Instruments
An illustrated atlas of instruments — Western, Chinese, electronic and world — with range charts, how each one makes its sound, and hand-drawn diagrams.
Strings
- BanjoA plucked instrument whose resonator is a membrane stretched over a circular rim, with a short high drone string
- CimbalomThe Hungarian concert hammered dulcimer — legs, a damper pedal, fully chromatic, four octaves, engineered in 1874
- SanturA Persian struck zither with a trapezoid box, two sets of nine bridges and seventy-two strings, played with two light hammers
- ViolA fretted six-string bowed instrument played with an underhand grip — the chamber instrument of the Renaissance
- HarpForty-seven strings and seven pedals on a triangular frame — the strings carry only the diatonic scale
- LutePear-shaped with a ribbed back and several doubled courses — the solo instrument of the Renaissance and Baroque
- MandolinFour doubled courses tuned exactly like a violin, played with a pick — tremolo is its signature
- UkuleleA small four-string nylon instrument whose standard tuning is not in pitch order
- Acoustic GuitarSix steel strings over X-bracing, with the neck joining the body at the fourteenth fret
- Classical GuitarSix nylon strings, fan bracing, and a plucking hand that uses the fingernails
- Double BassThe largest and lowest of the string family — sloped shoulders, fourths tuning, and written an octave above sounding pitch
- CelloThe baritone of the string family, held between the knees — its voice is the closest to a human one
- ViolaThe violin's family sibling a fifth lower — darker in tone, and the glue of the inner parts in an ensemble
- ViolinA bowed instrument whose four strings are tuned in fifths — the highest standing section of the orchestra
Woodwinds
- Pan FluteSeveral closed tubes in a row, one note each — an ancient instrument invented worldwide
- OcarinaA closed-vessel flute whose pitch comes from cavity volume and hole area — hence its free shape
- RecorderThe old duct flute whose air is shaped by a fixed channel — the Baroque's standard solo wind
- Baritone SaxophoneThe largest common saxophone — folded twice and written a major thirteenth above sounding
- Tenor SaxophoneThe sax written a major ninth above sounding — the signature voice of jazz soloing
- Alto SaxophoneA single reed driving a conical metal tube — where the two axes of woodwind classification cross
- Soprano SaxophoneThe straight soprano sax — written exactly like a clarinet, but built on a conical bore
- ContrabassoonThe double-reed an octave below the bassoon — nearly six metres of tube, lower than a double bass
- BassoonA double-reed conical tube folded into a U — the widest-ranging woodwind
- Bass ClarinetA folded low clarinet, written a major ninth above its sounding pitch
- E-flat ClarinetA small clarinet a minor third above the standard one — the brightest spike in the band
- ClarinetA cylindrical tube with a single reed — it overblows a twelfth, which splits it into three distinct registers
- English HornThe F alto oboe — a name that has nothing to do with England, and a bulbous bell
- Oboe d'amoreThe Baroque oboe a minor third lower than the standard one, with a bulbous bell
- OboeA conical tube driven by a double reed — the instrument an orchestra tunes to
- Alto FluteThe G transposing flute — longer, wider and notably softer than the standard flute
- FluteThe only woodwind with no reed — its sound comes from an air jet cut against the edge of the embouchure hole
- PiccoloThe top of the flute family — written an octave below its actual sound
Brass
- Wagner TubaA horn mouthpiece on a tuba-like body — built for The Ring of the Nibelung
- OphicleideThe keyed brass low instrument that held the bass before the tuba
- SerpentA wooden, leather-covered low brass in a snake shape — stopped by finger holes, not valves
- Natural TrumpetThe valveless Baroque trumpet — its notes come from the harmonic series alone
- SousaphoneA tuba coiled to wrap around the body with the bell facing forward — built for marching
- EuphoniumThe brass register between trombone and tuba — the wind band's tenor-bass
- Bass TromboneThe wider-bored trombone with valve attachments — the bass of the trombone section
- TubaThe largest common brass — the bass foundation of orchestra and wind band
- TromboneThe brass whose slide changes the tube continuously — the only one that can truly glide
- French HornThe coiled horn with a funnel mouthpiece — the hardest brass to keep in tune
- FlugelhornThe trumpet family's softest member — the extreme of conical bore and deep cup
- CornetThe more conical valved brass — the mainstay of wind bands and early jazz
- TrumpetThe piston-valve brass driven by vibrating lips — the most agile high brass in orchestra and jazz
Percussion
- HandpanTwo steel hemispheres pressed together — each dent in the surface is a note
- Latin PercussionSeveral instruments, one per player, organised by a shared rhythmic pattern
- Drum KitKick, snare, toms and cymbals assembled into one set — played by a single person with four limbs
- WoodblockA hollowed hardwood block borrowed from East Asia — with a clearer sense of pitch than its cousins
- RainstickA shaken idiophone of internal spirals and grains — its shape of sound set by how fast you tilt it
- MaracasHollow gourds filled with seeds — the underlay of the Latin rhythm section
- Wind ChimesHung metal or bamboo tubes that ring in sheets — and when the wind triggers them, nobody controls the rhythm
- AnvilA real or imitation anvil as an instrument — for smithies and machinery on stage
- WhipTwo boards slapped together for one sharp crack — a marker of downbeats
- ClavesTwo solid hardwood sticks struck together — the timekeeper of Latin music
- CastanetsTwo hardwood shells struck together — the rhythmic core of Spanish music
- CelestaSteel plates struck by a keyboard — a glassy idiophone played by a keyboard player
- Tubular BellsA row of hung metal tubes, one note each — the orchestral imitation of church bells
- GlockenspielSteel bars — the brightest, most transparent idiophone
- VibraphoneMetal bars over resonators with rotating vanes — a shimmering idiophone whose "vibrato" is really amplitude
- MarimbaSofter wooden bars over long resonators — warm, resonant, and capable of polyphony
- XylophoneHard wooden bars over resonators — a dry, brittle, clearly grained idiophone
- GongThe alloy-disc idiophone — unpitched, with an extremely long tail
- CymbalsBronze idiophones struck in pairs or hung singly — an extremely rich, noise-like spectrum
- TambourineA frame drum with a ring of jingles — one instrument straddling both percussion classes
- TriangleA steel rod bent into a triangle — the brightest, most focused idiophone
- Bass DrumThe two-headed membranophone with the deepest low end — in orchestra and drum kit alike
- Snare DrumThe membranophone with snares across its lower head — pitchless, and the heart of military music and the drum kit
- TimpaniThe tunable membranophone drum — the core of orchestral percussion
Keyboards
- HarmonicaA breath-driven free-reed instrument that sounds on both blow and draw, with bends for semitones
- AccordionA portable free-reed instrument whose hand bellows give direct dynamic control
- HarmoniumA keyboard instrument whose foot bellows drives free reeds — an aerophone with a different vibrating body from the organ
- OrganKeys open valves that admit air into pipes — an aerophone whose notes can sustain indefinitely
- ClavichordThe keyboard instrument whose brass tangents strike the strings — dynamic, capable of vibrato, and extremely quiet
- HarpsichordThe keyboard-plucked chordophone — plucking fixes the volume, so colour comes from stops and string sets
- PianoA keyboard-struck chordophone with touch-sensitive dynamics — one of the few full-range instruments
Early Instruments
- Mechanical InstrumentsDevices that store a performance on pinned barrels and paper rolls — they record actions, not sound
- BugleThe valveless military horn — its calls use only the notes of one triad, with all the information moved into rhythm
- Hunting HornA metal horn with no valves and no holes — it can only reach the few points of one tube's harmonic series
- Hurdy-GurdyA crank turns a rosined wheel against the strings — one player, two hands, an unbroken drone plus a melody
- Portative OrganThe pocket pipe organ pumped by the player's own left hand — buying portability with range, volume and polyphony
- TheorboThe lute with an absurdly long neck, built for the continuo bass — low notes from longer strings, not thicker ones
- RacketThe bass double reed whose long conical bore is folded into a column — a bass voice from a pocket-sized body
- CrumhornThe Renaissance woodwind that seals its double reed inside a wind cap — suddenly quiet, undynamic, played in consorts
- ShawmThe Renaissance double-reed ancestor of the oboe — loud, brilliant and built for outdoors
Chinese Winds
- Kouxian (jaw harp)Humanity's first sound — an eight-centimetre plucked idiophone
- Qiang fluteTwo pipes, one octave — the instrument that never entered the palace
- YueOne character, four identities — instrument, measure, bellows, key
- ChiThe flute with a stopped end — one word apart from the dizi
- GuanziFrom Kucha to the Central Plains — how an immigrant got its Chinese name
- BawuA name spliced from two lovers — the talking bawu
- HulusiOne gourd, three bamboo pipes — the melody pipe sings, the drones hum along
- Yu (mouth organ)The sheng grown large — most famous for the time someone did not play it
- Paixiao (Chinese panpipes)Thirteen bamboo tubes in a row — one note each, old name "cencī, the uneven"
- SuonaA wooden pipe with a bronze bell and a reed — an import so loud that the bayin could only file it under the nearest old category
- XiaoThe end-blown bamboo flute with no membrane — three things separate it from the dizi, and one of them can be peeled off on the spot
- ShengThe world's earliest free-reed instrument — pitch comes from the reed, so pressing several pipes sounds several notes at once
- XunA fired-clay vessel instrument whose pitch comes from cavity volume and open area, not from any tube length
- DiziOne bamboo tube, a blow hole, a membrane hole and six finger holes — and a reed membrane that no Western flute has
Chinese Plucked
- ZhonghuThe gap in an ensemble, grown into an instrument
- GaohuIt turned a whole ensemble from hard to soft
- The pipa's civil and martial piecesOne ruler, two faces
- Guqin scores and the jianzipuOne character, one action
- KalongThe same trapezoid — one retunes, the other rebuilds
- ZhamunieA name that is an opinion — "the pleasing sound"
- DombraThe steppe on two strings — and how one instrument speaks in dialects
- DutarA name that says "two strings" — and three ways to divide a lute's strings
- TanburFive strings in three groups — and one root that grew a family
- RawapOne string leads, several strings just ring along
- Duxianqin (one-string zither)One string, one scale — tuning itself becomes the playing
- Yangqin (hammered dulcimer)Two edits to become Chinese — first the hammer, then the name
- LiuqinA willow leaf — and an instrument designed to fill a vacancy
- Yueqin (moon lute)Shaped like a full moon — and the year it was finally declared its own instrument
- KonghouOne name, three instruments — and a craft that travelled without objects
- SanxianChina's three-string, fretless lute — its body is a drum, and that drum is the evidence of where it came from
- RuanChina's round-bodied, straight-necked lute — a name it only received after "pipa" was taken from it
- ZhengChina's bridged zither — the pitch is settled at tuning, so playing means choosing a string, not making a note
- PipaChina's pear-shaped four-string lute — a name that describes a playing action, not an instrument
- GuqinThe seven-string fretless literati zither of China — three ways to sound one note, and thirteen studs that are simply the string's division points
Chinese Bowed
- JinghuThe smallest-bodied huqin — with a range of barely a tenth, because all it has to do is follow a human voice
- BanhuThe erhu's cousin, with its skin resonator replaced by a wooden board — a board that ended up in its name
- ErhuChina's two-string bowed lute with no fingerboard — its range comes from shifting position, not from more strings
Chinese Percussion
- Percussion in Chinese operaWhen the gongs sound, half the play begins — percussion runs the drama
- Bianzhong — tuning and the two-tone bellTwo tones from one bell — a tuning treatise from one set
- Paiban (clappers)A few boards of hardwood — the ruler of Chinese opera
- Hand drum (dap)A timbre map on a single skin — the hand is the only beater
- Pengling (bells)A pair of tiny goblet-shaped bells whose old name is "star"
- Elephant-foot drumA hollowed log, one skin — and a lump of sticky rice
- Bronze drumCalled a drum, and it has no skin at all
- Bangzi (wooden clapper)Two hardwood sticks that gave a whole vocal genre its name
- Paigu (set of tuned drums)Five drums, ten notes — and every one of them can be retuned on the spot
- Xiaoluo (small gong)The smallest gong in the percussion section — and its name is one character
- Bangu (Peking-opera drum)A drum whose sounding area is five centimetres wide — and it conducts the whole company
- Naobo (Chinese cymbals)Two bronze discs striking each other — the beater drops out of the picture
- Daluo (great gong)A bossed bronze disc that gives up pitch and buys distance instead
- YunluoTen pitches on one frame — what a percussion instrument gains once it is laid out as a scale
- BianqingA set of suspended stone chimes — partner of the bronze bells, and an instrument whose tuning can only travel one way
- MuyuA hollowed block of wood with a single slit — no skin, no tube, only the wood itself sounding
- TangguThe double-headed Chinese barrel drum — the first membranophone here, and the first instrument whose pitch does not come from any length
- BianzhongBronze bells whose pitches are cast into the metal — the player holds no pitch, only the choice of when to strike which bell