INTRODUCTION

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Music is an art form whose medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.







A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture. The academic study of musical instruments is called organology.














A musical instruments can be divided instruments into four groups: string instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, and drums.

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STRING INSTRUMENTS (BOWED INSTRUMENTS)

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A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string instruments in the string family are violin, cello, viola, double bass, mandolin, banjo, guitar, and harp.



Bowing: (Italian: Arco) is a method used in some string instruments, including the violin, viola, cello, and less commonly, the double bass etc. The bow consists of a stick with many hairs stretched between its ends. Bowing the instrument's string causes a stick-slip phenomenon to occur, which makes the string vibrate.



BERIMBAU:

The berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, from Brazil. The berimbau's origins are not entirely clear, but there is not much doubt on its African origin.

The berimbau consists of a wooden bow (verga – traditionally made from biriba wood, which grows in Brazil), about 4 to 5 feet (1.5 m) long (1.2 to 1.5 m), with a steel string (arame – often pulled from the inside of an automobile tire) tightly strung and secured from one end of the verga to the other. A gourd (cabaça), dried, opened and hollowed-out, attached to the lower portion of the Verga by a loop of tough string, acts as a resonator.

The berimbau, as played for capoeira, basically has three sounds: the open string sound, the high sound, and the buzz sound.

CELLO:

A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra. It is the second physically largest member of the violin family of musical instruments, next to the double bass.

The cello is most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice.The instrument is a part of the standard orchestra and is the bass voice of the string quartet, as well as being part of many other chamber groups. A large number of concertos and sonatas have been written for the cello. The instrument is less common in popular music, but is sometimes featured in pop and rock recordings. The cello has also recently appeared in major hip-hop and R & B performances, such as singers Rihanna and Ne-Yo's performance at the American Music Awards.The instrument has also been modified for Indian classical music by Nancy Lesh and Saskia Rao-de Haas.

DILRUPA:

The dilrupa is a bowed musical instrument from India.

DOTAR:

The dutar also dotar or doutar is a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute found in Central Asia and South Asia. Its name comes from the Persian word for "two strings", dotar (do "two", tar "string"), although the Herati dutar of Afghanistan has 14 strings. When played, the strings are usually plucked by the Uyghurs of Western China and strummed and plucked by the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen, and Afghan people. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, the instrument is played by the baul community, and is called dotara. Some versions of the dotara have four strings instead of two. In the instrument's 15th century beginnings in the hands of shepherds, its strings were made from gut. With the coming of the Silk Road, the strings were made from twisted silk. Modern instruments also have silk or nylon strings.
The dutar has a warm, dulcet tone. Typical sizes for the pear-shaped instrument range from one to two meters.




DOUBLE BASS:



The double bass, also known as contrabass or upright bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the symphony orchestra and smaller string ensembles in Western classical music. In addition, it is used in other genres such as jazz, 1950s-style blues and rock and roll, rockabilly/psychobilly, bluegrass, and tango.
Double basses are constructed from several types of wood, including maple for the back, spruce for the top, and ebony for the fingerboard. It is uncertain whether the instrument is a descendant of the viola da gamba or from the violin, but it is traditionally considered to be a member of the violin family. While the double bass is nearly identical in construction to the other violin family instruments, it also has features which may be derived from the viols.


EKTARA:




Ektara (Bengali: একতারা, Punjabi: ਇਕ ਤਾਰ; literally "one-string", also called iktar, ektar , yaktaro gopichand) is a one-string instrument used in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
In origin the ektara was a regular string instrument of wandering bards and minstrels from India and is plucked with one finger. The ektara usually has a stretched single string, an animal skin over a head (made of dried pumpkin/gourd, wood or coconut) and pole neck or split bamboo cane neck.




ERHU:



The erhu consists of a long vertical stick-like neck, at the top of which are two large tuning pegs, and at the bottom is a small resonator body (sound box) which is covered with python skin on the front (playing) end. Two strings are attached from the pegs to the base, and a small loop of string (qian jin) placed around the neck and strings acting as a nut pulls the strings towards the skin, holding a small wooden bridge in place.





HURDY GURDY:



The hurdy gurdy (also known as a wheel fiddle) is a stringed musical instrument in which the strings are sounded by means of a rosined wheel which the strings of the instrument pass over. This wheel, turned with a crank, functions much like a violin bow, making the instrument essentially a mechanical violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents (small wedges, usually made of wood) against one or more of these strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic string instruments, it has a soundboard to make the vibration of the strings audible.






RAVANHATHA:
Ravanahatha (Ravanastron) is a violin made of goat gut, coconut wood, coconut shell, and bamboo, with horsehair or a natural fibre serving as the string.
Ravanahatha is known as the first musical instrument with strings to be played with a bow and recognised as the world's first violin.[citation needed] According to the legend, Ravana was an ardent devotee of the Hindu god Shiva. Ravana served Shiva using the soulful music emanating from the ravanahatha.[citation needed]
After the 11th century, the ravanahatha underwent many changes and it took the shape of the modern violin in Italy in the 16th century.[citation needed]
The ravanahatha's birth itself is believed to have taken place under traumatic circumstances. According to legend, Ravana's mother Kaikasi, an ardent devotee of Shiva, was eager to go and live in the god's abode on Mount Kailash in the Himalayas. Ravana opposed the plan vehemently, but to please his mother he promised to bring Mount Kailash itself to Sri Lanka.

REBEC:


The rebec (sometimes rebeck, and originally various other spellings) is a bowed string musical instrument. In its most common form, it has narrowboat shaped body, three strings and is played on the arm or under the chin, like a violin.

The number of strings on the rebec varies from one to five, although three is the most common number. The strings are often tuned in fifths, although this tuning is by no means universal. The instrument was originally in the treble range, like the violin, but later larger versions were developed, such that by the 16th century composers were able to write pieces for consorts of rebecs, just as they did for consorts of viols.

SARANGI:

The Sarangi (Hindi: सारंगी) is a bowed, short-necked lute of the Indian subcontinent. It is an

Important bowed string instrument of India's Hindustani classical music tradition.

Carved from a single block of wood, the sarangi has a box-like shape, usually around two feet long and around half a foot wide. The lower resonance chamber is made from a hollowed-out block of tun (red cedar) wood and covered with parchment and a decorated strip of leather at the waist which supports the elephant-shaped bridge. The bridge in turn supports the huge pressure of approximately 40 strings.

SARINDA:






A sarinda is a stringed Indian folk musical instrument similar to lutes or fiddles. It is played with a bow and has three strings. The bottom part of the front of its hollow wooden soundbox is covered with animal skin. It is played while sitting on the ground in a vertical orientation.
The tribes of India, e.g. Tripuris, find use of sarinda in their traditional music and dance. It is the sole accompany for a solo or group folk singer(s).

VIOLIN:

The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello.
The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on it. The word "violin" comes from the Middle Latin word vitula, meaning "stringed instrument";this word is also believed to be the source of the Germanic "fiddle".The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern characteristics in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th century. Violinists and collectors particularly prize the instruments made by the Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century in Cremona.
A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier, or simply a violin maker. The parts of a violin are usually made from different types of wood (although electric violins may not be made of wood at all, since their sound may not be dependent on specific acoustic characteristics of the instrument's construction), and it is generally strung with gut or steel strings.
Someone who plays the violin is called a violinist or a fiddler. He or she produces sound from a violin by either drawing a bow (normally held in the right hand) across one or more strings (which may be stopped by the fingers of the other hand to produce a full range of pitches), plucking the strings (with either hand), or a variety of other techniques. The violin is played by musicians in a wide variety of musical genres, including Baroque music, classical, jazz, folk and traditional, and rock and roll.

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CLICK HERE FOR PLUCK STRING INSTRUMENTS

STRING INSTRUMENTS (PLUCKING)

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PLUCKING:

Plucking (Italian: pizzicato) is used as the sole method of playing, on instruments such as the banjo, guitar, harp, lute, mandolin, oud, sitar, and either by a finger or thumb, or by some type of plectrum. This category includes the keyboard instrument the harpsichord, which formerly used feather quills (now plastic plectra) to pluck the strings.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR:

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. The term is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric guitars, which depend on electronic amplification to make their sound audible.

In all types of guitars the sound is produced by the vibration of the strings. However, because the strings can only displace a small amount of air, the volume of the sound needs to be increased in order to be heard. In an acoustic guitar, this is accomplished by using a soundboard and a resonant cavity, the sound box. The body of the guitar is hollow. The vibrating strings drive the soundboard through the bridge, making it vibrate. The soundboard has a larger surface area and thus displaces a larger volume of air, producing a much louder sound than the strings alone.

SEVEN STRING GUITAR:

A seven-string guitar is a guitar with seven strings instead of the usual six. Such guitars are not as common as the six-string variety, but a minority of guitarists have utilised them for at least 150 years. Some types of these instruments are specific to certain cultures (i.e. the Russian and Brazilian guitars).
There are eight-string and ten-string guitars in use as well, but these are even less common. Twelve-string guitars are more common, but these are usually instruments that have six two-string courses tuned to the usual six string arrangement.

STRING ARRANGEMENT OF 7 STRING GUITAR DGBDGBD.

BASS GUITAR:

The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; pronounced /ˈbeɪs/, as in "base") is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb (either by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping), or by using a plectrum.
The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, which correspond to pitches one octave lower than those of the four lower strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds (as is the double bass) in order to avoid the excessive use of ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the electric bass guitar is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances.
Since the 1950s, the electric bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While the types of basslines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role in most types of music: anchoring the harmonic framework and laying down the beat. The bass guitar is used in many styles of music including rock, metal, pop, country, blues and jazz. It is used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, funk, and in some rock and metal (mostly progressive rock and progressive metal) styles.

ELECTRIC GUITAR:

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings (sometimes nickel) into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as reverb or distortion. While most electric guitars have six strings, seven-string instruments are used by some jazz guitarists and metal guitarists (especially in nu metal), and 12-string electric guitars (with six pairs of strings, four of which are tuned in octaves) are used in genres such as jangle pop and rock.
The electric guitar was first used by jazz guitarists, who used amplified hollow-bodied instruments to get a louder sound in Swing-era big bands. The earliest electric guitars were hollow bodied acoustic instruments with tungsten steel pickups made by the Rickenbacker company in 1931. While one of the first solid-body guitars was invented by Les Paul, the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar was the Fender Esquire (1950). The electric guitar was a key instrument in the development of many musical styles that emerged since the late 1940s, such as Chicago blues, early rock and roll and rockabilly, and 1960s blues rock. It is also used in a range of other genres, including country music, Ambient (or New Age), and in some contemporary classical music.

HARP:

Harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. As many other non-percussion instruments, it can also be used as a percussion instrument. All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a forepillar; those lacking the forepillar are referred to as open harps. Depending on its size (which varies considerably), a harp may be played while held in the lap or while stood on the floor. Harp strings can be made of nylon (sometimes wound around copper), gut (more commonly used than nylon), wire, or silk. A person who plays the harp is called a harpist or a harper. Folk and Celtic musicians often use the term "harper," whereas classical/pedal musicians use "harpist."
Various types of harps are found in Africa, Europe, North, and South America, and a few parts of Asia. In antiquity harps and the closely related lyres were very prominent in nearly all musical cultures, but they lost popularity in the early 19th century with Western music composers, being thought of primarily as a woman's instrument after Marie Antoinette popularised it as an activity for women.
The aeolian harp (wind harp), the autoharp, and all forms of the lyre and Kithara are not harps because their strings are not perpendicular to the soundboard; they are part of the zither family of instruments along with the piano and harpsichord. In blues music, the Harmonica is called a "Blues harp" or "harp", but it is a free reed wind instrument, not a stringed instrument.

HARP GUITAR:

The harp guitar (or "harp-guitar") is a stringed instrument with a history of well over two centuries. While there are several unrelated historical stringed instruments that have appropriated the name “harp-guitar” over the centuries, the term today is understood as the accepted vernacular to refer to a particular family of instruments defined as "A guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking."Additionally, in reference to these instruments, the word "harp" is now a specific reference to the unstopped open strings, and is not specifically a reference to the tone, pitch range, volume, silhouette similarity, construction, floor-standing ability, nor any other alleged "harp-like" properties. To qualify in this category, an instrument must have at least one unfretted string lying off the main fretboard. Further, the unfretted strings can be, and typically are, played as an open string.
This family consists of a virtually limitless variety of different instrument configurations. Most readily identified are American harp guitars with either hollow arms, double necks or harp-like frames for supporting extra bass strings, and European bass guitars (or kontragitarres). Other harp guitars feature treble or mid-range floating strings, or various combinations of multiple floating string banks along with a standard guitar neck.

BANJO:

The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments. The name banjo is commonly thought to be derived from the Kimbundu term mbanza. Some etymologists derive it from a dialectal pronunciation of "bandore", though recent research suggests that it may come from a Senegambian term for a bamboo stick formerly used for the instrument's neck.

LUTES:

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes.

Lutes are made almost entirely of wood. The soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood (usually spruce). In all lutes the soundboard has a single (sometimes triple) decorated sound hole under the strings, called the rose. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of an intertwining vine or a decorative knot, carved directly out of the wood of the soundboard.

MANDOLIN:

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family (plucked, or strummed). It is descended from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. It has a body with a teardrop-shaped soundboard, or one which is essentially oval in shape, with a soundhole, or soundholes, of varying shapes which are open and are not decorated with an intricately carved grille like the Baroque era mandolins.
Originally mandolins had six double courses of gut strings tuned similarly to lutes, and plucked with the fingertips, while the design common today has eight metal strings in four pairs (courses) which are plucked with a plectrum. The latter originated in Naples, Italy during the 3rd quarter of the 18th century.
There were and still are many variants. These include Milanese, Lombard, Brescian and other 6-course types, as well as four-string (one string per course), twelve-string (three strings per course), and sixteen-string (four strings per course).

RABAB:

Three types of Sikh musician - rababis, ragis, and dhadhis - flourished during the period of the gurus. Guru Nanak started the rababi tradition by engaging Bhai Mardana as his accompanist. The Muslim singers formerly called mirasis, Nanak called "rababis", because they played on the rabab (rebec). Some notable rababis after Mardana were his son Shahjada, Balwand and Satta, Babak, son of Satta, Chatra, son of Babak, and Saddu and Baddu. Rababis used to perform kirtan regularly at Amritsar before the partition in 1947, after which the rababis migrated to Pakistan.
The last of the line of rababis was Bhai Chand. During the 20th century CE the instrument's use in Sikh kirtan was eclipsed by the harmonium but it has been revived.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabab.

SAROD:

The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in Hindustani (north Indian) classical music. The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound (contrast with the sweet, extremely rich texture of the sitar) with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. It is a fretless instrument able to produce the continuous slides between notes known as meend (glissandi), which are very important to Indian music.

SITAR:

The sitar (Hindi: सितार, Urdu: ستار, Persian: سی تار ) is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical, where it has been ubiquitous in Hindustani classical music since the Middle Ages. It derives its resonance from sympathetic strings, a long hollow neck and a gourd resonating chamber. Used throughout the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Northern India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the sitar became known in the western world through the work of Pandit Ravi Shankar beginning in the late 1950s, particularly after Beatle George Harrison took lessons from Shankar and played sitar in songs including Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). The Rolling Stones used sitar in Paint It, Black and it was also used by others such as thrash metal band Metallica on the introduction of Wherever I May Roam. One of the early pioneers of fusion Sitar music was Ashwin Batish whose CD Sitar Power (1985) took the top ten spot in many NPR and World music radio stations all across the US, Canada and abroad.

SURBAHAR:

Surbahar (Urdu: سربہار; Hindi: सुर बहार), sometimes known as bass sitar, is a plucked string used in the Hindustani classical music of North India. It is closely related to sitar, but it has a lower tone. Depending on the instrument's size, it is usually pitched two to five whole steps below the standard sitar, but Indian classical music having no concept of absolute pitch, this may vary. The instrument can emit frequencies lower than 20 Hz.
Surbahar is over 130 cm (51 inches) long. It uses a dried pumpkin as a resonator, and has a neck with very long frets, which allow a glissando of six notes on the same fret through the method of pulling. The neck is made out of tun (Cedrela tuna), or teak wood. It has four rhythm strings (cikari), four playing strings (the thickest beings 1 mm in diameter), and 15 to 17 unplayed sympathetic strings. All strings lie on a flat bridge which amplifies the sound and the spectrum when a vibrating string hits the bridge's flat part. The instrumentalist plays the strings using a metallic plectrum, the mizrab, which is fixed on the index finger of her/his right hand. Three plectrums are used to play the dhrupad style of alap, jor, and jhala on surbahar. In the dhrupad style, instead of performing the sitarkhani and masitkhani gats, the instrumentalist plays the slow dhrupad composition in accompaniment with pakhawaj.

TAMBURA:

The tambura (Devanagari: तम्पूरा) is a long necked plucked lute, a stringed instrument found in different versions in different places. The tambura (South India), tamburo (Gujarati), or tanpura (North India) in its bodily shape somewhat resembles the sitar, but it has no frets, as only the open strings are played as a harmonic accompaniment to the other musicians. It has four or five (rarely, six) wire strings, which are plucked one after another in a regular pattern to create a harmonic resonance on the basic note (bourdon or drone function).
Tanpuras come in different sizes and pitches: bigger "males" and smaller "females" for vocalists and yet a smaller version that is used for accompanying sitar or sarod, called tamburi or tanpuri. Male vocalists pitch their tonic note (Sa) to about C#, female singers usually a fifth higher. The male instrument has an open string length of approx. one metre, the female is sized down to 3/4.

VEENA:

Veena (also spelled 'vina', Tamil: வீணை, Sanskrit: वीणा (vīṇā), KannadaವೀಣೆMalayalam: വീണ, Telugu: వీణ) is a plucked stringed instrument used mostly in Carnatic music. There are several variations of the veena, which in its South Indian form is a member of the lute family. One who plays the veena is referred to as a vainika.

About four feet in length, its design consists of a large resonator (kudam) carved and hollowed out of a log (usually of jackwood), a tapering hollow neck (dandi) topped with 24 brass or bell-metal frets set in scalloped black wax on wooden tracks, and a tuning box culminating in a downward curve and an ornamental dragon's head (yali). A small table-like wooden bridge (kudurai)—about 2 x 2½ x 2 inches—is topped by a convex brass plate glued in place with resin. Two rosettes, formerly of ivory, now of plastic or horn, are on the top board (palakai) of the resonator. Four main playing strings tuned to the tonic and the fifth in two octaves (for example, B flat-E flat below bass clef - B flat- E flat in bass clef) stretch from fine tuning connectors attached to the end of the resonator. across the bridge and above the fretboard to four large-headed pegs in the tuning box. Three subsidiary drone strings tuned to the tonic, fifth, and upper tonic (E flat - B flat- E flat in the tuning given above) cross a curving side bridge leaning against the main bridge, and stretch on the player's side of the neck to three pegs matching those of the main playing strings. All seven strings today are of steel, with the lower strings often wound like those of the lower strings of a guitar.

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WIND INSTRUMENTS

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A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require buzzing into a metal mouthpiece.



DIVJE BABE FLUTR:
The Divje Babe flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it is the world's oldest musical instrument,but this is in dispute. The continuing dispute notwithstanding, the artifact remains on prominent public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum's visitor leaflet maintains that manufacture by Neanderthals "is reliably proven".

In 1995, Ivan Turk found an approximately 43,100 year-old juvenile cave bear femur at the Divje Babe site, near a Mousterian hearth.

SOUSAPHONE:
The sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the tubist and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried. The instrument is named after American bandmaster and composer John Philip Sousa, who popularized its use in his band.

The sousaphone is a valved brass instrument with the same tube length and musical range as other tubas. The sousaphone's shape is such that the bell is above the tubist's head and projecting forward. The valves are situated directly in front of the musician slightly above the waist and most of the weight rests on one shoulder. The bell is normally detachable from the instrument body to facilitate transportation and storage. Excepting the instrument's general shape and appearance, the sousaphone is technically very similar to a standard (upright) tuba.


TUBAX:
The tubax is a modified saxophone developed in 1999 by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim. It is available in both E♭ contrabass and B♭ or C subcontrabass sizes. It is a portmanteau between the words "tuba" and "sax."[citation needed]
Although the Tubax has the same fingering, mouthpiece, and reed as a regular saxophone, there is some controversy over whether it is technically a true saxophone since it has a much narrower (though still conical) bore. Some suggest this narrow-bore design makes the Tubax akin to the double-reed sarrusophone; however, the Tubax's bore is much larger than the corresponding size of sarrusophone's and its sound has a richer timbre and noticeably more acoustical presence.


The first size of Tubax to be developed was the E♭ contrabass. It has the same register as a regular contrabass saxophone but is much more compact and thus more manageable due to its tubing being folded more times. It takes a baritone saxophone mouthpiece. While the timbre of the E♭ Tubax is more focused and compact than that of the full-sized contrabass saxophone, it still blends well with other sizes of saxophones and can be played with great agility due to its air-efficient bore design.

SAXOPHONE:
The saxophone (also referred to simply as sax) is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841. He wanted to create an instrument that would both be the loudest of the woodwinds and the most versatile of the brass, and would fill the then vacant middle ground between the two sections. He patented the sax in 1846 in two groups of seven instruments each. Each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for military bands, has proved extremely popular and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. A few saxophones remain from the less popular orchestral series pitched in C and F.
While proving very popular in its intended niche of military band music, the saxophone is most commonly associated with popular music, big band music, blues, early rock and roll, ska and particularly jazz. There is also a substantial repertoire of concert music in the classical idiom for the members of the saxophone family. Saxophone players are called saxophonists.

The saxophone consists of an approximately conical tube of thin metal, most commonly brass, flared at the tip to form a bell. At intervals along the tube are between 20 and 23 tone holes of varying size, including two very small 'speaker' holes to assist the playing of the upper register. These holes are covered by keys (also known as pad cups), containing soft leather pads, which are closed to produce an airtight seal; at rest some of the holes stand open and others are closed. The keys can be controlled by a number of buttons by the left and right fingers, while the right thumb sits under a thumb rest which helps keep the saxophone balanced. The fingering for the saxophone is a combination of that of the oboe with the Boehm system, and is very similar to the flute or the upper register of the clarinet. On the larger instruments, the leverage required to play the very lowest notes (which are customarily played with the left and right little fingers) is great enough that additional keywork is introduced to enable these to be played with the thumbs.

SAXHOHN:

The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a tapered bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece. The sound has a characteristic mellow quality, and blends well with other brass.

Developed during the mid to late 1830s, the saxhorn family was patented in Paris in 1845 by Adolphe Sax. Sax's claim to have invented the instrument was hotly contested by other brass instrument makers during his lifetime, leading to various lawsuits. Throughout the mid-1850s, he continued to experiment with the instrument's valve pattern.

FLUGEHORN:

The flugelhorn (also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn or flügelhorn) is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax (who also developed the saxophone); however, other historians assert that it derives from the keyed bugle designed by Michael Saurle (father), Munich 1832 (Royal Bavarian privilege for a "chromatic Flügelhorn" 1832), thus predating Adolphe Sax's innovative work.

The flugelhorn is built in the same B♭ pitch as many trumpets and cornets. It usually has three piston valves and employs the same fingering system as other brass instruments, but four valve and rotary valve variants also exist. It can thus be played without too much trouble by trumpet and cornet players, though some adaptation to their playing style may be needed. It is usually played with a more deeply conical mouthpiece than either trumpets or cornets (though not as conical as a horn mouthpiece).

CORNET:

The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B♭. It is not related to the medieval cornett or cornetto.

This instrument could not have been developed without the improvement of piston valves by Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel. In the early 19th century, these two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented the modern valves, as still used today. They jointly applied for a patent and were granted this for a period of ten years. The first notable virtuoso player was Jean Baptiste Arban, who studied the cornet extensively and published La grande méthode complète de cornet à piston et de saxhorn, commonly referred to as the Arban method, in 1864. Up until the early 20th century, the trumpet and cornet coexisted in musical ensembles. In symphonic repertoire one will often find separate parts for both trumpet and cornet. As several instrument builders made improvements to both instruments, they started to look and sound more alike. The modern day cornet is used in brass bands, concert bands, and in specific symphonic repertoire that requires a more mellow sound.

TRUMPET:

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC. They are constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape, and are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet.
There are several types of trumpet; the most common is a transposing instrument pitched in B♭. The predecessors to trumpets did not have valves; however, modern trumpets have either three piston valves or three rotary valves, each of which increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch.

The trumpet is constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape. The trumpet and trombone share a roughly cylindrical bore which results in a bright, loud sound. The bore is actually a complex series of tapers, smaller at the mouthpiece receiver and larger just before the flare of the bell begins; careful design of these tapers is critical to the intonation of the instrument. By comparison, the cornet and flugelhorn have conical bores and produce a more mellow tone.
As with all brass instruments, sound is produced by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound into the mouthpiece and starting a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet. The player can select the pitch from a range of overtones or harmonics by changing the lip aperture and tension (known as the embouchure). Modern trumpets also have three piston valves, each of which increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch. The first valve lowers the instrument's pitch by a whole step (2 semitones), the second valve by a half step (1 semitone), and the third valve by one-and-a-half steps (3 semitones). When a fourth valve is present, as with some piccolo trumpets, it lowers the pitch a perfec fourth (5 semitones). Used singly and in combination these valves make the instrument fully chromatic, i.e., able to play all twelve pitches of Western music. The sound is projected outward via the bell.
The trumpet's harmonic series is closely matched to the musical scale, but there are some notes in the series which are a compromise and thus slightly off key; these are known as wolf tones. Some trumpets have a slide mechanism built in to compensate.
The mouthpiece has a circular rim which provides a comfortable environment for the lips' vibration. Directly behind the rim is the cup, which channels the air into a much smaller opening (the back bore or shank) which tapers out slightly to match the diameter of the trumpet's lead pipe. The dimensions of these parts of the mouthpiece affect the timbre or quality of sound, the ease of playability, and player comfort. Generally, the wider and deeper the cup, the darker the sound and timbre.

EUPHONIUM:

The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" (eu means "well" or "good" and phonium means "voice"). The euphonium is a valved instrument; nearly all current models are piston valved, though rotary valved models do exist.
A person who plays euphonium is sometimes called a euphophonist

The euphonium is pitched in concert B♭, meaning that when no valves are in use the instrument will produce partials of the B♭ harmonic series. In North America, music for the instrument is usually written in the bass clef at concert pitch (that is, without transposition), though treble clef euphonium parts, transposing down a major ninth, are included in much concert band music.In the British-style brass band tradition, euphonium music is always written this way. It can also be written in tenor clef at concert pitch, which is usually done to prevent too many ledger lines in case it is a high part. In continental European music, parts for the euphonium are sometimes written in the bass clef a major second higher than sounding.
Professional models have three top-action valves, played with the first three fingers of the right hand, plus a "compensating" fourth valve, generally found midway down the right side of the instrument, played with the left index finger; such an instrument is shown in the above picture. Beginner models often have only the three top-action valves, while some intermediate "student" models may have a fourth top-action valve, played with the fourth finger of the right hand. Compensating systems are expensive to build, and there is in general a wide discrepancy in price between compensating and non-compensating models. For a thorough discussion of the valves and the compensation system, see the article on brass instruments.

RECORDER:

The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes — whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple. It is distinguished from other members of the family by having holes for seven fingers (the lower one or two often doubled to facilitate the production of semitones) and one for the thumb of the uppermost hand. The bore of the recorder is tapered slightly, being widest at the mouthpiece end and narrowest at the top on Baroque recorders, or flared almost like a trumpet at the bottom on Renaissance instruments.

The recorder was popular in medieval times but declined in the 18th century in favour of orchestral woodwind instruments, such as the flute, oboe, and clarinet. During its heyday, the recorder was traditionally associated with birds, shepherds, miraculous events, funerals, marriages and amorous scenes. Images of recorders can be found in literature and artwork associated with all these. Purcell, Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi used the recorder to suggest shepherds and birds in their music, a theme that continued in 20th century music.The recorder was revived in the 20th century, partly in the pursuit of historically informed performance of early music, but also because of its suitability as a simple instrument for teaching music and its appeal to amateur players. Today, it is often thought of as a child's instrument, but there are many professional players who demonstrate the instrument's full solo range. The sound of the recorder is remarkably clear and sweet, partly because of the lack of upper harmonics and predominance of odd harmonics in the sound.

PULLANGUZHAL:
The venu (Sanskrit: वेणु; veṇu) is a bamboo transverse flute used in the Carnatic music of South India. Although it is often called Carnatic flute or simply flute in English, venu is the instrument's ancient Sanskrit name. It is also called by various other names in the languages of South India, including pullankuzhal (புல்லாங்குழல்) in Tamil and also in Malayalam), and koLalu in Kannada. It is known as venu in Telugu (Andhra Pradesh).
One of the oldest musical instruments of India, the instrument is a keyless transverse flute made of bamboo. The fingers of both hands are used to close and open the holes. It has a blowing hole near one end, and eight closely placed finger holes. The instrument comes in various sizes.
The venu is associated with the Hindu god Krishna, who is often depicted playing it. This kind of flute is mainly used in South India, and also goes by the name Venu.

The venu is capable of producing two and half octaves with the help of blowing - overblowing and cross fingering. The flute is like the human voice in that it is monophonous and also has the two and half octaves sound reproduction. Sliding the fingers on and off the holes allows for a great degree of ornamentation, important in the performance of raga-based music.The venu's north Indian counterpart is called bansuri.

PICCOLO:

The piccolo (Italian for small ) is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the piccolo's alternative name, the "ottavino". It is the highest-pitched instrument in an orchestra or band. Now only manufactured in C, piccolos were once made in D♭, as well. It was for that instrument that John Philip Sousa wrote his famous march, "Stars and Stripes Forever."
In the orchestral setting, the piccolo player is often designated as Piccolo/Flute III or even Assistant Principal. The larger orchestras have designated this position as a Solo position due to the demands of the literature. Piccolos are often orchestrated to double (i.e. to play together with) the violins or the flutes, adding sparkle and brilliance to the overall sound because of the aforementioned one-octave transposition upwards.

The piccolo was originally made out of wood and was featured in many prominent composers' works. One of the earliest pieces to use the piccolo was Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, only playing during the final (IV) movement. Today, the piccolo can be found made from a range of materials, from plastic (or resin), to silver, to wood. Finely-made piccolos often come with a similar variety of options as the flute, such as the split-E mechanism

PEPA:

It is usually with a very short stem made from small diameter bamboo/cane/reed with the end away from the mouth capped with the horn of a buffalo.
It is an integral part of the culture of Assam.

As the bufallo population is dwindling gradually in Assam due to shrinking pastoral lands,getting a pepa is very difficult these days. Cost of a pepa in market has reached even Rs 2500.

OCTAVIN:

The octavin is a woodwind instrument with a conical bore and a single reed. As such it resembles a saxophone, and its range is similar to that of a soprano saxophone, but the octavin differs in three respects: first, its conical bore has a smaller taper than that of a saxophone; second, its body is made of wood, rather than metal; third, its usual shape is similar to that of a bassoon, having two parallel straight sections joined at the bottom, with the mouthpiece attached to the top of one section and a metal bell to the top of the other. (A few straight octavins exist, having a wooden bell; in this configuration it resembles a tarogato but has a smaller taper.) The instrument was produced in B♭ and C. One writer (Altenberg) mentions a bass octavin but no such instrument is known to have been produced. The (written) range of the octavin is from G♯3 to G6.

While invention of the octavin around 1893 is sometimes attributed to Julius Jehring, Oskar Adler and Hermann Jordan of Markneukirchen patented it.
The octavin never caught on and is an extremely rare instrument, though the American composer Jeff Britting (b. 1957) has composed a sonatina for octavin.

OBOE:

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of haut ("high, loud") and bois ("wood, woodwind"). A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist. Careful manipulation of embouchure and air pressure allows the player to express a large range of timbre and dynamics.

The oboe is pitched in concert C and has a mezzo-soprano to soprano range. Orchestras frequently tune to a concert A (usually A440) played by the oboe. According to the League of American Orchestras, this is done because the pitch of the oboe is secure and its penetrating sound makes it ideal for tuning purposes. The pitch of the oboe is affected by the way in which the reed is made. Variations in cane and other construction materials, the age of the reed, and differences in scrape and length of reed can affect the pitch of the instrument.


DUDUK:

The duduk (pronounced [duˈduk]) is a traditional woodwind instrument of Armenian origins, used famously in the 2000 movie Gladiator.

The duduk is a double reed instrument which has ancient origins, said to be from 1500 to 3000 years old. The earliest instruments similar to the duduk's present form are made of bone or entirely of cane. Today the duduk is exclusively made of wood with a large double reed.


CONTRABASS FLUTE:
The contrabass flute (sometimes also called octobass flute) is one of the rarer members of the flute family. It is used mostly in flute ensembles. Its range is similar to that of the regular concert flute, except that it is pitched two octaves lower; the lowest performable note is two octaves below middle C (the lowest C on the cello). Many contrabass flutes in C are also equipped with a low B, (in the same manner as many modern standard sized flutes are.) Contrabass flutes are only available from select flute makers.

The contrabass flute requires much greater force of breath to produce sound than most other wind instruments, and composers who write for this instrument might consider more frequent breaks in phrasing than one would when writing for smaller flutes. The contribution that the addition of the contrabass flute has made to the composition of flute choirs is enormous, offering at last the grounding of a true and deep bass sound. A wider, slower air stream is needed to produce a solid tone.


CLARINET:
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed.
Clarinets actually comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. It is the largest such instrument family, with more than a dozen types. Of these many are rare or obsolete, and music written for them is usually played on one of the more common size instruments. The unmodified word clarinet usually refers to the B♭ soprano clarinet, by far the most common clarinet.

Clarinet bodies have been made from a variety of materials including wood, plastic, hard rubber, metal, resin, and ivory. The vast majority of clarinets used by professional musicians are made from African hardwood, M'Pingo or grenadilla, rarely (because of diminishing supplies) Honduran rosewood and sometimes even cocobolo. Historically other woods, notably boxwood, were used.
Most modern inexpensive instruments are made of plastic resin, such as ABS. These materials are sometimes called "resonite", which is Selmer's trademark name for its particular type of plastic.
Metal soprano clarinets were popular in the early twentieth century, until plastic instruments supplanted them; metal construction is still used for the bodies of some contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, and for the necks and bells of nearly all alto and larger clarinets.
Ivory was used for a few 18th century clarinets, but it tends to crack and does not keep its shape well.



ARGHUL:
The arghul (Arabic: أرغول or يرغول‎), also spelled argul, arghoul, arghool, argol, or yarghul (Palestine), is a traditional Arabic musical instrument. It has been used since Ancient Egyptian times and is still used as a traditional instrument in Egypt.


The arghul is a double-pipe, single-reed woodwind instrument that consists of two tubes: a melody pipe with between five and seven holes and a longer drone (Arabic ardiyya, "ground") pipe. Its tone is similar to that of a clarinet, although a bit reedier. Unlike the similar mijwiz, the arghul only has fingering holes on one of the instrument's pipes, and the drone pipe has a detachable length that allows the player to alter the pitch of the drone.

BASSOON:
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature. The bassoon is a non-transposing instrument known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, variety of character, and agility. Listeners often compare its warm, dark, reedy timbre to that of a male baritone voice.


The bassoon is made through a process that is hard and a vigorous task. First they must have the perfect woods or plastic. Bassoons sound better and have a better tone quality when the are made of wood. If they are using plastic the best they usually use is polypropylene. Second, the wood must be shaven down to size and get the fingering holes made and the key holes drilled. Next they put a liquid material on it that gives it its glossy shine and to protect it from outside forces. Next they let it dry for around a couple of days. Then they put the keys on it. It is then given treatment so that they can cork it: a process that makes it where the cork can be applied onto the bassoon. To continue they try out the bassoon with a good bocal and a good reed; then they put it together finally. If it doesn't have a good tone depending on the kind of bassoon it is, they will either trash it and make a new one or they will try to fix it and tune it up.

BASS CLARINET:
The bass clarinet' is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common sopran B♭ clarinet, it is usually pitched in B♭ (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B♭), but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B♭ clarinet.Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare.

The bass clarinet' is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B♭ clarinet, it is usually pitched in B♭ (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B♭), but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B♭ clarinet. Bass clarinets in other keys, notably C and A, also exist, but are very rare.

BASS FLUTE:
The bass flute is the bass member of the flute family. It is in the key of C, pitched one octave below the concert flute. Because of the length of its tube (approximately 146 cm), it is usually made with a "J" shaped head joint, which brings the embouchure hole within reach of the player. It is usually only used in flute choirs, as it is easily drowned out by other instruments of comparable register, such as the clarinet.


The instrument's sounding range is from C3, one octave below middle C, to C6 two ledger lines above the staff. Bass flute music is written an octave higher than it sounds which is the typical concert flute range (C4 to C7). Notes written above A6 are not often used as they are difficult to produce and have inferior tone. Because manufacturers do not taper the flute body through the curve, intonation of all notes beginning with written D6 and higher tend sharp. The player can bend them in tune through blowing technique or use alternate fingerings.

HARMONICA:
The harmonica is a free reed wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes (reed chambers) or multiple holes. The pressure caused by blowing or drawing air into the reed chambers causes a reed or multiple reeds to vibrate up and down creating sound. Each chamber has multiple, variable-tuned brass or bronze reeds which are secured at one end and loose on the other end, with the loose end vibrating and creating sound.

Reeds are pre-tuned to individual tones, and each tone is determined according to the size of reed. Longer reeds make deep, low sounds and short reeds make higher-pitched sounds. On certain types of harmonica the pre-tuned reed can be changed (bending a note) to another note by redirecting air flow into the chamber. There are many types of harmonicas, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, orchestral, and bass versions.

ALBOKA:

The alboka is a double hornpipe or clarinet native to the Basque Country.
Although the alboka is a woodwind instrument, its name is derived from the Arabic "al-bûq" (البوق) (literally "the trumpet" or "the horn"). Though long identified with the Basque people, according to some scholars the instrument was originally native to Asia and may have been brought into Iberia by the Arab conquest. It was evidently already established in Spain by the time of the 13th-century "Poema de Alexandre," in which it is mentioned by name, and there are apparent representations of the instrument in surviving medieval sculptural church decorations.


Among recent players of the instrument are Ibon Koteron and Alan Griffin, an Irish-born member of a Basque ensemble named after the instrument.


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