| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banjolele |  | United Kingdom | The banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a banjo-type body and a neck with (typically) sixteen frets (shorter than a banjo, but longer than a ukulele). The banjolele is commonly tuned GCEA ("C Tuning") or ADF#B ("D Tuning"), with a re-entrant 4th string. The ADF#B tuning often produces a more strident tone, and is used for this reason. |
| Banjolin |  | United States | A "banjolin" is a type of 4 string banjo, pitched in the same register as a mandolin popularized in the 1920s. It is tuned and played the same as a mandolin. The major difference it has from a Mandolin is a 10.5- to 11-inch banjo-body which serves to amplify the instrument relative to a standard mandolin (especially important in the days before widespread electric amplification). The banjolin has 4 strings (as opposed to the mandolin and mandolin-banjo which have 4 courses). The scale length and tuning are identical to the mandolin (low to high: GDAE). |
| Bansuri |  | India | The bansuri (Hindi: बांसुरी) is a transverse alto flute of India, made of a single length of bamboo with six or seven open finger holes. An ancient musical instrument associated with cowherds and the pastoral tradition, it is intimately linked to the love story of Krishna and Radha, and is depicted in Buddhist paintings from around 100 AD. |
| Barbat |  | Iran | The barbat is a lute of ancient Persian origin. The barbat originated in Persia in ancient times, and was refined during the Arab age into its current form, called the oud. After the tanbur, it is the oldest string instrument in Iran. The barbat is held similar to a guitar, but care must be taken to have the face vertical so that it is not visible to the player, and to support the weight with the thigh and right arm so that the left hand is free to move around the fingerboard. |
| Baritone Guitar |  | United States | The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. The Danelectro Company was the first to introduce the baritone guitar in the late 1950s. The baritone guitar was not originally popular with players or listeners. However, the instrument began to appear in surf music, as well as background music for many movie soundtracks, especially spaghetti westerns. It also has the ability to be used as a bass guitar if strung correctly. The image shows Clifton Hyde with a Mustapick acoustic baritone guitar; Brooklyn, NY 2007. |
| Baritone Horn |  | United Kingdom | The baritone horn, or simply baritone, is a tenor saxhorn in B-flat, one octave below the B-flat trumpet. In the UK the baritone is found almost exclusively in brass bands. The baritone horn is also a common instrument in high school and college bands, as older baritones are often in the inventory of middle schools and high schools. |
| Baritone Saxophone |  | Belgium | The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" (to avoid confusion with the baritone horn, which is often referred to simply as "baritone"), is one of the larger and lower pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece; this helps to keep the instrument at a practical height (the rarer bass saxophone has a similar, but larger loop). The baritone saxophone is used in classical music (particularly as a member of a saxophone quartet), but composers have rarely called for it in orchestral music. |
| Baroque Guitar |  | Europe | The Baroque guitar is a guitar from the baroque era (c1600-1750), an ancestor of the modern classical guitar. The term is also used for modern instruments made in the same style. The instrument was smaller than a modern guitar, of lighter construction, and had gut strings. The frets were also usually made of gut, and tied to the neck. A typical instrument had five courses , of which either four or five were double-strung making a total of nine or ten strings. The conversion of all courses to single strings and the addition of a bass E-string occurred during the era of the early romantic guitar. The image shows a guitar player (c. 1672) by Johannes Vermeer. |
| Barrel Organ |  | England | A barrel organ is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the same as a traditional pipe organ, but rather than being played by an organist, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by clockwork driven by weights or springs. The pieces of music are encoded onto wooden barrels (or cylinders), which in a sense, replace the keyboard of the traditional pipe organ. |
| Barrel Piano |  | England | A barrel piano (also known as a "roller piano") is a forerunner of the modern player piano. Unlike the pneumatic player piano, the barrel piano was operated by turning a hand crank. Barrel pianos were popular with street musicians, who sought novel instruments that were also highly portable. They are frequently confused with barrel organs, but are quite different instruments. Barrel pianos were first developed in the early 19th century as an attempt to mechanically automate piano music. They never found their way into homes in any significant quantity, instead being favored by street musicians and other entertainers. |
| Bass Oboe |  | England | The bass oboe or baritone oboe is a double reed instrument in the woodwind family. It is about twice the size of a regular (soprano) oboe. The bass oboe is notated in the treble clef, sounding one octave lower than written. Its lowest note is B2 (in scientific pitch notation), one octave and a semitone below middle C, although an extension may be inserted between the lower joint and bell of the instrument in order to produce a low B-flat2. The instrument's bocal or crook first curves away and then toward the player, unlike the bocal/crook of the cor anglais (English Horn) and oboe d'amore, and looks rather like a flattened metal question mark. In Holst's "The Planets" the instrument is used to great effect, providing a unique tone of which no other instrument is capable. |
| Bass Saxophone |  | United States | The bass saxophone is the second largest existing member of the saxophone family (not counting the subcontrabass tubax). It is similar in design to a baritone saxophone, but it is larger, with a longer loop near the mouthpiece. Unlike the baritone, the bass saxophone is not commonly used. The bass saxophone enjoyed some measure of popularity in jazz combos between World War I and World War II, with the bass saxophone used primarily to provide bass lines. |
| Bass Violin |  | Italy | Bass violin is the generic modern term used to denote various 16th- and 17th-century forms of bass instruments of the violin (i.e. "viola da braccio") family. They were the direct ancestor of the modern cello. Bass violins were usually somewhat larger than the modern cello, but tuned the same or sometimes just one step lower than it. The image shows a "great bass viol" or violone, painting by Sir Peter Lely, c. 1640, showing the large size and typical violin shape of a bass violin. |
| Bassoon |  | Germany | The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers and occasionally even higher. It is called das Fagott in German, il fagotto in Italian, and le basson in French. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature. The instrument is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, variety of character, and agility. Its warm, dark, reedy timbre has often been compared to that of a male baritone voice. |
| Batá drum |  | Cuba | A Batá drum is a double-headed drum shaped like an hourglass with one cone larger than the other. The percussion instrument is used primarily for the use of religious or semi-religious purposes for the native culture from the land of Yoruba, located in Nigeria, as well as by worshippers of Santería in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and in the United States. |
| Bawu |  | China | The bawu (巴烏) is a Chinese wind instrument. Although shaped like a flute, it is actually a free reed instrument, with a single metal reed. It is played in a transverse (horizontal) manner. It has a pure, clarinet-like timbre and its playing technique incorporates the use of much ornamentation, particularly bending tones. |
| Bayan |  | Russia | The bayan (Russian: баян) is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after the bard, Boyan. The differences in internal construction give the bayan a different tone color from western instruments, especially the bass has a much fuller sound. Because of their range and purity of tone, bayans are often the instrument of choice for accordion virtuosi who perform classical and contemporary classical music. |
| Bedug |  | Indonesia | The bedug (Javanese: bedhug) is one of the drums used in the Javanese gamelan. Unlike the more frequently-used kendang, the bedug is suspended from a rack and played with a padded mallet. It is similar in size or larger to the largest kendang. It is not adjustable like the kendang, but has pegs holding the two identical heads in place, similar to the Japanese taiko. Its sound is generally deeper and duller than that of the kendang. |
| Begena |  | Ethiopia | The begena is an Ethiopian string instrument that resembles a large lyre. It, often referred to as the Harp of David, was used primarily as an accompaniment during meditation and prayer. Even though the begena has ten strings, only six are actually sounded by plucking. That is, the left hand plucks strings one, three, four, six, eight, and ten. The pointing finger plucks strings three and four while the other fingers are in charge of controlling one string each. The remaining strings are used for the finger rests or stops after the strings have been plucked allowing the plucked string to vibrate. |
| Bell |  | Europe | The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck. The striking implement can be a tongue suspended within the bell, known as a clapper, a small, free sphere enclosed within the body of the bell, or a separate mallet. Bells are usually made of cast metal, but small bells can also be made from ceramic or glass. Bells can be of all sizes: from tiny dress accessories to church bells weighing tons. The image shows the La Piagnona bell, from San Marco Museum in Florence Italy. |
| Bell Tree |  | United States | A bell tree is a percussion instrument, consisting of vertically nested metal bowls. The bowls are placed on a vertical rod with the smallest on the bottom and the rounded part facing up. They are played with a triangle beater or a glockenspiel mallet by sliding the mallet down the tree, producing an effective glissando. |
| Bendir |  | Morocco | The bendir (also called erbeni or arbani) is a frame drum used as a traditional instrument throughout North Africa, more specifically in Morocco. Unlike the tambourine, it has no jingles but most often has a snare (usually made of gut) stretched across its head, which when the drum is struck with the fingers or palm gives the tone a buzzing quality. |
| Berimbau |  | Brazil | The berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, from Brazil. The berimbau was eventually incorporated into the practice of the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, where it commands how the capoeiristas move in the roda. The instrument is a part of Candomblé-de-caboclo tradition. |
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