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Types of Musical Instruments and Examples

Physics Topics such as mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism are fundamental to many other scientific fields.

List and Information of musical instruments

We all hear music everyday from radio and television. The various sounds produced in music are called ‘notes’ in English and ‘swara’ in Hindi. The arrangement of sounds of different frequencies called ‘notes’ (or swara) in a way that is pleasant to hear, is called music. When we sing a song, we modulate (or alter) our voice to produce these musical notes or ‘sumra’. The instruments which make musical sounds are called musical instruments. Some of the common musical instruments are : Sitar, Veena, Violin, Guitar, Tanpura, Piano, Harmonium, Shehnai, Flute (Bansuri), Nadaswaram, Tabla, Mridangam, Cymbals (Manjira) and Jal-tarang.

There are mainly four types of musical instruments :

  1. Stringed musical instruments,
  2. Wind musical instruments,
  3. Membrane musical instruments, and
  4. Plate type musical instruments

We will now discuss these four types of musical instruments in somewhat detail, one by one. Let us start with the stringed musical instruments.

1. Stringed musical instruments produce musical sounds by the vibrations of stretched strings (or stretched wires). A string is a piece of thin wire. In a stringed musical instrument, thin metal strings (thin metal wires) are fixed tightly between two points. When the stretched string of a musical instrument is plucked or bowed with the fingers of our hand, the string starts vibrating and produces sound. A stringed musical instrument has usually many strings. These strings are fixed tightly on a large sounding box (which is usually made of wood). The air present in the sounding box increases the loudness of sound produced by vibrating strings. The examples of stringed musical instruments are : Sitar, Veena, Violin, Tanpura, Santoor, Guitar, Piano and Ektara. Sitar is shown in Figure.
Musical Instruments Names and Information 10
When we pluck the string of a musical instrument like sitar, the sound that we hear is not only that of the string. In fact, the whole musical instrument is forced to vibrate and it is the sound of the vibrations of the whole body of the musical instrument that we hear.

2. Wind musical instruments produce musical sounds by the vibrations of air columns inside them. Moving air is called wind. In a wind musical instrument, a column of air enclosed in a wooden tube (or metal tube) vibrates and produces musical sound. We have to pump air (usually from our mouth) into the wind instrument to make it work and produce sounds.
Some of the wind musical instruments are : Shehnai, Flute (Bansuri), Nadaswaram and Trumpet. Harmonium is a keyboard wind musical instrument. A wind musical instrument called flute is shown in Figure.
Musical Instruments Names and Information 11

3. Membrane is a thin sheet of skin. Membrane type musical instruments produce sounds by the vibrations of thin stretched membranes (or stretched skins). In a membrane type musical instrument, a thin membrane fixed tightly over a hollow wooden drum vibrates and produces sound. We have to strike the stretched membrane of the instrument with our hands or with sticks to make it vibrate and produce sound. The examples of membrane type musical instruments are : Mridangam, Tabla, Dholak, Drum and Dhapli. A membrane type musical instrument called mridangam is shown in Figure. Please note that when we strike the membranes of mridangam, the sound that we hear is not only that of the membranes but of the whole body of the mridangam (which is forced to vibrate). Mridangam, tabla and dholak, etc., are actually rhythm instruments (or taal instruments) which musical instruments.
Musical Instruments Names and Information 12

4. Plate type musical instruments produce musical sounds by the vibrations of thick plates (or objects made of plate). The plate type musical instruments are simply beaten (or struck) to produce musical sounds. The cymbals (manjira) is a plate type musical instrument (see Figure). The cymbals consist of two concave brass plates. When the two metal plates of cymbals are struck together, they make a ringing musical sound. The bell used in performing pooja or that in temples is also a plate type musical instrument. The bell is a hollow metal vessel which emits musical sound when struck with a hammer fixed inside it. Noot (or matka) is also a plate type musical instrument which makes sound when struck. Ghatam and kartal are also plate type musical instruments. Jal-tarang is also a kind of plate type musical instrument.
Musical Instruments Names and Information 13

The ‘Jal-tarang’ instrument consists of a number of cups containing different amounts of water. When the cups containing water are struck with two sticks in a proper way, then musical sounds are produced (see Figure).
Musical Instruments Names and Information 14
The frequency (or pitch) of the sound produced in jal- tarang is adjusted by putting the appropriate amount of water in each cup. The cup containing minimum water produces the sound of lowest frequency (or lowest pitch). As the amount of water in the cups goes on increasing, the frequency (or pitch) of the sound produced also goes on increasing. So, the cup having maximum amount of water will produce sound of highest frequency (or highest pitch).

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