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Traditional and Folk musical instruments
Folk and World Music Instruments
The following is a glossary of international musical instruments. The list is a work in progress and is compiled from interviews with native musicians, generous contributions from record labels, artists and individuals. Credits.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Accordion - a free reed instrument with a keyboard. It was developed in Saxony (Germany) and Bohemia (Czech Republic) and is now common throughout the world in many traditions. Various types include piano and button keyboards, and chromatic and diatonic tunings.
Achere - Cuban Santería shaker.
Acoustic - Any musical instrument that can provide sound without the use of electronic amplification.
Adamo - talking drum (Nigeria).
Ad-duff - frame drum from Mozambique.
Adja - Brazilian metal bell.
Adodo - a cluster of non-resonant bells forged to each end of a metal rod (Ghana).
Adowa drums - Carved drums from Ghana with peg tuning. Fontomfrom and Antumpan are headed with cowskin. The others are headed with antelope skin.
Adufé - Portuguese and Brazilian tambourine.
Adufo - see cuica.
Adungu- a seven to ten stringed harp of the Alur people from Uganda.
Adyá - Cuban metal rattle.
Aerophone - Scientific term for any instrument that produces sound by moving air. Includes all wind instruments, including trumpets and organs.
Afoxe - a Brazilian shaker.
Afuche - a shaker comprised of a dried hollow gourd with a handle and a net of metal beads loosely attached around the outside surface (Brazil).
Agbe - the Yoruba term for a beaded gourd instrument or shaker. Nigeria.
Agboba – A large barrel bass drum from Ghana, 0.9 meters (3 feet) tall, with a closed bottom.
Agogo
Agual - Middle Eastern women's frame drum.
Agüe - Alternate spelling for agbe.
Agwal - Small clay barrel drum used by Taskiwin dancers in the western Great Atlas region of Morocco.
Agwe - Alternate spelling for agbe.
Aiapá - Brazilian shaker.
Aidjé - Brazilian bullroarer
Aita - A stringed instrument from the Baka forest people of southeast Cameroon.
Ajaeng - Korean seven-string zither.
Aji- an Igede tin whistle associated primarily with children’s ensembles (Nigeria).
Akadinda - a very large Ugandan xylophone with twenty-two keys. It is played by four people with the following titles: Omunazi, the first player who plays the main tuneAbaawuzi, the two players who join the first player with the second development to create an intermixtureand Omukoonezi, the one who syncopates the combination of the above with a few repetitions of the musical notes of the above combination.
Akogo - Ugandan thumb piano.
Akoko - rattle made out of nutshells.
Akonting - African long lute from Gambia. It is believed to be one of the direct ancestors of the American banjo.
Akuba African conga drums.
Alboka - Traditional Basque horn instrument built out of cane, wood or animal horn. It has a double reed, like the clarinet, two bamboo tubes, one with five holes, and the other with three. One hand contains a mouthpiece made of horn with a holder for the two reeds. The other end is made of a larger horn, which acts as a resonator.
- Alboka.net, a Web site in English, Spanish and Basque, by Ibon Koteron, with photographs, audio, etc.
Alfandoque South American maracas.
Algozey - a wooden, beaked double-flute traditionally played by goat herders in the Punjab region (India/Pakistan). One flute is kept as the drone, creating a melodious, hypnotic sound. This instrument is popularly used in the Bhangra dance form.
Allun - a frame drum with cymbals used by the Berber Chleuhs of Morocco.
Almirez - metallic mortar used in popular Andalusian folk music (Spain).
Alo - Long hollow gong. Two types, either smooth metal or forged metal. Nigeria.
Alogoza - double flutes, one drone, one melodic (India).
Alumaru - A flute of the Iteso people from Uganda.
Amadinda - Ugandan log xylophone. Also known as embairé.
Amadinda. Photo courtesy of Amadinda
Ambio - A pair of resonant wooden sticks of wood, struck together. Madagascar.
Amponga - the simple cylindrical two-headed drum of Madagascar.
Angklung - tuned bamboo rattles from Java and Sumatra (Indonesia), hung from a frame.
Antara - pentatonic pan flute of the Andes region.
A ntsiva - conch shell (Madagascar).
Aponga - drums (Madagascar).
Arghul - a double reed instrument from North Africa with two asymmetrical pipes. One pipe, the chanter, is dedicated to the melody and usually has 5 or 6 finger-holes. The second pipe, the drone, is much longer and produces a single note. The instrument is played inside the player's mouth using circular breathing. Both pipes are made from reed or other similar materials and are attached together with strings, wax, tar or glue.
Arpa Criolla - Creole harp of Venezuela.
Arpa de boca - jew's harp in Spanish.
Ashiko - A cone shaped drum of the Yoruba people (Nigeria) made with strips of wood placed next to one another and skinned with goat, antelope, or rarely with cow skin. It produces a resonant bass tone when struck in the middle, and a high tone when struck on the rim.
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Ashiko drum. Courtesy of Latin Percussion (LP)
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Aso - wooden xylophone from Benin. Also known as doso.
Atabal - a wide cylindrical double-headed bass drum of the Basque region (Spain and France).
Atabaque - a conical single-headed Brazilian drum shaped in the form of a barrelusually played in threes, each of different size. The smallest drum is called le', the middle drum is called the rumpito and the largest is the rum. Some drums are played with sticks and others with the hands.
Atamo - Ethiopian drum, played by tapping the fingers or the palm of the hand.
Atang - an Igede (Nigeria) brass bell used during funerals and other circumstances.
Atarigane - A Japanese hand gong also known as chan-chiki or kane. It is played held in the hand or suspended by a cord and struck with a deer horn mallet called the shumoku.
Atecocolli- Pre-Hispanic Mexican sea snail.
Atentenben - Soprano bamboo flute from Ghana.
Atoke - small single boat shaped bell from Ghana. It is laid in the open palm and played with a metal striker.
Atsimevu - large lead drum from Ghana.
Attougblan - a large standing drum from the Ivory coast.
atumpan - A talking drum played as a pair with bent sticks by the Ashanti people of Ghana. Normally they use these kind of drums as the master drums of an Adoa ensemble.
Atumpani - big bass drum, single skinned, played with stick or by hand (Ghana)
au ni aau - `Are`are (Malaita, Solomon Islands) panpipes for solo performing made from bamboo
au pasiawa - `Are`are (Malaita, Solomon Islands) two-stringed musical bow for solo performing made from bamboo
au porare - `Are`are (Malaita, Solomon Islands) two-hole transverse flute made from bamboo
au waa - `Are`are (Malaita, Solomon Islands) panpipes played at an angle made from bamboo
au ware - `Are`are (Malaita, Solomon Islands) bundled panpipes played vertically made from bamboo -
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Autoharp - zither with a keyboard chord making mechanism which mutes unwanted strings. Strummed or Picked.
Avaga - Single iron gong. Round shape tapering to handle at one end. Bell has an iron clapper inside. Ghana
Ayochicahuaztli - Mexican metal rattle
Axatse - Gourd shaker of the Ewe people (Ghana). It has beads on a net woven around it. The axatse is typically shaken and struck with the hand and thigh.
Ayacatchtli - Pre-Hispanic Mexican rattles.
ayacaxtli - A Nahuatl (Mexican) rattle made from diverse materials such as gourds, clay, etc.
Last Updated 04/03/2003 12:49PM; 81,680 Hits 
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