Polynesia, the body of which consists of a hollowed-out tree trunk
  • Pahuu , wooden Maori gongs hung flat in a row in New Zealand
  • Pai ban , also called pai pan . Rattling in Japanese and Chinese folk music and for singing accompaniment in Chinese opera , consisting of three wooden sticks
  • Pakhawaj , double-headed barrel drum of classical North Indian music that is played with the hands
  • Palwei , length- blown bamboo flute in Burmese music
  • Pambai , double drum made of two connected tubular drums in South Indian folk music
  • Panctar , historical Persian long-necked lute with "five strings" (name)
  • Pandeiro , Brazilian frame drum with a bells ring
  • Pandora , historical box-neck lute that belongs to the cistern
  • Panduri , three-string plucked long-necked lute with frets in Georgia
  • Pandurina , historical lute, forerunner of the mandolin
  • Pan flute , a lengthwise flute playing. Several pipes lying next to each other are connected to one instrument
  • Panharmonicon , large mechanical instrument that makes built-in wind instruments sound via a central wind supply. 19th century
  • Panmelodicon , a friction idiophone with brass rods invented at the beginning of the 19th century
  • Pantaleon , a kind of oversized dulcimer, invented by Pantaleon Hebenstreit
  • Parai , single-headed round frame drum in the folk music of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu
  • Pardessus de viole , a viola da gamba developed around 1700
  • Parmak zili, Turkish for finger cymbals, → Zil
  • Pashchima , also Paschima , two- skin large barrel drum in the Kathmandu valley in Nepal
  • Godfather , wooden slit drum widespread in Polynesia
  • Pat waing → Hsaing-waing . In Burmese music, a circle of 21 tuned drums
  • Timpani , kettle drum, low percussion instrument
  • Pedabro , a Hawaiian acoustic guitar
  • Pedal harp → harp
  • Pedal piano, piano with additional pedal keyboard
  • Pedal timpani , kettledrum played with the foot
  • Pedal steel guitar , slide guitar that can be retuned with pedals
  • Pedalzither , a zither invented at the end of the 19th century that could raise or lower the strings by a semitone with a pedal
  • Whip : 1) an effect instrument safely mimics a whip in the orchestra, the noise, 2) a real whip , which in the Bavarian folk music when Goaßlschnalzen is used
  • Pena , single-string bowed skewer lute in the northeast Indian state of Manipur
  • Penny Whistle → Tin Whistle , simple Irish flute
  • Pepa , a horn pipe with a buffalo horn as a bell in the northeast Indian state of Assam
  • Whistle: 1) general flute , 2) a high-pitched, high-pitched flute, 3) whistle , a signaling instrument
  • Horse head violin → Mongolian horse head violin , two-stringed string instrument
  • Phagotum , an unusual form of the bagpipe from the beginning of the 16th century
  • Phin , slender Thai plucked lute with metal strings
  • Phono fiddle , → straw violin . Experimental violin developed around 1900 that has a metal bell instead of a resonance body
  • Phorminx , ancient Greek, semicircular or sickle-shaped lyre from the era of Homer, similar to the lyre .
  • Pi , group of one-piece cylindrical or two-piece conical wind instruments with double reeds in Thailand and Laos
  • Pi , group of wind instruments with a punched tongue in Thailand and Laos
  • Pianino , alternative name for a wall piano commonly used today
  • Piano → piano
  • Pibgorn , a reed instrument from Wales
  • Piccolo , small design of the transverse flute
  • Piccolo trumpet , a valve trumpet in a higher pitch
  • Pi Chanai , a cone oboe belonging to the Pi . Woodwind instrument with double reed in Thai music
  • Piffero , also Piffaro, double reed instrument in northern Italian folk music
  • Pilili , rare in the Georgian Republic Adjara played single-reed instrument
  • Pi nai , Thai double reed instrument with a slightly bulbous wooden tube, without a bell. Belongs to the Pi group and is similar to the Cambodian Sralai
  • Pi Or , Thai woodwind instrument
  • Pipa , pear-shaped Chinese short-necked lute
  • Piri , double-reed bamboo instrument used in Korean music
  • Piston → cornet , a horn instrument
  • Piwang , one-string Tibetan string instrument
  • Pi Yen , Thai woodwind instrument
  • Pku , Armenian horn pipe with a simple reed
  • Platerspiel , medieval simple bagpipe
  • Player Piano , automatic piano from the American Piano Company
  • Pluriarc , multi-string musical bow mainly used in Africa
  • Pochette → dance master violin, historical, narrow violin
  • Polychord → Monochord , simple string instrument with several strings of equal length
  • Pommer , historical woodwind instrument with double reed similar to the shawm
  • Pondur , three-stringed long-necked lute with a paddle-shaped body in Chechnya
  • Ponglang , Thai Holm xylophone
  • Pontic lyre, a form of lyre , Greek string instrument
  • Portable , small pipe organ
  • Trombone , low brass instrument
  • Positive , single manual organ
  • Post horn , high brass instrument without valves, therefore only plays natural tones. Mainly used for signaling
  • Preret , double reed instrument from the Indonesian island of Lombok . Rarely heard in the music of Lombok
  • Primzither , Hungarian zither with two fingerboards
  • Flatbed , noise instrument
  • Psaltery , medieval lyre or zither . Resonance box with trapezoidal rods as string carriers
  • Pung , slender doubt celled barrel drum similar to the mridangam that in the folk music of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur is played
  • Pungi , Indian wind instrument used by snake charmers with a single reed
  • Puniu , small Polynesian drum with a coconut shell as a body
  • Putoto , a wind instrument from North Argentina, a cow horn with an idioglotten reed (made of the same material)
  • Puutoorino , historic Maori wind instrument in New Zealand
  • Puwi-puwi , several single and double reed instruments on the Indonesian islands of Java, Sulawesi and Alor
  • Pyramid piano , design of a piano
  • Pyrophone , keyboard instrument with glass pipes in which flames burn

Q

  • Qanbus , pear-shaped plucked lute with fur covering that has almost disappeared in Yemen. Replaced by the Arabic oud . Was a model for one of the two forms of the Indonesian gambus
  • Qanun → Kanun , Turkish trapeze zither
  • Qarqaba , also Krakeb , iron hand rattles played in the Maghreb
  • Qasaba , Arabic flute without a mouthpiece
  • Qeej , Chinese Lusheng , bamboo mouth organ of the Miao / Hmong in southwest China, Laos and northern Thailand
  • Qopuz, → Komuz , also Gopuz, Kopuz , pear-shaped Central Asian long-necked lute
  • Temir Komuz even Qobiz, Kobus, Chomus, Komuz, Jew's harps in Central and North Asia
  • Quena , flute of the Andean region
  • Transverse flute , flute with a side opening
  • Transverse horn , trumpet with a side opening, mainly used as a signaling instrument in Africa
  • Transverse whistle → drum whistle , short flute without flaps
  • Quijada → Vibraslap , idiophone in South America. Traditionally a donkey's jawbone as a rattle, modern spring steel and wooden parts that are beaten against each other
  • Quintbass , guitar developed by Heinrich Albert at the beginning of the 20th century , which is tuned a fifth lower
  • Quinterne or quinterna , pear-shaped plucked instrument from the 14th to 17th centuries, smaller than the lute
  • Fifth bassoon , small bassoon , tuned to the bassoon in lower or upper quint
  • Quint zither, zither whose tuning is a fifth above the treble zither

R.

S.

  • Sabaro , also Sabar , largest of three single-headed drums in the Mandinka and Wolof drum orchestra in West Africa
  • Bagpipe , even bagpipes . Reed instrument with wind capsule
  • Säckpipa → Swedish bagpipe
  • Saeng, also Saeng Hwang . A mouth organ played in Korea that corresponds to the Chinese Sheng
  • Sahfa , stem drum in the coastal region of Tihama in Yemen
  • Sahn Nuhasi , old, rarely played copper gong in Yemen
  • String tambourine , also tambourine de Béarn, Altobasso . Simple psaltery , three-stringed instrument that is struck with mallets
  • Stringed drum , a tambourine with strained at the bottom strings that produce while hitting overtones
  • Salamuri , blown shepherd's flute made of wood in eastern Georgia , also in classical music
  • Salor , string instrument in Northern Thailand
  • Salterio → dulcimer , a stringed instrument that is played with small mallets
  • Saluang , a bamboo flute played in Western Sumatra, especially by the Minangkabau
  • Sambhor , drum in Cambodia
  • Samel , small, vertically played tubular drum in the Indian state of Goa
  • Sanaeng Gaen , Thai woodwind instrument
  • Sangan , West African drum
  • Sansula, an instrument newly developed in Germany made of a lamellophone mounted on a tambourine
  • Satara → Alghoza , double beaked flute in Rajasthan (northern India) and Pakistan
  • Santir → Gimbri . West African long-necked lute from the Moroccan Gnawa
  • Santoor , Persian and Indian dulcimer
  • Sanxian , Chinese long-necked fretless lute
  • Sanza or Sansa, mistakenly introduced term for lamellophones from lamellophone Sansi in Mozambique over
  • Sape , boat-shaped fretless lute in the interior of Borneo
  • Sapo , a long shrap idiophone made of bamboo, as Sapo Cubano or Güiro a long oval hollow form made of wood in Afro-Caribbean music. A wooden stick is used to stroke the ribbed surface
  • Sarangi , string instrument in North India and Pakistan
  • Sarasvati Vina, a south Indian vina
  • Sarinda , popular string sounds from northern India to Afghanistan
  • Sarod , North Indian plucked lute with fur, further development of the Afghan rubab
  • Saron , a metallophone made of bronze plates in the Indonesian gamelan
  • Sarrusophone , wind instrument with double reed, developed in the 19th century for French military music
  • Sarune , among the Batak in Sumatra, a conical double reed instrument with a bell similar to the West Javanese tarompet
  • Sasando , bamboo zither on the Indonesian island of Roti
  • Saung gauk , a bow harp. National Instrument of Myanmar
  • Saw sam sai , three-string spiked fiddle in Thai music with a coconut shell sound box
  • Saxello , Bb soprano saxophone
  • Saxhorn → bow horn , generally horn instruments
  • Saxophone , woodwind instrument developed by Adolphe Sax
  • Saxtromba , woodwind instrument developed by Adolphe Sax , for sax horns
  • Saz , Baglama . Turkish long neck lute
  • Scabellum , ancient foot rattle
  • Shabbaba , longitudinal flute played by shepherds in Arab countries
  • Schäferpfeife , a form of the German bagpipe
  • Shawm , medieval European woodwind instrument with double reed
  • Scheitholt , a drone zither . Historical string instrument, narrow forerunner of the zither
  • Bells , a clapper bell. Strike idiophone in the shape of a bell
  • Schellenbaum , former symbol of regimental musicians. A standard with bells
  • Bell ring , also bell ring . A frame rattle or row rattle in the shape of a tambourine without fur covering. Clamps are arranged on a wreath
  • Bell drum → tambourine . Timpani with bells ring
  • Scheneb , ancient Egyptian brass instrument
  • Scherrzither , also Kratzzither . Former form of a zither in alpine folk music
  • Drums , english drum set . Compilation of percussion instruments
  • Percussion zither , developed around 1900 and still in use today .
  • Snake flute → pungi . Single reed instrument used by the snake charmers in India
  • Slot drum , widespread idiophones impact instrument usually consists of a partially hollowed block of wood or bamboo, which in ritual music or news drum is played
  • Key fiddle → Nyckelharpa . A string instrument, slightly larger than a violin, in which the pitch is determined by pressing a key
  • Beaked flute , flutes in which the mouthpiece is put in the mouth
  • Ratchet → ratchet . Noise instrument that belongs to the scraper wheels
  • Snare drum → snare drum
  • Snail trumpet → snail horn , a snail as a natural trumpet
  • Shofar , a simple wind instrument made from an animal horn, which has its origins in Judaism
  • Lap violin, a violin with frets that is held away from the body between the lap and the edge of the table
  • Lap harp , small form of harp that is held on the knees
  • Scraper , a scraper instrument
  • Schryari even Schreier whistle , Renaissance -Holzblasinstrument with double reed
  • Shaker tube , a rattle of vessels
  • Schwegel , also Schweitzerpfeiff , medieval simple flute
  • Buzzing wood → buzzing device , wing ratchet
  • Schwyzerörgeli , small diatonic accordion that is played in Swiss folk music
  • Sixteenth- tone piano, a piano that plays microtones
  • Segankuru , also Serankure, Segaba , a single-stringed trough zither in Botswana, South Africa
  • Seljefløyte , also Seljeflöyt , "willow flute ", a Norwegian overtone flute without finger holes, originally a shepherd's flute
  • Selompret → Tarompet , a conical double-reed instrument with bell in central and eastern Java
  • Semanterion → semantron , hour drum . Wooden pickguard that replaces bells in the Orthodox Church
  • Seperewa , a rare West African harp lute (bridge harp)
  • Se piri, a slim, soft sounding piri . Korean woodwind instrument with double reed
  • Serbung → Bumbung , Indonesian wind instrument made from two bamboo tubes
  • Serankure → Segankuru , a single-stringed trough zither in Botswana, South Africa
  • Serpent , deep sounding zinc . European historical wind instrument
  • Sese → Zeze , single or multi-string flat bar zither in East Africa
  • Setar , Persian four-string (originally three-string) long neck lute
  • Shabbaba , an Arabic woodwind instrument, forerunner of the Arabic longitudinal flute nay
  • Sharati , the bamboo flute used by the Khasi in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya at funerals
  • Shehnai , North Indian cone oboe with double reed
  • Shaker , vessel rattle
  • Shakuhachi , Japanese bamboo flute
  • Shamisen , three-string Japanese plucked lute
  • Shékere , Latin American vessel rattle , regional name Afoxé , related to the Ghanaian axatse
  • Sheng , a Chinese mouth organ
  • Shō , a Japanese mouth organ
  • Shringa, also Srnga → Kombu , S-shaped curved natural trumpet in Indian processional music
  • Shrutibox , Indian drone instrument based on the principle of an Indian harmonium
  • Signal horn , conical brass instrument in the shape of a trumpet, formerly used in marching music
  • Siku , a form of the South American panpipe
  • Silent Piano , acoustic piano that can be muted to hear the tones through headphones
  • Simandra → semantron , hourly drum . Wooden pickguard that replaces bells in the Orthodox Church
  • Simsimiyya , also Semsemiya , Arabic lyre in Egypt on the Suez Canal and along the Red Sea
  • Singing saw , saw struck with a violin bow
  • Sintir , long-necked lute of the Moroccan Gnawa
  • Sister → Cister , medieval, European long-necked lute
  • Sistrum , ancient Egyptian hand rattle
  • Sitar , plucked, North Indian long-necked lute
  • Sixth Flute, soprano recorder in d 2
  • Snare drum → snare drum
  • Sompotan , bamboo mouth organ , of the Malaysian state of Sabah
  • Sopilka , a flute made in Ukraine
  • Sopranino → Sopranino saxophone , the highest sounding saxophone
  • Soprano trombone → high-sounding trombone
  • Soprano saxophone , a saxophone in the high register B
  • Sorbian violin , also Husle , Fidel the Sorbs
  • Sor Gantruem , Thai string instrument
  • Sor Gradong Tao , Thai string instrument
  • Sor Khao Khwai , Thai string instrument
  • Sor U , two-string tubular spit violin with coconut resonator in central Thailand
  • Sordun , historical double reed instrument with a bent, cylindrical sound tube
  • Sornay , Asian cone oboes
  • Sousaphone , tuba developed in the 19th century
  • Souzabone , electronic trombone developed by Raul de Souza in the 1970s
  • Toy piano → children's piano , partly also used in modern and experimental music
  • Spike fiddle , even lap violin . Mostly spread in Asia String loud with a long neck, which is inserted through the sound box. A sting reaching to the ground ( spiked violin) is independent of this. Examples: the Persian Kamantsche , the Chinese Erhu
  • Spinet , a type of harpsichord
  • Spirafina , a percussion idiophone made of glass bodies developed by Heinrich Spira around 1950
  • Pointed harp, a form of the upright harp
  • Talking drum , english talking drum . A drum that can be used to reproduce language, especially common in West Africa
  • Sralai , double reed instrument in Cambodian music with a slightly bulbous wooden pipe without a bell
  • Sruti upanga → Mashak , South Indian bagpipe with only one drone pipe
  • Bar rattle , percussion instrument. Rattle body attached to a stick. These include the ancient Egyptian sistrum and the Tsanatsel used in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
  • Stahlspiel , a carillon in which steel bars are used instead of bells
  • Steel Pan , also steel drum , a percussion idiophone from Trinidad . Matched tin vessels
  • Stomppipe , a punch idiophone . Tuned tubes that are hit on the floor
  • Stand Tom → Tomtom . Cylindrical drum as part of a Drum Set
  • Steel guitar → pedal steel guitar , two horizontally arranged guitar fingerboards are partially controlled by pedals. Mainly in the country music played
  • Bridge harp , also harp lute , string instruments especially widespread in West Africa. Example: Kora
  • Stone flute , prehistoric flutes, made from stones
  • Stone clarinet , clarinet developed by Friedrich Stein in the 1930s
  • Steinklinger → litophone . Idiophone made of stone. Example: the Chinese sound stone game made of tuned cling stones
  • Stick flute , also called Csakan, a recorder built into a walking stick in the 19th century
  • Stick violin , a fun instrument at the end of the 18th century. The violin bow is hidden in the cavity of a walking stick and was taken out to strike the strings in nature. An instrument more similar to the violin was the traveling violin
  • Pestle lute , a plucked instrument that is gripped over the front edge
  • Plug trumpet, forerunner of today's valve trumpet . Arched, only in use in the late 18th to early 19th centuries
  • String guitar → arpeggione . String instrument invented in 1823 in the tuning of a guitar
  • Streichglockenspiel , a carillon whose metal plates are painted with a bow
  • String piano , a keyboard instrument whose strings are bowed over a mechanism
  • Bowed psaltery , a psaltery whose strings are bowed
  • String reed , a simple practice instrument made from a bamboo / wooden pipe with four strings that can be bowed
  • String zither , developed in the 19th century zither with a reduced number of strings that could be deleted with the bow
  • Straw fiddle , a glockenspiel used in alpine folk music with applied wooden sticks that are struck with clappers
  • Straw violin , experimental violin developed around 1900 that has a metal bell instead of a resonance body
  • Mute violin , electrically amplified violin without a resonance body
  • Subharchord , electronic musical instrument developed in Germany in the 1950s
  • Sub-double bass, rare, very low tuning of a saxophone , a clarinet , a tuba , a bassoon or a recorder
  • Sueng , plucked box lute in northern Thai folk music
  • Suka , strings in Polish folk music
  • Suling , bamboo flutes that are used in different musical styles in Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines
  • Sumpotan , simple mouth organ made from a calabash with bamboo pipes in North Borneo
  • Sun harp → Bandura , a Bulgarian zither
  • Suona , Chinese woodwind instrument with double reed and wide bell
  • Surbahar , North Indian lower tuned sitar
  • Surdo , Brazilian snare drum , larger and deeper sounding than the caixa
  • Šurle , wooden double clarinet from Istria
  • Nuka → Zurna , Turkish bowling oboe
  • Surpati , a rare bamboo flute blown in the middle in a vertical position in West Indian folk music
  • Surpava , transverse flute blown in the middle. Rarely in the folk music of the Indian state of Maharashtra played
  • Sursingar , Indian lute instrument in the 19th century, mixture of rubab , rudra vina and sarod
  • Swae , Thai basin
  • Swarmandal , also surmandal, zither-like drone instrument for singing accompaniment in North Indian music
  • Swirka , Bulgarian shepherd's flute
  • Symphonetta , a type of chromatic bandoneon developed in Hamburg at the end of the 19th century
  • Synclavier , an electronic sound generator based on a synthesizer developed in the mid-1970s
  • Synthesizer , instrument for electronic sound generation
  • Synthophone , an alto saxophone with electronic sound modification
  • Syrinx → Panpipe , a group of longitudinal flutes connected to one another

T

U

V

  • Vaji → Waji , rare bow harp in the northeastern Afghan province of Nuristan
  • Valiha , Malagasy tube zither made of bamboo, the strings are idioglott, i.e. cut out of the bamboo tube
  • Valve trombone → trombone
  • Valimba , the Sena xylophone in southern Malawi
  • Verillon , the simplest glass game. Drinking glasses are filled with water at different heights and struck with sticks
  • Verrophone , the simplest form of a glass harmonica . Glasses / glass tubes filled with water are painted with a damp finger
  • Vibraphone , a xylophone with metal plates and tuned resonance tubes hanging underneath
  • Cattle bell → cow bell , trychel ; a forged clapper bell
  • Manche à Roue → French for hurdy gurdy . String instrument with crank mechanism
  • Vihuela , soft sounding, Spanish forerunner of the guitar from the 16th century
  • Vina , group of the oldest Indian string instruments as bow harps and lute instruments . Today the Saraswati Vina mainly in South India , rarely the Rudra Vina in North India
  • Viola → viola , deep-sounding violin design
  • Viol de Braz → Violino piccolo . Historic violin sounding a third or fourth higher
  • Viola bastarda , historical bass string instrument
  • Viola d'amore , historical string instrument similar to a viola
  • Viola bassa, a historical string instrument, slightly larger than a violoncello
  • Viola da braccio , family of string instruments in violin form, also a special name for the viola
  • Viola da gamba , also viola , knee violin , family of historical string instruments from treble to bass, all held between the legs
  • Viola da spala, also shoulder violin, a historical bass violin that was hung horizontally on a shoulder strap while playing
  • Violetta marina , string instrument invented in England at the beginning of the 18th century, identical or similar to a viola d'amore
  • Viola pomposa , a five-string viola used in the 18th century
  • Violetta piccola, the highest sounding viola da gamba
  • Violin , violin , string instrument
  • Violino harmonica , rare nail violin played at the end of the 18th century
  • Violino piccolo , variant of a violin that is tuned a third or fourth higher
  • Violino pomposo → Viola pomposa , a five-string viola used in the 18th century
  • Violinophone → straw violin . Experimental violin developed around 1900 that has a metal bell instead of a resonance body
  • Violin Zither , string instrument in which each note has its own string
  • Violoncello , larger violin instrument, is played while seated and held between the knees
  • Violoncello piccolo , rare violin instrument from the 18th century
  • Violoncello guitar → Arpeggione , combination of cello and guitar invented in Vienna in 1823
  • Violone , historical string instrument from the gamba group
  • Violophone, violinophone → straw violin
  • Violotta , a tenor viola , a string instrument that disappeared in the 18th century
  • Virginal , type of harpsichord , with strings running parallel to the keyboard
  • Voice Flute → recorder developed by Peter Bressan (around 1658–1731) in D
  • Vuvuzela , an African wind instrument especially for football fans and demonstrators

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Web links

Commons : Musical instruments  - collection of images, videos and audio files