| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pahu |  | Hawaii | The pahu is a traditional dance drum of the native Hawaiian people. It is carved from a single piece of coconut log and covered on the playing end with a stretched sharkskin. The player’s palms and fingers are used to beat the drum. It is considered a sacred instrument and was generally kept in a temple (heiau), and used to accompany a repertoire of sacred songs called hula pahu. |
| Paiban |  | China | Paiban (Chinese: 拍板) is an ancient wood instrument from China. It is a clapper made from several flat pieces of wood. |
| Paixiao |  | China | The paixiao (Chinese: 排簫; also pái xiāo, pai-hsiao) is an ancient Chinese wind instrument, a form of pan pipes. It is no longer used, having died out in ancient times, although in the 20th century it was reconstructed. |
| Palendag |  | Philippines | The palendag (also called pulalu, palandag, pulala or lumundeg) is a Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon (a province of the Philippines.) A lip-valley flute, it is considered the hardest of the three bamboo flutes (the others being the tumpong and the suling) to use because of the way one must shape one's lips against its end to make a sound. The construction of the mouthpiece is such that the lower end is cut diagonally to accommodate the lower lip and the second diagonal cut is made for the blowing edge. Among the Bukidnon, a similar instrument with the same construction except that it is three-fourths the length of the palendag, is called the hulakteb. For the Maguindanaon, the palendag was used for intimate gatherings for families in the evening. |
| Pan Flute |  | Europe | The pan flute (also known as panpipes) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting usually of ten or more pipes of gradually increasing length (and, at times, girth). The pan flute has long been popular as a folk instrument, and is considered the ancestor of both the pipe organ and the harmonica. The pan flute is named for its association with the rustic Greek god Pan. The pipes of the pan flute are typically made from bamboo or giant reed (Spanish cane); other materials used include wood, plastic, and metal. In the traditional South American style, pipes are fine-tuned to correct pitch by placing small pebbles or dry corn kernels into the bottom of the pipes. Contemporary makers of curved Romanian-style panpipes use wax (commonly beeswax) to tune new instruments. Special tools are used to place or remove the wax. Corks and rubber stoppers are also used, and are easier to quickly tune pipes. |
| Panche Baaja |  | Nepal | Panche Baaja is a set of five traditional Nepali musical instruments that are played during auspicious occasions. The jhyali, tyamko, or dholak (drums), damaha (kettledrum), narsiha (a long horn-like instrument), Shehnai (a pipe instrument), and Karnal (a big-mouthed instrument) comprise the Panche Baaja. Panche Baajas are usually played by Damais, a Dalit cast according to Hindu tradition. |
| Pandeiro |  | Portugal | The pandeiro is a hand frame drum of Portugal, Brazil and Galicia (Spain). There are two important distinctions between a pandeiro and the common tambourine. The tension of the head on the pandeiro can be tuned, allowing the player a choice of high and low notes. Also, the metal jingles (called platinelas in Portuguese) are crisper, drier and less sustained on pandeiros than on the tambourine. This provides clarity when swift, complex rhythms are played. It is held in one hand, and struck on the head by the other hand to produce the sound. Typical pandeiro patterns are played by alternating the thumb, fingertips, heel, and palm of the hand. A pandeiro can also be shaken to make sound, or one can run a finger along the head to create a "rasp" noise. |
| Pandereta |  | Puerto Rico | The panderetas, or panderos, are Puerto Rico native hand drums. There are three different sizes of panderetas. Each of them creates distinct pitches. |
| Panduri |  | Georgia | Panduri is a traditional Georgian three-string instrument widely spread in all regions of Eastern Georgia: such as Pshavkhevsureti, Tusheti, Kakheti and Kartli. Panduri is generally used as an accompaniment instrument. There are two kinds of this instrument in Georgia: one of them is panduri and another is called chonguri. Chonguri looks like panduri but it represents a completely different instrument. The panduri is shorter than chonguri and it has frets. Panduri is a three-string lute (played by strumming) from the highland and lowland regions of Eastern Georgia, and rarely found in Western Georgia ( Upper Imereti and Racha). |
| Paraguyan Harp |  | Paraguay | The Paraguyan harp is a national instrument of Paraguay. The harps in South America date back to at least 1557, possibly as early as the beginning of the 16th century. These harps had 26 to 38 strings, though most typically no fewer than 36. It was frequently used in church music in place of the organ or harpsichord. The Paraguayan harp is a simplified variation of the South America harp, with 38 strings tuned to one major diatonic scale. |
| Paranku |  | Japan | The paranku is a small, thin, hand-held drum used in the Eisā (エイサー) folk dance. It has one drumhead and greatly resembles a tambourine. Eisā is unique to the people of the Ryukyu Islands (a chain of Japanese islands.) Three types of drums are used in various combinations in the dance, depending upon regional style: the odaiko (a large barrel drum), the shimedaiko (a small drum similar to ones used in Noh theatre) and the paranku. |
| Pencilina |  | United States | The pencilina is a custom-made string instrument invented in the 1980s by Bradford Reed. The instrument is a double neck 3rd bridge guitar. The pencilina's two "necks" each have a bridge, tuning pegs, and a set of strings; six strings on one neck are tuned like a guitar and four strings on the other are tuned like a bass guitar. There are four built-in pickups: two are contact mics mounted in the bridges at one end of each neck, and two are guitar-style electromagnetic pickups which are placed under the strings toward the opposite end. In addition, there are four bells – a fire bell, a door bell, and two brass telephone ringer bells – mounted at the end of one of the necks. The contact mics pick up the ringing of the bells through the wood of the instrument. They also pick up percussion anywhere else on the wooden necks, so any spot that happens to produce a nice sound is available for drumming. The pencilina is played by striking its strings and bells with sticks. The strings may also be plucked or bowed. |
| Pepa |  | India | The pepa is a flute-like musical instrument that is used in traditional music in Assam, India. It is usually with a very short stem made from small diameter bamboo/cane/reed with the end away from the mouth capped with the horn of a buffalo. Bihu denotes a set of three different largely secular festivals of Assam. The pepa is played during the festivals. It is an integral part of the culture of Assam. |
| Phorminx |  | Greece | The phorminx (in Ancient Greek φόρμιγξ) was one of the oldest of the Ancient Greek stringed musical instruments, intermediate between the lyre and the kithara. It consisted of two to seven strings, richly decorated arms and a crescent-shaped sound box. It mostly probably originated from Mesopotamia. While it seems to have been common in Homer's day, accompanying the rhapsodes, it was supplanted in historical times by the seven-stringed kithara. Nevertheless, the term phorminx continued to be used as an archaism in poetry. |
| Piano |  | Italy | The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers. The hammers immediately rebound allowing the strings to continue vibrating at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies them. The piano is widely used in Western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the most familiar musical instruments. It is sometimes classified as both a percussion and a stringed instrument (in a loose sense of that term). According to the Hornbostel-Sachs method of music classification, it is grouped with Chordophones. |
| Piano Accordion |  | Italy | A piano accordion is a type of accordion having a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano. It may have any of the available left-hand keyboard systems. In Italy a chromatic piano accordion is called a fisarmonica. |
| Pibgorn |  | Wales | The pibgorn (Welsh literally "pipe horn") is a reed instrument from Wales. It has a single reed like that found in the drones of traditional Scottish Bagpipes, and generally six finger holes and a thumbhole giving a diatonic compass of an octave. The body of the instrument is made of wood, usually a hardwood in modern examples though historical instruments often had bodies of Elder or bone. At the mouthpiece end is a reedcap made of horn that protects the reed from contact with the players mouth. At the bell end is a distinctively carved horn bell which serves to amplify the sound. As part of a general revival in interest in Welsh folk music that has also seen the recreation of the Crwth, Welsh pipes and an increase in the popularity of the Welsh Triple Harp, musicians and instrument makers have attempted to revive the tradition of Pibgorn playing. |
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