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musical instrument
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Children playing musical instruments. Bone whistle, c. 10,000 bc; in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, Eng. shofar lamellaphone with bamboo tongues A Sakha group (from eastern Siberia) playing the khomus, a type of Jew's harp. Typically ornate Hardanger fiddle (detail), a Norwegian folk instrument. Musician playing a changgo, a Korean two-headed drum. Tambourine with snare and jingles, detail from an early 14th-century English manuscript (add. 42130, fol. 164); in the British Library, London Sheng; in the Horniman Museum, London.
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Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)
Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz
Gong. Closeup of a khong wong gong circle chime. Thai classical musical instrument, part of piphat ensemble. (percussion, music)
Music Quiz
classical music. A musician reads sheet music and plays a cello (cellist) with violinists in an orchestra. String instruments produce sound waves.
The Sound of Music
Blue electric guitar isolated on white.
Tapping Keys and Plucking Strings
Trumpet musical instrument.
Musical Instruments
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An ancient egyptian hieroglyphic painted carving showing the falcon headed god Horus seated on a throne and holding a golden fly whisk. Before him are the Pharoah Seti and the goddess Isis. Interior wall of the temple to Osiris at Abydos, Egypt.
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Written by
Theodore C. Grame
Author of Folk Music; America's Ethnic Music.
Theodore C. Grame,
Jack Allan Westrup
Professor of Music, University of Oxford, 1946–71; Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, 1947–71. Author of Purcell and many others.
Jack Allan Westrup•All
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
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Last Updated: • Article History

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Morgan Wallen Donates $500K of Musical Instruments to Students • Oct. 29, 2024, 4:42 AM ET (Billboard)
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizerMoog electronic sound synthesizer

The development of electricity led not only to its use for mechanical purposes—for example, to control the key action and wind flow in the organ—but also as a means of amplification (e.g., in the vibraphone). With advances in electronics technology, players can now also make use of computers to generate and store tones and musical patterns. The growth of companies manufacturing electronic and digital instruments has been rapid, and the use of electronic equipment, such as sound synthesizers and recorders using analog or digital media, to produce and combine sound unrelated to the musical scale has become common.

Jack Allan Westrup Theodore C. Grame The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica