| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sabar |  | Senegal | The sabar is traditional drum from the West African nation of Senegal. It is generally played with one hand and one stick. Among its most renowned exponents is the Senegalese musician Doudou N'Diaye Rose (b. 1928). The sabar was used to communicate to other villages. The different rhythms correspond to phrases and could be heard for over 15 kilometers. Sabar is also recognized as the style of music played while using this drum. |
| Sackbut |  | Europe | The Sackbut (var. Sacbutt; Sackbutt; Sagbutt;), a brass instrument from the Renaissance and Baroque Eras, is the ancestor of the modern trombone. The term sackbut is usually used to differentiate the historic instrument from its modern counterpart. Increasing interest in authentic performance in recent years has brought many trombonists to the sackbut. There are two theories for the source of the name: it is either derived from the Middle French sacquer (to push) and bouter (to pull) or from the Spanish sacar (to draw or pull) and bucha (a tube or pipe). The term survives in numerous English spelling variations including sacbut, sagbut, shagbolt and shakbusshe. In France, the instrument was called sacqueboute; in Germany, Posaune, in Spain, sacabuche, and in Italy, trombone. |
| Säckpipa |  | Sweden | Säckpipa are a variety of bagpipes from the Kingdom of Sweden. This instrument was on the brink of extinction in the first half of the 20th century. It has a cylindrical bore and a single reed, as well as a single drone at the same pitch as the bottom note of the chanter. Today there are a couple of Swedish folk music groups that include the bag pipes in their setting. The most well-known of these is by no doubt Hedningarna. The image shows one of Alban Faust's modernised set of Swedish bagpipes. Chanters in A and G, three drones, and bellows. |
| Saenghwang |  | Korea | The saenghwang is a Korean wind instrument. It is a free reed mouth organ derived from (and quite similar to) the Chinese sheng, though the tuning is different. It is constructed from 17 bamboo pipes, each with a metal free reed, mounted in a metal windchest (the windchest was formerly made from a dried gourd). In contrast to other Korean traditional instruments, it is little used today and very few musicians are able to play it. The image shows a gisaeng playing a saenghwang. The painting is from the Hyewon pungsokdo (an album of the genre paintings drawn by the Korean painter Shin Yunbok during the late Joseon dynasty). |
| Saluang |  | Indonesia | The saluang is a traditional musical instrument of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is similar to the flute in general and made of bamboo. It is related to the suling of other parts of Indonesia. |
| Sampho |  | Cambodia | The sampho is a small barrel drum indigenous to Cambodia. It has two heads and is played with both hands. The player of the sampho leads the pinpeat (a classical ensemble of wind and percussion instruments), setting the tempo and beat. The sampho is made by hollowing out a single block of wood into a barrel shape. Both ends are covered with calfskin, tightened by strips of gut or rattan. One head of the drum is larger than the other to allow differing tones. The maker "tunes" each head by applying a circle of paste made of rice and ashes. |
| Sampler |  | United States | A sampler is an electronic music instrument closely related to a synthesizer. Instead of generating sounds from scratch, however, a sampler starts with multiple recordings (or “samples”) of different sounds, and then plays each back based on how the instrument is configured. Because these samples are usually stored in RAM, the information can be quickly accessed. The sampler has become an important instrument in hip hop, electronic music, and avant-garde music. |
| Sanshin |  | Japan | The sanshin (三線, literally meaning "three strings") is an Okinawan musical instrument, and precursor of the Japanese shamisen. Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings. Traditionally, players wore a plectrum, made of a material such as the horn of the water buffalo, on the index finger. Many still do, whereas others use a guitar pick or the nail of the index finger. In Amami, long, narrow plectra of bamboo are also in use. |
| Santoor |  | India | The santoor is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer often made of walnut, with seventy strings. The special-shaped mallets (mezrab) are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers. A typical santoor has two sets of bridges, providing a range of three octaves. The santoor is derived from the Persian santur, and related to similar instruments in Iraq, Pakistan, India, Armenia, Turkey, and other parts of Asia. It is related to the shata-tantri veena of earlier times. The Kashmiri santoor is more rectangular and can have more strings than the original Persian counterpart, which generally has 72 strings. The santoor as used in Kashmiri classical music is played with a pair of curved mallets made of walnut wood and the resultant melodies are similar to the music of the harp, harpsichord or piano. |
| Santur |  | Iran | The santur (سنتور – also santūr, santour, santoor) is a hammered dulcimer of Iran. It is a trapezoid-shaped box often made of walnut, with 72 strings. The name means one hundred strings in Persian. The special-shaped mallets (mezrab) are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers. A typical santur has two sets of bridges, providing a range of approximately three octaves. Many instruments around the world at least in part derive from the santur. Similar forms of the santur have been present in neighboring cultures like Armenia, Turkey, and Iraq for centuries. The Indian santoor is thicker, more rectangular, and can have more strings. Its corresponding mallets are also held differently. The Chinese yangqin may have originated from the Persian santur. The image shows a part of a painting dated 1669 at Hasht-Behesht palace Isfahan, Iran. |
| Sanxian |  | China | The sanxian (Chinese: 三絃; literally "three strings") is a three-string fretless plucked musical instrument from China. It has a long fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snakeskin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a four-stringed version was also developed. The sanxian has a dry, somewhat percussive tone and loud volume similar to the banjo. The larger sizes have a range of three octaves. The sanxian is used in nanguan and Jiangnan sizhu ensembles, as well as many other folk and classical ensembles. |
| Sarangi |  | India | The Sarangi is a bowed string instrument of India, Nepal and Pakistan. It is an important bowed string instrument of India's Hindustani classical music tradition. Of all Indian instruments, it is said to most resemble the sound of the human voice – able to imitate vocal ornaments such as gamakas (shakes) and meend (sliding movements). Three of the strings are bowed with a heavy horsehair bow and "stopped" not with the finger-tips but with the nails, cuticles and surrounding flesh. |
| Saraswati Veena |  | India | The Saraswati veena (also spelled Saraswati vina) is an Indian plucked string instrument. It is named after the Hindu goddess Saraswati (see image), who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrument. It is one of the three other major types of veena popular today. The others include vichitra veena and rudra veena. Out of these the rudra and vichitra veenas are used in Hindustani music, while the Saraswati veena is used in the Carnatic music of South India. |
| Sarinda |  | India | A sarinda is a stringed Indian folk musical instrument similar to lutes or fiddles. It is played with a bow and has three strings. It is played while sitting on the ground in a vertical orientation. The tribes of India, e.g. Tripuris, find use of sarinda in their traditional music and dance. |
| Sarod |  | India | The sarod or sarode is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in Hindustani (north Indian) classical music. The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound (contrast with the sweet, extremely rich texture of the sitar). It is a fretless instrument like almost all other Indian instruments, since Indian music depends extensively (in some cases almost entirely) on continuous slides between notes, known as meend (glissando). |
| Saron |  | Indonesia | The saron is a musical instrument of Indonesia, which is used in the gamelan. It typically consists of seven bronze bars placed on a wooden trough, which also serves as resonator. It is usually about 20 cm (8 in) high, and is played on the floor by a seated performer. Three instruments belong to the saron family that employ different sizes and pitch registers: the largest size with the lowest register is called Saron demung or demung. The medium size with a medium octave range is called saron barung or saron. The smallest size and highest register is called saron panerus or peking. |
| Sarrusophone |  | France | The sarrusophone is a family of transposing musical instruments patented and placed into production by Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. It was named after the French bandmaster Pierre-Auguste Sarrus (1813-1876) who is credited with the concept of the instrument and its intended use was to serve as a replacement for the oboe and bassoon in bands, the tones of which lack the carrying power needed for the outdoor band music of that era. All members of the sarrusophone family are made of metal, with a conical bore, and the larger members of the family resemble the ophicleide in shape. Like the oboe and bassoon, all sizes of sarrusophone were originally designed to be played with a double reed. Later, single reed mouthpieces were developed which resemble alto or soprano saxophone mouthpieces. |
| Saung |  | Burma | The saung (also known as the saung-gauk, Burmese harp, or Burma harp) is a traditional musical instrument of Burma (Myanmar). It is regarded as a national musical instrument of Burma. It dates back to the 9th century, though it has changed quite a bit since then, expanding, for example, from three strings to sixteen. The main parts of the harp are the body, the long curved neck, carved out of the root of a tree, and a string bar running down the center of the top of the body. The top of the resonator body is covered with a tightly stretched deer hide, heavily lacquered with four small circular sound holes. The neck terminates in a highly decorated representation of the bo tree leaf. The ends of the strings on the harp are decorated with red cotton tassels. The thirteen to sixteen strings of the harp angle upwards from the string bar to the string bindings on the lower part of the curved arch of the neck. |
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