A Comprehensive Background and Overview Of Musical Instruments We Use Across History

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who plays a musical instrument is known as an instrumentalist. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for rituals, such as a horn to signal success on the hunt, or a drum in a religious ceremony. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications and technologies.

The exact date and specific origin of the first device considered a musical instrument, is widely disputed. The oldest object identified by scholars as a musical instrument, is a simple flute, dated back 50,000–60,000 years. Many scholars date early flutes to about 40,000 years ago. Many historians believe that determining the specific date of musical instrument invention is impossible, as the majority of early musical instruments were constructed of animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable, bio-degradable materials. Additionally, some have proposed that lithophones, or stones used to make musical sounds—like those found at Sankarjang in India—are examples of prehistoric musical instruments.

Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world. However, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the post-classical era, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, and Europeans played instruments originating from North Africa. Development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments.

By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in many areas and was dominated by the Occident. During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly 1750 to 1900, many new musical instruments were developed. While the evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the 20th century, the proliferation of electricity led to the invention of new electric and electronic instruments, such as electric guitars, synthesizers, and the theremin.

Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, and many systems of classification have been used over the years. Instruments can be classified by their effective range, material composition, size, role, etc. However, the most common academic method, Hornbostel–Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of musical instruments is called organology.

Definition and basic operation

Bamileke slit drum drummers in Cameroon’s West Province.

A musical instrument is used to make musical sounds. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies — for example, by clapping—to using objects to create music from sounds, musical instruments were born.^[1] Primitive instruments were probably designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment.^[2] The concept of melody and the artistic pursuit of musical composition were probably unknown to early players of musical instruments. A person sounding a bone flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the modern notion of “making music”.^[2]

Musical instruments are constructed in a broad array of styles and shapes, using many different materials. Early musical instruments were made from “found objects” such as shells and plant parts.^[2] As instruments evolved, so did the selection and quality of materials. Virtually every material in nature has been used by at least one culture to make musical instruments.^[2] One plays a musical instrument by interacting with it in some way — for example, by plucking the strings on a string instrument, striking the surface of a drum, or blowing into an animal horn.^[2]

Archaeology

Researchers have discovered archaeological evidence of musical instruments in many parts of the world. One disputed artifact (the Divje Babe flute) has been dated to 67,000 years old, but consensus solidifies around artifacts dated back to around 37,000 years old and later. Artifacts made from durable materials, or constructed using durable methods, have been found to survive. As such, the specimens found cannot be irrefutably placed as the earliest musical instruments.^[3]

Found in Slovenia, the Divje Babe Flute is sometimes considered the world’s oldest known musical instrument

The Divje Babe Flute is a perforated bone discovered in 1995, in the northwest region of Slovenia by archaeologist Ivan Turk. Its origin is disputed, with many arguing that it is most likely the product of carnivores chewing the bone,^[4] but Turk and others argue that it is a Neanderthal-made flute. With its age estimated between 43,400 and 67,000 years old, it would be the oldest known musical instrument and the only Neanderthal musical instrument.^[5]

Mammoth bone and swan bone flutes have been found dating back to 30,000 to 37,000 years old in the Swabian Alps of Germany. The flutes were made in the Upper Paleolithic age, and are more commonly accepted as being the oldest known musical instruments.^[6]

Archaeological evidence of musical instruments was discovered in excavations at the Royal Cemetery in the Sumerian city of Ur. These instruments, one of the first ensembles of instruments yet discovered, include nine lyres (the Lyres of Ur), two harps, a silver double flute, a sistrum and cymbals. A set of reed-sounded silver pipes discovered in Ur was the likely predecessor of modern bagpipes.^[7] The cylindrical pipes feature three side holes that allowed players to produce a whole-tone scale.^[8] These excavations, carried out by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, uncovered non-degradable fragments of instruments and the voids left by the degraded segments that, together, have been used to reconstruct them.^[9] The graves these instruments were buried in have been carbon dated to between 2600 and 2500 BC, providing evidence that these instruments were used in Sumeria by this time.^[10]

Archaeologists in the Jiahu site of central Henan province of China have found flutes made of bones that date back 7,000 to 9,000 years,^[11] representing some of the “earliest complete, playable, tightly-dated, multinote musical instruments” ever found.^[11]^[12]

History

Prehistoric

Antiquity

Post-classical era/Middle Ages

During the period of time loosely referred to as the post-classical era and Europe in particular as the Middle Ages, China developed a tradition of integrating musical influence from other regions. The first record of this type of influence is in 384 AD, when China established an orchestra in its imperial court after a conquest in Turkestan. Influences from Middle East, Persia, India, Mongolia, and other countries followed. In fact, Chinese tradition attributes many musical instruments from this period to those regions and countries.^[62] Cymbals gained popularity, along with more advanced trumpets, clarinets, pianos, oboes, flutes, drums, and lutes.^[63] Some of the first bowed zithers appeared in China in the 9th or 10th century, influenced by Mongolian culture.^[64]

India experienced similar development to China in the post-classical era; however, stringed instruments developed differently as they accommodated different styles of music. While stringed instruments of China were designed to produce precise tones capable of matching the tones of chimes, stringed instruments of India were considerably more flexible. This flexibility suited the slides and tremolos of Hindu music. Rhythm was of paramount importance in Indian music of the time, as evidenced by the frequent depiction of drums in reliefs dating to the post-classical era. The emphasis on rhythm is an aspect native to Indian music.^[65] Historians divide the development of musical instruments in medieval India between pre-Islamic and Islamic periods due to the different influence each period provided.^[66]

The Alboka has a double-reed that vibrates when blown on the small tube. The tubes regulates the melody and the big horn amplifies the sound.

In pre-Islamic times, idiophones such as handbells, cymbals, and peculiar instruments resembling gongs came into wide use in Hindu music. The gong-like instrument was a bronze disk that was struck with a hammer instead of a mallet. Tubular drums, stick zithers (veena), short fiddles, double and triple flutes, coiled trumpets, and curved India horns emerged in this time period.^[67] Islamic influences brought new types of drum, perfectly circular or octagonal as opposed to the irregular pre-Islamic drums.^[68] Persian influence brought oboes and sitars, although Persian sitars had three strings and Indian version had from four to seven.^[69] The Islamic culture also introduced double-clarinet instruments as the Alboka (from Arab, al-buq or “horn”) nowadays only alive in Basque Country. It must be played using the technique of the circular breathing.

Southeast Asian musical innovations include those during a period of Indian influence that ended around 920 AD.^[70] Balinese and Javanese music made use of xylophones and metallophones, bronze versions of the former.^[71] The most prominent and important musical instrument of Southeast Asia was the gong. While the gong likely originated in the geographical area between Tibet and Burma, it was part of every category of human activity in maritime Southeast Asia including Java.^[72]

The areas of Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula experiences rapid growth and sharing of musical instruments once they were united by Islamic culture in the seventh century.^[73] Frame drums and cylindrical drums of various depths were immensely important in all genres of music.^[74] Conical oboes were involved in the music that accompanied wedding and circumcision ceremonies. Persian miniatures provide information on the development of kettle drums in Mesopotamia that spread as far as Java.^[75] Various lutes, zithers, dulcimers, and harps spread as far as Madagascar to the south and modern-day Sulawesi to the east.^[76]

Despite the influences of Greece and Rome, most musical instruments in Europe during the Middles Ages came from Asia. The lyre is the only musical instrument that may have been invented in Europe until this period.^[77] Stringed instruments were prominent in Middle Age Europe. The central and northern regions used mainly lutes, stringed instruments with necks, while the southern region used lyres, which featured a two-armed body and a crossbar.^[77] Various harps served Central and Northern Europe as far north as Ireland, where the harp eventually became a national symbol.^[78] Lyres propagated through the same areas, as far east as Estonia.^[79]

European music between 800 and 1100 became more sophisticated, more frequently requiring instruments capable of polyphony. The 9th-century Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh mentioned in his lexicographical discussion of music instruments that, in the Byzantine Empire, typical instruments included the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre), salandj (probably a bagpipe) and the lyra.^[80] The Byzantine lyra, a bowed string instrument, is an ancestor of most European bowed instruments, including the violin.^[81]

The monochord served as a precise measure of the notes of a musical scale, allowing more accurate musical arrangements.^[82] Mechanical hurdy-gurdies allowed single musicians to play more complicated arrangements than a fiddle would; both were prominent folk instruments in the Middle Ages.^[83]^[84] Southern Europeans played short and long lutes whose pegs extended to the sides, unlike the rear-facing pegs of Central and Northern European instruments.^[85] Idiophones such as bells and clappers served various practical purposes, such as warning of the approach of a leper.^[86]

The ninth century revealed the first bagpipes, which spread throughout Europe and had many uses from folk instruments to military instruments.^[87] The construction of pneumatic organs evolved in Europe starting in fifth-century Spain, spreading to England in about 700.^[88] The resulting instruments varied in size and use from portable organs worn around the neck to large pipe organs.^[89] Literary accounts of organs being played in English Benedictine abbeys toward the end of the tenth century are the first references to organs being connected to churches.^[90] Reed players of the Middle Ages were limited to oboes; no evidence of clarinets exists during this period.^[91]

Modern

Western Classical

Renaissance

Musical instrument development was dominated by the Occident from 1400 on, indeed, the most profound changes occurred during the Renaissance period.^[18] Instruments took on other purposes than accompanying singing or dance, and performers used them as solo instruments. Keyboards and lutes developed as polyphonic instruments, and composers arranged increasingly complex pieces using more advanced tablature. Composers also began designing pieces of music for specific instruments.^[18] In the latter half of the sixteenth century, orchestration came into common practice as a method of writing music for a variety of instruments. Composers now specified orchestration where individual performers once applied their own discretion.^[92] The polyphonic style dominated popular music, and the instrument makers responded accordingly.^[93]

*The Duet*, by Dutch painter Cornelis Saftleven, c. 1635. It shows a violinist and a cittern player.

Beginning in about 1400, the rate of development of musical instruments increased in earnest as compositions demanded more dynamic sounds. People also began writing books about creating, playing, and cataloging musical instruments; the first such book was Sebastian Virdung‘s 1511 treatise Musica getuscht und ausgezogen (‘Music Germanized and Abstracted’).^[92] Virdung’s work is noted as being particularly thorough for including descriptions of “irregular” instruments such as hunters’ horns and cow bells, though Virdung is critical of the same. Other books followed, including Arnolt Schlick‘s Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (‘Mirror of Organ Makers and Organ Players’) the following year, a treatise on organ building and organ playing.^[94] Of the instructional books and references published in the Renaissance era, one is noted for its detailed description and depiction of all wind and stringed instruments, including their relative sizes. This book, the Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius, is now considered an authoritative reference of sixteenth-century musical instruments.^[95]

In the sixteenth century, musical instrument builders gave most instruments – such as the violin – the “classical shapes” they retain today. An emphasis on aesthetic beauty also developed; listeners were as pleased with the physical appearance of an instrument as they were with its sound. Therefore, builders paid special attention to materials and workmanship, and instruments became collectibles in homes and museums.^[96] It was during this period that makers began constructing instruments of the same type in various sizes to meet the demand of consorts, or ensembles playing works written for these groups of instruments.^[97]

Instrument builders developed other features that endure today. For example, while organs with multiple keyboards and pedals already existed, the first organs with solo stops emerged in the early fifteenth century. These stops were meant to produce a mixture of timbres, a development needed for the complexity of music of the time.^[98] Trumpets evolved into their modern form to improve portability, and players used mutes to properly blend into chamber music.^[99]

Baroque

Beginning in the seventeenth century, composers began writing works to a higher emotional degree. They felt that polyphony better suited the emotional style they were aiming for and began writing musical parts for instruments that would complement the singing human voice.^[93] As a result, many instruments that were incapable of larger ranges and dynamics, and therefore were seen as unemotional, fell out of favor. One such instrument was the shawm.^[100] Bowed instruments such as the violin, viola, baryton, and various lutes dominated popular music.^[101] Beginning in around 1750, however, the lute disappeared from musical compositions in favor of the rising popularity of the guitar.^[102] As the prevalence of string orchestras rose, wind instruments such as the flute, oboe, and bassoon were readmitted to counteract the monotony of hearing only strings.^[103]

In the mid-seventeenth century, what was known as a hunter’s horn underwent a transformation into an “art instrument” consisting of a lengthened tube, a narrower bore, a wider bell, and a much wider range. The details of this transformation are unclear, but the modern horn or, more colloquially, French horn, had emerged by 1725.^[104] The slide trumpet appeared, a variation that includes a long-throated mouthpiece that slid in and out, allowing the player infinite adjustments in pitch. This variation on the trumpet was unpopular due to the difficulty involved in playing it.^[105] Organs underwent tonal changes in the Baroque period, as manufacturers such as Abraham Jordan of London made the stops more expressive and added devices such as expressive pedals. Sachs viewed this trend as a “degeneration” of the general organ sound.^[106]

Classical and Romantic

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart plays the keyboard while his father, Leopold Mozart, plays violin.

During the Classical and Romantic periods of music, lasting from roughly 1750 to 1900, many musical instruments capable of producing new timbres and higher volume were developed and introduced into popular music. The design changes that broadened the quality of timbres allowed instruments to produce a wider variety of expression. Large orchestras rose in popularity and, in parallel, the composers determined to produce entire orchestral scores that made use of the expressive abilities of modern instruments. Since instruments were involved in collaborations of a much larger scale, their designs had to evolve to accommodate the demands of the orchestra.^[107]

Some instruments also had to become louder to fill larger halls and be heard over sizable orchestras. Flutes and bowed instruments underwent many modifications and design changes—most of them unsuccessful—in efforts to increase volume. Other instruments were changed just so they could play their parts in the scores. Trumpets traditionally had a “defective” range—they were incapable of producing certain notes with precision.^[108] New instruments such as the clarinet, saxophone, and tuba became fixtures in orchestras. Instruments such as the clarinet also grew into entire “families” of instruments capable of different ranges: small clarinets, normal clarinets, bass clarinets, and so on.^[107]

A "young boy playing the violin." Beside him is a table with likely a banjo on it. — A “young boy playing the violin” from Glengarry County, Ontario taken [between 1895 and 1910] from the Bartle Brothers fonds at the Archives of Ontario.

Accompanying the changes to timbre and volume was a shift in the typical pitch used to tune instruments. Instruments meant to play together, as in an orchestra, must be tuned to the same standard lest they produce audibly different sounds while playing the same notes. Beginning in 1762, the average concert pitch began rising from a low of 377 vibrations to a high of 457 in 1880 Vienna.^[109] Different regions, countries, and even instrument manufacturers preferred different standards, making orchestral collaboration a challenge. Despite even the efforts of two organized international summits attended by noted composers like Hector Berlioz, no standard could be agreed upon.^[110]

Twentieth century to present

The evolution of traditional musical instruments slowed beginning in the 20th century.^[111] Instruments such as the violin, flute, french horn, and harp are largely the same as those manufactured throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gradual iterations do emerge; for example, the “New Violin Family” began in 1964 to provide differently sized violins to expand the range of available sounds.^[112] The slowdown in development was a practical response to the concurrent slowdown in orchestra and venue size.^[113] Despite this trend in traditional instruments, the development of new musical instruments exploded in the twentieth century, and the variety of instruments developed overshadows any prior period.^[111]

The proliferation of electricity in the 20th century led to a new category of musical instruments: electronic instruments, or electrophones.^[114] The vast majority produced in the first half of the 20th century were what Sachs called “electromechanical instruments”; they have mechanical parts that produce sound vibrations picked up and amplified by electrical components. Examples include Hammond organs and electric guitars.^[114] Sachs also defined a subcategory of “radioelectric instruments” such as the theremin, which produces music through the player’s hand movements around two antennas.^[115]

The latter half of the 20th century saw the evolution of synthesizers, which produce sound using circuits and microchips. In the late 1960s, Bob Moog and other inventors developed the first commercial synthesizers, such as the Moog synthesizer.^[116] Whereas once they had filled rooms, synthesizers can now be embedded in any electronic device,^[116] and are ubiquitous in modern music.^[117] Samplers, introduced around 1980, allow users to sample and reuse existing sounds, and were important to the development of hip hop.^[118] 1982 saw the introduction of MIDI, a standardized means of synchronizing electronic instruments.^[119] The modern proliferation of computers and microchips has created an industry of electronic musical instruments.^[120]

Classification

Main article: Musical instrument classification

There are many different methods of classifying musical instruments. Various methods examine aspects such as the physical properties of the instrument (material, color, shape, etc.), the use for the instrument, the means by which music is produced with the instrument, the range of the instrument, and the instrument’s place in an orchestra or other ensemble. Most methods are specific to a geographic area or cultural group and were developed to serve the unique classification requirements of the group.^[121] The problem with these specialized classification schemes is that they tend to break down once they are applied outside of their original area. For example, a system based on instrument use would fail if a culture invented a new use for the same instrument. Scholars recognize Hornbostel–Sachs as the only system that applies to any culture and, more importantly, provides the only possible classification for each instrument.^[122]^[123] The most common classifications are strings, brass, woodwind, and percussion.

Ancient systems

An ancient Hindu system named the Natya Shastra, written by the sage Bharata Muni and dating from between 200 BC and 200 AD, divides instruments into four main classification groups: instruments where the sound is produced by vibrating strings; percussion instruments with skin heads; instruments where the sound is produced by vibrating columns of air; and “solid”, or non-skin, percussion instruments.^[122] This system was similar to some degree in 12th-century Europe by Johannes de Muris, who used the terms tensibilia (stringed instruments), inflatibilia (wind instruments), and percussibilia (all percussion instruments).^[124] In 1880, Victor-Charles Mahillon adapted the Natya Shastra and assigned Greek labels to the four classifications: chordophones (stringed instruments), membranophones (skin-head percussion instruments), aerophones (wind instruments), and autophones (non-skin percussion instruments).^[122]

Hornbostel–Sachs

Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs adopted Mahillon’s scheme and published an extensive new scheme for classification in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. Hornbostel and Sachs used most of Mahillon’s system, but replaced the term autophone with idiophone.^[122]

The original Hornbostel–Sachs system classified instruments into four main groups:

Idiophones, which produce sound by vibrating the primary body of the instrument itself; they are sorted into concussion, percussion, shaken, scraped, split, and plucked idiophones, such as claves, xylophone, guiro, slit drum, mbira, and rattle.^[125]
Membranophones, which produce sound by a vibrating a stretched membrane; they may be drums (further sorted by the shape of the shell), which are struck by hand, with a stick, or rubbed, but kazoos and other instruments that use a stretched membrane for the primary sound (not simply to modify sound produced in another way) are also considered membranophones.^[126]
Chordophones, which produce sound by vibrating one or more strings; they are sorted according to the relationship between the string(s) and the sounding board or chamber. For example, if the strings are laid out parallel to the sounding board and there is no neck, the instrument is a zither whether it is plucked like an autoharp or struck with hammers like a piano. If the instrument has strings parallel to the sounding board or chamber and the strings extend past the board with a neck, then the instrument is a lute, whether the sound chamber is constructed of wood like a guitar or uses a membrane like a banjo.^[127]
Aerophones, which produce a sound with a vibrating column of air; they are sorted into free aerophones such as a bullroarer or whip, which move freely through the air; reedless aerophones such as flutes and recorders, which cause the air to pass over a sharp edge; reed instruments, which use a vibrating reed (this category may be further divided into two classifications: single-reeded and double-reeded instruments. Examples of the former are clarinets and saxophones, while the latter includes oboes and bassoons); and lip-vibrated aerophones such as trumpets, trombones and tubas, for which the lips themselves function as vibrating reeds.^[128]

Sachs later added a fifth category, electrophones, such as theremins, which produce sound by electronic means.^[114] Within each category are many subgroups. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, but remains widely used by ethnomusicologists and organologists.^[124]^[129]

Schaeffner

Andre Schaeffner, a curator at the Musée de l’Homme, disagreed with the Hornbostel–Sachs system and developed his own system in 1932. Schaeffner believed that the pure physics of a musical instrument, rather than its specific construction or playing method, should always determine its classification. (Hornbostel–Sachs, for example, divides aerophones on the basis of sound production, but membranophones on the basis of the shape of the instrument). His system divided instruments into two categories: instruments with solid, vibrating bodies and instruments containing vibrating air.^[130]

Range

Main article: Range (music)

Musical instruments are also often classified by their musical range in comparison with other instruments in the same family. This exercise is useful when placing instruments in context of an orchestra or other ensemble.

These terms are named after singing voice classifications:

Soprano instruments: flute, violin, soprano saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, oboe, piccolo, glockenspiel
Alto instruments: alto saxophone, french horn, alto flute, english horn, alto clarinet, viola, alto horn, xylophone, vibraphone
Tenor instruments: trombone, tenoroon, tenor saxophone, tenor violin, guitar, tenor drum, marimba
Baritone instruments: bassoon, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, cello, baritone horn, euphonium
Bass instruments: double bass, bass guitar, contrabassoon, bass saxophone, tuba, bass drum

Some instruments fall into more than one category. For example, the cello may be considered tenor, baritone or bass, depending on how its music fits into the ensemble. The trombone and French horn may be alto, tenor, baritone, or bass depending on the range it is played in. Many instruments have their range as part of their name: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone horn, alto flute, bass guitar, etc. Additional adjectives describe instruments above the soprano range or below the bass, for example the sopranino saxophone and contrabass clarinet. When used in the name of an instrument, these terms are relative, describing the instrument’s range in comparison to other instruments of its family and not in comparison to the human voice range or instruments of other families. For example, a bass flute’s range is from C₃ to F♯₆, while a bass clarinet plays about one octave lower.

Construction

The materials used in making musical instruments vary greatly by culture and application. Many of the materials have special significance owing to their source or rarity. Some cultures worked substances from the human body into their instruments. In ancient Mexico, for example, the material drums were made from might contain actual human body parts obtained from sacrificial offerings. In New Guinea, drum makers would mix human blood into the adhesive used to attach the membrane.^[131] Mulberry trees are held in high regard in China owing to their mythological significance—instrument makers would hence use them to make zithers. The Yakuts believe that making drums from trees struck by lightning gives them a special connection to nature.^[132]

Two five string Finnish kanteles. Shape of the upper kantele is more traditional, while the one for kantele below is slightly modernised

Musical instrument construction is a specialized trade that requires years of training, practice, and sometimes an apprenticeship. Most makers of musical instruments specialize in one genre of instruments; for example, a luthier makes only stringed instruments. Some make only one type of instrument such as a piano. Whatever the instrument constructed, the instrument maker must consider materials, construction technique, and decoration, creating a balanced instrument that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.^[133] Some builders are focused on a more artistic approach and develop experimental musical instruments, often meant for individual playing styles developed by the builder themself.

User interfaces

The five-manual, 522-stop detached console at the United States Naval Academy Chapel crafted by R. A. Colby, Inc.^[134]

Regardless of how the sound is produced, many musical instruments have a keyboard as the user interface. Keyboard instruments are any instruments that are played with a musical keyboard, which is a row of small keys that can be pressed. Every key generates one or more sounds; most keyboard instruments have extra means (pedals for a piano, stops and a pedal keyboard for an organ) to manipulate these sounds. They may produce sound by wind being fanned (organ) or pumped (accordion),^[135]^[136] vibrating strings either hammered (piano) or plucked (harpsichord),^[137]^[138] by electronic means (synthesizer),^[139] or in some other way. Sometimes, instruments that do not usually have a keyboard, such as the glockenspiel, are fitted with one.^[140] Though they have no moving parts and are struck by mallets held in the player’s hands, they have the same physical arrangement of keys and produce soundwaves in a similar manner. The theremin, an electrophone, is played without physical contact by the player. The theremin senses the proximity of the player’s hands, which triggers changes in its sound. More recently, a MIDI controller keyboard used with a digital audio workstation may have a musical keyboard and a bank of sliders, knobs, and buttons that change many sound parameters of a synthesizer.

Handedness

Jimi Hendrix playing a Fender Stratocaster, 1960s.

Paul McCartney using a Höfner 500/1 bass in 2016.

Antony Blinken at the September 2023 launch of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, playing a Stratocaster.

Many musical instruments are able to be played with either right of left handedness. However, some instruments can be made for the less frequent (≈10%) left handedness, such as guitars. Well known left handed players are Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, and Antony Blinken.

Instrumentalist

“Instrumentalist” redirects here. For the philosophical school, see Instrumentalism. For the magazine, see The Instrumentalist.

A person who plays a musical instrument is known as an instrumentalist or instrumental musician.^[141]^[142] Many instrumentalists are known for playing specific musical instruments such as guitarist (guitar), pianist (piano), bassist (bass), and drummer (drum). These different types of instrumentalists can perform together in a music group.^[143] A person who is able to play a number of instruments is called a multi-instrumentalist.^[144] According to David Baskerville in the book Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, the working hours of a full-time instrumentalist may average only three hours a day, but most musicians spent at least forty hours a week.^[145]