Music
instruments are devices constructed or modified with the purpose
of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and
can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as instruments.
The expression, however, is reserved generally to items that have
a specific purpose. The academic study of instruments
is called organology.
Music 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 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.
All classes of instruments save the electronic are mentioned
in ancient sources, such as Egyptian inscriptions and the Bible,
and probably predate recorded history. The human body, generating
both voice and percussive sounds, may have been the first
instruments, or, perhaps, found percussion instruments such as stones
and hollow logs. For instance, nine-thousand-year-old bone flutes
or recorders have been found in Chinese archeological sites. The
oldest known man made instruments is a mousterian bone flute
from the "Divje babe I" cave site (Slovenia), made by
neanderthals around 45.000-50.000 years ago from a cave bear bone.
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