A
keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a
musical keyboard. The most common of these is the
piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include
organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and
electronic instruments. In common language, it is mostly used to refer to keyboard-style
synthesizers.Among the very earliest keyboard instruments are the
pipe organ,
hurdy gurdy,
clavichord and
harpsichord. The organ is without doubt the oldest of these, appearing in the 3rd century BC, though this early instrument—called
hydraulis—did not use a keyboard in the modern sense. From its invention until the 14th century, the organ remained the only keyboard instrument. Often, the organ did not feature a keyboard at all, rather buttons or large levers which were operated by a whole hand. Almost every keyboard until the 15th century had naturals to each octave.
The
clarinet is a type of
woodwind instrument. The name derives from adding the suffix
-et (meaning
little) to the Italian word
clarino (meaning a type of
trumpet designed for high-register playing), 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 comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest such woodwind family, with more than a dozen types, ranging from the (extremely rare) BBB♭ octo-contrabass to the A♭ soprano (piccolo clarinet). Of these, many are rare or obsolete (there is only one BBB♭ octo-contrabass clarinet in existence, for example), and music written for them is usually played on the common types. The unmodified word clarinet usually refers to the B♭ soprano clarinet, by far the most common clarinet.
The
saxophone (also referred to as the
sax) is a
conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the
woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a
single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the
clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker
Adolphe Sax in 1846. He wanted to create an instrument that would both be the most powerful and vocal of the woodwinds and the most adaptive of the brass, which would fill the vacant middle ground between the two sections. He patented the sax on June 28, 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. Instruments from the so-called
"orchestral" series pitched in C and F never gained a foothold.
The
bansuri (
Hindi:
बांसुरी,
Nepali:
बाँसुरी,
Marathi:
बासरी Assamese:
বাঁহি,
Bengali:
বাঁশি) is a transverse alto
flute of
Bangladesh,
India and
Nepal made from a single hollow shaft of bamboo with six or seven finger holes. An ancient musical instrument associated with cowherds and the pastoral tradition, it is intimately linked to the love story of
Krishna and
Radha, and is depicted in
Buddhist paintings from around
100 AD. The Bansuri is revered as Lord Krishna's divine instrument, and is often associated with Krishna's
Rasa lila; The word bansuri originates in the Sanskrit
bans [bamboo] +
sur [musical note]. There are two varieties of bansuri: transverse, and
fipple. The
fipple flute is usually played in folk music and is held at the lips like a
whistle. Because it enables superior control, variations and embellishments, the transverse variety is preferred in Indian classical music
The
tabla (or
tabl, tabla) (
Hindi:
तबला,
Marathi:
तबला,
Kannada:
ತಬಲ,
Telugu:
తబల,
Tamil:
தபேலா,
Malayalam:
തബല,
Bengali:
তবলা,
Punjabi:
ਤਬਲਾ,
Nepali:
तबला,
Urdu:
طبلہ,
Arabic:
طبل، طبلة,
Persian:
طبل) is a popular
Indian percussion instrument (of the
membranophone family), similar to
bongos, used in
Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the
Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of
hand drums of contrasting sizes and
timbres. The term 'tabla is derived from an
Arabic word,
tabl, which simply means "drum."
[1] Playing technique involves extensive use of the fingers and palms in various configurations to create a wide variety of different sounds, reflected in the mnemonic syllables (bol). The heel of the hand is used to apply pressure or in a sliding motion on the larger drum so that the pitch is changed during the sound's decay.
Veena is a stringed instrument. It consists of a large body hollowed out of a block of wood. The stem of the instrument is also made of wood. The bridge is placed on the flat top of the body of the veena and the neck attached to the stem is usually carved into weird figure like the head of the dragon.
A gourd which is smaller than the rounded part of the body is fixed underneath the neck. Twenty one metallic frets are fixed on the stem by means of a resinous substance.
The veena has seven strings. Of them four are main strings that pass over the frets and are attached to the pegs of the neck. The other strings are used as side strings for rhythmic accompaniment. These strings pass over an arched bridge made of brass. They lie flat over the top of the body and are secured to the main bridge.
The
santoor is an ancient stringed musical instrument native to Kashmir (India) and
Persia. It is a
trapezoid-shaped
hammered dulcimer often made of walnut, with seventy two strings. The special-shaped mallets (
mezrab) are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers. A typical santoor has two sets of bridges, providing a range of three
octaves.
The Kashmiri santoor is more rectangular and can have more strings than the Persian counterpart, which generally has 72 strings. The santoor as used in Kashmiri classical music is played with a pair of curved mallets made of walnut wood and the resultant melodies are similar to the music of the harp, harpsichord, or piano. The sound chamber is also made of walnut wood and the bridges are made of local wood and painted dark like ebony. The strings are made of steel.