Instrument Glossary

Accessory - A subordinate or supplementary item. (i.e. reeds, saxophone strap, mouthpiece, etc)

Accordion - The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox.

Acoustic Guitar - An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings.

Affiliate – Affiliates are a network of music stores affiliated with K&S Music. They have been accepted by K&S Music to offer our products and services.

Alto Saxophone - The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions.

Ashiko - An ashiko is a kind of drum shaped like a truncated cone and meant to be played with bare hands. The drum is played throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas.

Bagpipes - Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from different regions throughout Europe, Northern Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the Caucasus.

Banjo - The banjo is a stringed instrument with, typically, four or five strings, which vibrate a membrane of plastic material or animal hide stretched over a circular frame.

Bansuri Flute - The bansuri is a transverse alto flute of the Indian Subcontinent made from a single hollow shaft of bamboo with six or seven finger holes.

Baritone Horn - The baritone horn, or simply baritone, is a member of the brass instrument family. The baritone horn is a cylindrical bore instrument like the trumpet and trombone.

Bass - The bass is one of the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra.

Bass Clarinet - The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Bass clarinets regularly perform in symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, and play an occasional solo role in contemporary music and jazz in particular.

Bass Drum - The bass drum is a relatively large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch.

Bass Flute - The bass flute is the bass member of the flute family. It is usually made with a J shaped head joint, which brings the embouchure hole within reach of the player. It is usually only used in flute choirs, as it is easily drowned out by other instruments of comparable register, such as the clarinet.

Bass Guitar - The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and four, five, or six strings.

Bassoon - The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestras and concert bands.

Bell Tree - A bell tree is a percussion instrument, consisting of vertically nested inverted metal bowls. The bowls, placed on a vertical rod, are arranged in order of pitch.

Bodhran - The bodhran is a type of Irish frame drum.  A goatskin head is tacked to one side, while the other side is open ended for one hand to be placed against the inside of the drum head to control the pitch and timbre.

Bombard - The bombard is a popular contemporary conical bore double reed instrument widely used to play traditional Breton music.

Brand - A brand is the identity of a specific instrument or product.

Cello - The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of music instruments.

Clarinet - The clarinet is a part of the woodwind family. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest such woodwind family, with more than a dozen types.

Conga - The conga is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent.

Cornet - The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape and mellower tone quality.

Dhol - The dhol is a drum widely used in the Indian subcontinent, especially the Punjab region, and especially among the Sikhs of East Punjab. Apart from Punjab, Dhol has been adapted into the music of other regions throughout South Asia. It is very popular in modern Punjabi music.

Didgeridoo - The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia at least 1,500 years ago and is still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world.

Djembe - A djembe is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands.

Doumbek - A doumbek is drum commonly found in the Middle East and Northern Africa. It is made from clay, wood or metal and comes in a number of sizes. All have a single head usually of goatskin, and are traditionally played under the arm.

Duduk - The duduk is a traditional woodwind instrument popular in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia. The duduk is a double reed instrument which has ancient origins, said to be from 1500 to 3000 years old. The earliest instruments similar to the duduk's present form are made of bone or entirely of cane. Today the duduk is exclusively made of wood with a large double reed.

Electric Guitar - An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric signals. No other musical instrument has had more of an impact on how music has evolved since the beginning of the twentieth century than the electric guitar.

Electric Keyboard - An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument. It shares many of the same features of other electronic keyboard instruments but tends to be a simpler, less-feature-laden and less expensive instrument.

Euphonium - The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. The euphonium is a valved instrument; nearly all current models are piston valved, though rotary valved models do exist.

Flugelhorn - The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore.

Flute - The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening.

French Horn - The french horn is a brass instrument consisting of about 12–13 feet of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell.

Gong - A gong is an East and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.

Harmonium - A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air, supplied by foot-operated or hand-operated bellows, being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion.

Harp - The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. Harps were very prominent in nearly all cultures. The harp was usually found in the hands of medieval bards, troubadors and minnesingers, as well as throughout the Spanish Empire.

Instrument Rental – A musical instrument that is leased or rented out for a fixed period of time. The instrument is returned to the original owner after that time. Buyout options may be available.

Irish Flute - Despite the implication of this commonly used name, the Irish flute is not an instrument indigenous to Ireland. It is in fact a derivative of the English transverse wooden flute, created by inventor and flautist Charles Nicholson and remained important features of English flute-playing until after 1890.

Luthier - A luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments.

Mandolin - A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes, but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections.

Maracas - Maracas are a native instrument of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala and several nations of the Caribbean and Latin America. They are simple percussion instruments are usually played in pairs, consisting of a dried calabash, gourd shell or coconut shell filled with seeds or dried beans.

Mellophone - The mellophone is a brass instrument that is typically used in place of the french horn in marching bands or drum and bugle corps.

Musical Instrument - A musical instrument is used for the purpose of making the sounds of music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the beginnings of human culture.

Kalimba - The kalimba is an instrument in the percussion family. It is a modernized version of the southern African mbira. It is a sound box with metal keys attached to the top to give the different notes. It is also known as the African thumb piano.

Method Books - Method books provide instruction to musicians to help them learn to play and enhance their skills.

Native American Flute - The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound. It is used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals.

Nay Flute - The Nay Flute is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of nay players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids.

Oboe - The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family.

Ocarina - The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. While variations exist, a typical ocarina is an oval-shaped enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body.

Orchestra - An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.

Oud - The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Middle Eastern music.

Piccolo - The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written.

Piccolo Trumpet - The smallest of the trumpet family is the piccolo trumpet. The modern piccolo trumpet enables players to play the difficult trumpet parts of Baroque music and is now commonplace in many musical genres.

Pocket Trumpet - The pocket trumpet is a compact size Bb trumpet, with the same playing range as the regular trumpet. It is a non-standard instrument, not to be found in orchestral brass sections and is used mostly by trumpet players as a practice instrument.

Psaltery - A psaltery is a stringed musical instrument of the harp or the zither family.

Rebab - The rebab is a type of string instrument that was spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Far East. The rebab was heavily used, and continues to be used, in Persian traditional music.

Recorder - The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug. It is distinguished from other members of the fipple flute family by having holes for seven fingers.

Repair - To restore to sound condition after damage occurs to instrument.

Repair Technician - A repair technician is a problem-solver, mechanic, acoustician,  body worker, innovator, painter, tool & die maker, electroplater, buffer, chemist, designer, carpenter and machine tool operator all in one.  Repairing band instruments requires a large number of interdependent skills each requiring a high degree of development. 

Santoor - The santoor is an Indian stringed musical instrument that has over hundred strings.

Sarangi - The Sarangi is a bowed, short-necked string instrument of India. It plays an important role in India's classical music tradition. It is said to be the hardest Indian instrument to master.

Saz - The most commonly used string folk instrument in Turkey and shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia. The saz has seven strings divided into courses.

School Band - A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. It is usually under the direction of one or more conductors or band directors.

Shahi Baaja - The shahi baaja is an electrified and slightly modified version of the Indian bulbul tarang, a type of Indian zither to which have been added typewriter keys which depress several of the strings to change their pitch. The instrument is currently used in everything from semi-classical and popular Indian music to ambient techno, psychedelic rock and even Hebrew fusion music.

Shakuhachi - The shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute that is traditionally made of bamboo. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of meditation.