| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edakka |  | India | Idakka is an hourglass-shaped drum from Kerala, south India. They are very similar to the damaru which is found throughout India. Where the damaru is played by rattling knotted cords against the resonators, the idakka is played with a stick. The idakka's pitch may be bent by squeezing the lacing in the middle.The left hand is used for tightening and loosening the tape wound round the middle. Varying the tension of the tape produces variations in tones. Simple melodies extending over one octave can be played in this instrument. The Edakka is one of the five instruments that constitute the panchavadhyam of Kerala. |
| Ektara |  | Bangladesh | Ektara (also called iktar, ektar or gopichand) is a one string instrument used in Bangladesh and India, and Pakistan. In origin the ektara was a regular string instrument of wandering bards and minstrels from India and is plucked with one finger. The ektara usually has a stretched single string, an animal skin over a head (made of dried pumpkin/gourd, wood or coconut) and pole neck or split bamboo cane neck. Pressing the two halves of the neck together changes the pitch, creating an unusual sound. There are commonly three sizes: soprano, tenor and bass. The smallest size gives the highest pitch. |
| Elathalam |  | India | Elathalam is a pair of a small cymbals from India. It is completely made out of bronze. Elathalam is played by keeping one part of the cymbal in left hand banging the other cymbal in right hand. Even seemingly this instrument is small, but it gives a distinct chime. Elathalam, Edakka, Timila, and Maddalam are four percussion instruments used in Panchavadyam, which is an orchestra of five instruments. Panchavadyam originates from Kerala and is a temple associated art form. The fifth instrument is a wind instrument Kompu. |
| Electric Bass Guitar |  | United States | The electric bass guitar is a bass stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. The bass is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and scale length, and usually four strings tuned one octave lower in pitch than the four lower strings of a guitar. In the 1930s, inventor Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, Washington, developed the first guitar-style electric bass instrument that was fretted and designed to be held and played horizontally. |
| Electric Guitar |  | United States | An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered to achieve various tonal effects prior to being fed into an amplifier, which produces the final sound. The electric guitar was first used in jazz and is also long been used in many other popular styles of music, including almost all genres of rock and roll, country music, jazz, blues, ambient (or "new-age"), and even contemporary classical music. |
| Electric Harp |  | Switzerland | Like electric guitars, electric harps are based on their acoustic originals, and there are both solid body and electro-acoustic models available. A solid body electric harp has no hollow soundbox, and thus makes very little noise when not amplified. It is usually lever harp, though solid body pedal harp has also been built. An electro-acoustic harp looks nearly identical to a regular acoustic harp, whether lever or pedal. It too has pickups at the base of each string, and some also contain a separate pickup inside the soundbox, enabling the harpist to mix the signals from both kinds of pickup to produce special effects. The image shows Andreas Vollenweider (a Swiss musician) and his electrically modified harp. |
| Electric Piano |  | United States | An electric piano is an electric musical instrument whose popularity started in the late 1960s, was at its greatest during the 1970s and still is big today. Many models were designed for home or school use or to replace a (heavy) and un-amplified piano on stage, while others were originally conceived for use in school or college piano labs for the simultaneous tuition of several students using headphones. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electronic signals by pickups. |
| Electric Violin |  | United States | An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term can refer to a standard violin fitted with an electric pickup of some type, or to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. Electrically amplified violins have been used in one form or another since the 1920s; jazz and blues artist Stuff Smith (Portsmouth, Ohio) is generally credited as being one of the first performers to adapt pickups and amplifiers to violins. The Electro Stringed Instrument Corporation, National Valco and Vega attempted to sell electric violins in the 1930s and 1940s; Fender produced a small number of electric violins in the late 1950s. Larger scale manufacture of electric violins did not happen until the late 1990s. |
| Electronic Keyboard |  | United States | An electronic keyboard or digital keyboard is a type of keyboard instrument. Its sound is generated or amplified by one or more electronic devices. Electronic keyboard instruments are typically inexpensive, smaller, with mediocre sound quality, and lack many features offered by professional instruments. |
| Electronic Organ |  | United States | An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument originally designed to imitate the sound of a pipe organ. It has developed today into two forms of the instrument, the imitation pipe organ as used in churches, and the Hammond organ-style instrument used in more popular music genres. The imitation pipe organ is often referred to as pipeless or digital organ. |
| Electronic Piano |  | Italy | An electronic piano is a keyboard instrument designed to simulate the timbre of a piano (and sometimes a harpsichord or an organ) using analog circuitry. Electronic pianos work similarly to analog synthesizers in that they generate their tones through oscillators, whereas electric pianos are mechanical, their sound being electrified by a pickup. Most electronic pianos date from the 1970s and were made in Italy, although similar models were made concurrently in Japan. An exception is the range of instruments made by RMI in the USA from 1967 to approximately 1980, which became one of the more popular electronic pianos used by professional musicians. Most electronic pianos (including the RMI) are not velocity sensitive, in that they do not vary their volume based on how hard or soft the keys are played, like an organ. |
| Ennanga |  | Uganda | Ennanga is an open harp developed by the people of Uganda. It has a neck and a resonator with a string holder but lack a supporting pillar to complete the triangle. In the ennanga harp, scales of a kind of goana are fixed on the instrument in such a way that the vibrating strings will touch it. This gives a crackling timbre to the sound. The ennanga has only eight strings, so parallel octaves can only be played within a restricted interval. The ennanga harp is used in the courtly music of the Kabaka, the king of Buganda. |
| Erhu |  | China | The erhu (Chinese: 二胡), also called nanhu (南胡, literally "southern fiddle"), and sometimes known in the West as the "Chinese violin" or "Chinese two-string fiddle," is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras. It is the most popular instrument in the huqin (胡琴) family of Chinese bowed string instruments, together with the zhonghu (中胡), gaohu (高胡), banhu (板胡), jinghu (京胡), sihu (四胡), and numerous others. |
| Escopetarra |  | Colombia | An escopetarra is a guitar made from a modified rifle, used as a peace symbol. The name is a portmanteau of the Spanish words escopeta (shotgun/rifle) and guitarra (guitar). Escopetarras were invented by Colombian peace activist César López in 2003 at a gathering after the El Nogal Club bombing in Bogotá, when he noticed a soldier holding a gun like a guitar. The first escopetarra in 2003 was made from a Winchester rifle and a Stratocaster electric guitar. The image shows an escopetarra on display at the United Nations Headquarters. |
| Esraj |  | India | The esraj (also called israj) is a string instrument found in two forms throughout the north, central, and east regions of India. It is a young instrument by Indian terms, being only about 200 years old. The dilruba is found in the north, where it is used in religious music and light classical songs in the urban areas. Its name is translated as "robber of the heart." The esraj is found in the east and central areas, particularly Bengal, as well as Bangladesh, and it is used in a somewhat wider variety of musical styles than is the dilruba. The esraj is mostly used as an accompanying instrument. It is the accompanying instrument of choice for Rabindra Sangeet singing. However, it has also been used as a solo instrument to interpret Hindustani Classical Music, mostly in the Vishnupur tradition. |
| Esterilla |  | Colombia | The esterilla is a traditional percussion instrument from Colombia. The esterilla consists of long, narrow pieces of wood woven together in a similar fashion as a placemat. The instrument is played by either bending it or rubbing it against itself. |
| Euphonium |  | United Kingdom | The euphonium is a conical-bore, baritone-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "beautiful-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" (eu means "well" or "good" and phonium means "voice"). The euphonium is a valved instrument; nearly all current models are piston valved, though rotary valved models do exist. |
Prev Top Next |
