Acoustic Instruments

By Peter Emerson

In traditional African culture, music has ritual, social, and ceremonial functions along with some solely recreational functions. Musical activities are highly ritualized and are considered to link the invisible world with the visible world. Melodies are generally organized within a scale of four, five, six, or seven tones. Musical instruments in Africa take on sculptural forms that are sacred, elaborate, simple, humorous, and serious, or a combination of all. Irrespective of whether these musical instruments are beaded, carved, painted, or decorated with skins, they send messages about the religious beliefs, artistic styles, and entertainment practices of the people who made them.

Percussion instruments are very popular musical instruments in Africa. Musical instruments of sub-Saharan Africa comprise of a wide variety of resonant solids such as stamping tubes, the mbira (thumb piano), and the xylophone. Mbira is one of the most popular melodic instruments in Africa. The mbira is used in different ways by different cultures and also exists in different forms in different cultures. Mbira may be used for entertainment purpose or for religious ceremonies. Friction sticks, bells, clappers, rattles, cymbals, and sansa are very popular percussion instruments.

Among the popular African instruments, drums are an important musical instrument. There are various parchment-head drums such as kettledrums, cylindrical drums, semi cylindrical drums, goblet drums, barrel-shaped drums, and hourglass drums with variable-tension heads. Many wind instruments are constructed out of horns, tusks, conch shells, or wood. Among wind instruments are flutes made of millet, reed, bamboo, or the tips of animal horns, and gourds. Panpipes, ocarinas, whistle, oboe, horns that are made from elephant tusks or animal horns, and trumpets made of wood, sections of gourd, or metal tubes, single-reed pipes made from millet stalks, and double-reed pipes adopted from Arabic culture are among other African wind instruments. African stringed musical instruments or chordophones include musical bows, zithers, bowed and plucked lutes, arched harps, harp-lutes, and lyres.

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By Peter Emerson

There are hundreds of different kinds of musical instruments in the world. Almost every country has its own traditional music and musical instruments that have been developed over the centuries. Each musical instrument has its own melody, pitch, rhythm, timbre, loudness, and duration, as well as the notes and chords.

Musical instruments can be classified on the basis of the kind of instrument: chordophones (strings), aerophones (woodwinds and brasses), idiophones (percussion), and membranophones (drums). Stringed instruments or chordophones are those that produce sounds when a string is plucked or strummed. The kind of sound produced depends on the mass of the string, length of the vibrating portion of the string, tension in the string, and the point at which the string is strummed apart from the kind of resonating cavity in the instrument. Viola, violin, cello, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, harp, lute, banjo, balalaika, koto, ukulele, etc. are some of the string instruments.

Woodwinds and brasses generate music when air enters the instrument by blowing. This air vibrates inside the instrument in a particular frequency, thus producing sound. The kind of music depends on the method of tone production, the shape of the instrument, the length of the column of air in addition to the construction of the instrument. Flute, piccolo, clarinet, oboe, horn, mouth organ, saxophone, and bassoon are some of the winds instruments, while the French horn, tuba, trumpet, and trombone are brass instruments.

Percussion instruments produce sounds when struck. The size of the instrument along with the shape of the resonating cavity determines the sound produced. Some percussion musical instruments include the cymbals, the snare drum, bells, gong chime, xylophone, the bass drum, maracas, castanet and the timpani.

Drums include the goblet drums, the barrel drum, the frame drum, the tambourine, and the friction drum. Other kinds of musical instruments are the piano, keyboards, organ, harpsichord, and the Glockenspiel. Each of these musical instruments has sub-categories within them. Musical instruments can also be categorized on the basis of their playing levels—some are suitable for all kinds of players while some are meant only for beginners.

Pictures of musical instruments can be found at most music stores that sell musical instruments. Since musical instruments are selected based on the model, it is not possible to have all the models in the store. Hence, most dealers have pictures of some instruments to select from. Pictures are also found in advertisements and classifieds. There are several websites that have attractive and colorful pictures of musical instruments. They also feature exhaustive information about the product. Most of the pictures can also be downloaded on the computer, or they can be viewed online. Having these pictures helps the buyer to make a better choice when ordering the instrument. Pictures are especially useful for locating a particular kind or rare kinds of musical instruments.

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By Peter Emerson

Buying used musical instruments has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, a good quality instrument can be found at a lower price than when compared with buying a new one. On the other hand, there is always an element of risk involved when buying a used musical instrument. Another difficulty is that there are no warranties associated with used instruments, unless the instrument is fairly new. When purchasing a used musical instrument, it is advisable to keep some of these things in mind.

A good way to determine a used instrument’s condition is to know who owned it in the past. If buying the instrument from a garage sale, it may be possible to meet the owner and ask him how long he used it and why it is being sold. If buying it online, make sure that the online shop has a good customer satisfaction rating, or better still, a return policy. There are several Web sites that have attractive and colorful pictures of musical instruments that they are selling. They also feature exhaustive information about the products. Having these pictures helps the buyer to make a better choice when ordering the instrument. Pictures are especially useful for locating a particular kind or rare kinds of musical instruments. If buying it from a music store, ask the salesperson if it is possible to know the name of its previous owner, how long it has been in the store, and other such details.

When buying a used instrument, it is advisable to be accompanied by someone who has a good knowledge of musical instruments. They can help decide whether the instrument is in a good condition by playing it and listening to how it sounds and how it feels while playing it. These things will help decide if the instrument is worth purchasing or not. Research all aspects of the instrument before purchasing it. Find out how much a brand new one costs by going to different music stores. Then compare the prices and the condition of the instruments and decide whether it is a good deal. When the final purchase decision is made, make sure that the money being paid for it is worth it.

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By Peter Emerson

There are hundreds of different kinds of musical instruments in the world. Some of the basic instruments can be made at home while others have to be made professionally. In some cases, homemade musical instruments can be an excellent business venture if the knowledge and expertise has been passed down from ancestors. For some it may be for solely recreational purposes while others may indulge in it for artistic reasons. Children may also get involved in making musical instruments at an early age. This is usually introduced in craft classes at schools or at holiday camps through vocational training.

Learning how to make musical instruments is a process that requires a lot of practice unless it is just for fun. By using materials that are easily available at home or in the market, musical instruments can be made. Old pots and pans can be used as drums and old wooden spoons as drumsticks. A coconut cut in two, with the coconut meat removed, can be used as musical clappers. Old plastic drink bottles and containers filled with dried beans, dried corn, or rice can be used as bottle shakers. Glass bottle xylophones can be made at home by filling old glasses or bottles with different amount of colored water and using spoons or lead pencils to tap the containers to create a new musical tune. Old pieces of dowling cut into shorter sticks and painted can be used as rhythm or lumi sticks. Simply using an empty coffee can or oatmeal box painted or covered with contact paper can be used as drums. Stringing three to four bells onto a large pipe cleaner can make wrist bells. This pipe cleaner can be twisted around the wrist.

These homemade musical instruments can be left plain or decorated. Musical instruments can be decorated with a combination of buttons and glitter or sequins and yarn. Materials such as ribbons, beads, sand, cellophane, crayons, markers, paint, nail polish, construction paper etc are other decorative items. Hence, making musical instruments at home is a fairly simple and enjoyable activity but requires some amount of creativity.

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By Peter Emerson

Like every country has its own traditional music and musical instruments, China also has traditional musical instruments that have been developed over the centuries. Traditionally, Chinese musical instruments have been classified according to the materials they are made up of. These materials are namely, stone, silk, gourd, metal, bamboo, clay, skin, and wood. Among these, the stone and wood instruments have become outdated. Chinese musical instruments may also be classified into string, wind, or percussion instruments. String instruments may be classified into plucked string instruments and bowed string instruments. The older instruments consist of long zithers, panpipes, flutes, the sheng, or mouth organ, and percussion instruments, such as clappers, gongs, and drums. Various lutes and fiddles were introduced later to China from Central Asia.

Erhu is a type of bowed string instrument. It is a two-stringed fiddle and is one of the most popular Chinese instruments in the Hu-qin family. Gao-hu is another bowed string instrument. Gao-Hu is mostly used for high-pitched tunes that Erhu cannot play and frequently used for performing vivid and brisk rhythms. Gao-Hu has louder volume yet brighter tones, and thus it serves as both a solo and leading instrument in performing Cantonese operas and folk melodies.

Pipa is a type of plucked string instrument and belongs to the Lute family. It is a four-stringed lute with 30 frets and pear-shaped body. The Pipa is to be held upright by the instrumentalist and played with five small plectra attached to each finger of the right hand. This musical instrument has a remarkable expressive power and an extremely dynamic range. Yueqin, a plucked string instrument, is a moon shaped lute with shorter neck and four strings. Gugin is another important plucked string instrument, which is like a seven-stringed zither.

Wind musical instruments are very popular in China. A Dizi, traditionally made of bamboo, is the simplest wind instrument. This instrument is especially popular, as it is a low cost instrument and is relatively easy to learn.

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By Ivan Calderwell

When you buy a new acoustic guitar you need to make the right choice and the right choice is always an informed choice. Reading acoustic guitar reviews ensures that you make that right choice as it will either re-inforce your resolve that are making the right decision or dissuade you from buying that acoustic guitar you previously assumed was so good.

There are two kinds of reviews that you need to consider. The expert review first and then the user review. From the experts you will get the complete low down on the guitar you want and how it compares to others. From users you will know whether their purchase has lived up to expectation or not.

If a person has had many years of experience playing the guitar they are definitely qualified to write expert acoustic guitar reviews. The number of guitars they have reviewed should also span that of many different manufacturers and they should also be objective in their reviews so as it does not reflect personal preferences. And if there is any bias it should be justified. The expert reviewer need not be someone with a music degree or anything like that. It just needs to be someone that has in depth experience playing different acoustic guitars whose opinion is going to be balanced and well thought out.

When it comes to finding user acoustic guitar reviews online the best place is websites that offer a number of reviews by a variety of guitarist for each of the instruments. You will need to seek out reviews from guitarist whose type of music match yours. So if you prefer classical guitar play, those are the types of reviewers you should read the reviews of. On the other hand if rock is your thing then that is the reviews you should go and look at.

When you do a search for these reviews, you will more than likely be presented with millions of results. But there are a couple of tricks that will help you filter this information regardless of the type of review that you are looking for. What you should do is put the search term in quotes ie "acoustic guitar reviews". This neat little trick reduces the result found in Google from 1.5 million to just over 20,000, and in yahoo, from 17 million to just 6000 for the term "acoustic guitar reviews".

This trick will also work nicely if you are looking for individual acoustic guitar reviews. For example if you are looking for reviews on the Martin DX1, by just typing it on the search engine you will get almost 40,000 results. But using quotes as in "martin dx1" you will narrow it down to 10,000.

If you want to narrow your search for specific acoustic guitar reviews even more, you can all add the plus (+) sign after the phrase and then the word "review". This will only display sites that have that exact phrase on the website making life even easier. For instance, let’s say you put "martin dx1" + reviews. You will get around 500 results by doing so, giving you more relevant results. But you can also add to this if you need to really pin down on a particular aspect of this type of guitar, like in what colors the guitar come into for example, or anything you are curious in finding out. These two small tips will certainly make your life much easier when you are looking for acoustic guitar reviews and accelerate your decision in whether you want to buy that acoustic guitar you always wanted.

Ivan Calderwell writes acoustic guitar reviews for his site where you can find all the latest acoustic guitars reviewed in his article and more. Check out his site by following this link: acoustic guitar shops.

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By Pat Lee

Instruments are often divided by the way in which they generate sound:

Wind instruments generate a sound when a column of air is made to vibrate inside them. The frequency of the wave generated is related to the length of the column of air and the shape of the instrument, while the tone quality of the sound generated is affected by the construction of the instrument and method of tone production. The group is typically subdivided into Brass and Woodwind instruments.

Percussion instruments create sound, with or without pitch, when struck. The shape and material of the part of the instrument to be struck and the shape of the resonating cavity, if any, determine the sound of the instrument.

String instruments generate a sound when the string is plucked, strummed, slapped, etc. The frequency of the wave generated (and therefore the note produced) usually depends on the length of the vibrating portion of the string, its mass, the tension of each string and the point at which the string is excited; the tone quality varies with the construction of the resonating cavity.

Voice, that is, the human voice, is an instrument in its own right. A singer generates sounds when airflow from the lungs sets the vocal cords into oscillation. The fundamental frequency is controlled by the tension of the vocal cords and the tone quality by the formation of the vocal tract; a wide range of sounds can be created.

Electronic instruments generate sound through electronic means. They often mimic other instruments in their design, particularly keyboards.

Keyboard instruments are any instruments that are played with a musical keyboard. Every key generates one or more sounds; most keyboard instruments have extra means (pedals for a piano, stops for an organ) to manipulate these sounds. They may produce sound by wind (organ), vibrating strings either hammered (piano) or plucked (harpsichord), by electronic means (synthesizer) or in some other way. Sometimes, instruments that do not usually have a keyboard, such as the glockenspiel, are fitted with one.

Brass instruments consist of a tube normally of different length or thickness of which one using a mouth piece (a funnel section placed at the instrument end) would blow into to obtain musical notes.

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