| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saw Sam Sai |  | Thailand | The saw sam sai (also known as saw samsai or sam sai; literally "three stringed fiddle") is a traditional bowed string instrument of Thailand. Its body is made from a special type of coconut covered on one end with animal skin, and it has three silk strings. Typically, the player glues a jewel onto the skin before playing, to reduce the skin's resonance. |
| Saxhorn |  | Europe | The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a tapered bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece. The sound has a characteristic mellow quality, and blends well with other brass. The saxhorns form a family of seven instruments (although at one point ten different sizes seem to have existed). Designed for band use, they are pitched alternately in E-flat and B-flat, like the saxophone group. There was a parallel family built in F and C for orchestral use, but this seems to have died out. |
| Saxophone |  | Belgium | The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored musical instrument usually considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in the early 1840s, and patented in 1846 in two groups of seven instruments each. Within each group the instruments formed a logical series in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for military bands, has proved extremely popular and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. While proving very popular in its intended niche of military band music, the saxophone is most commonly associated with popular music, big band music, blues, and particularly jazz. The image shows an E♭ alto saxophone (left), a curved B♭ soprano saxophone, and a B♭ tenor saxophone(right.) |
| Saz |  | Iran | The saz is a family of plucked string instruments, popular in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and the Balkan countries. The saz is descended from the kopuz. The Saz is used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Kurdish music, Azeri music, and Persian music. |
| Schrammel Accordion |  | Germany | A Schrammel accordion (German: Schrammelharmonika) is an accordion with a melody (right hand) keyboard in the chromatic B-Griff system and a twelve-button diatonic bass keyboard. It is named for a traditional combination of two Violins, Accordion and Contrabass known as Schrammelquartett, the music being performed was called Schrammel music, in the Vienna chamber music tradition. In most cases, it has two or three sets of reeds tuned in unison configuration. The sound is quite different or special, when compared to modern chromatic button accordions. This is because it is much smaller and lighter than modern CBAs. The handmade reeds used may also contribute to its sound. |
| Scottish Smallpipes |  | Scotland | The Scottish smallpipe, in its modern form, is a bellows-blown bagpipe developed from the Northumbrian smallpipes by Colin Ross and others, to be playable according to the Great Highland Bagpipe fingering system. The instrument is distinguished from the Northumbrian smallpipes by having an open end to the chanter, and usually by the lack of keys; this means that the sound of the chanter is continuous, rather than staccato, and that its range is only nine notes, rather than the nearly two octaves of the Northumbian pipes. A further distinction from the Northumbrian smallpipes is that there has been no unbroken line of traditional playing. |
| Serpent |  | France | A serpent is a bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind. It is usually a long cone bent into a snakelike shape, hence the name. The serpent is closely related to the cornett, although it is not part of the cornett family, due to the absence of a thumb hole. It is generally made out of wood, with walnut being a particularly popular choice. The outside is covered with dark brown or black leather. Despite wooden construction and the fact that it has fingerholes rather than valves, it is usually classed as a brass, with the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification placing it alongside trumpets. |
| Setar |  | Iran | Setar (Persian: literally three string) is an Iranian musical instrument. It is a member of the lute family. Two and a half centuries ago, a fourth string was added to the setar, which has 25 - 27 moveable frets. It originated in Persia around the time of the spread of Islam and is a direct descendant of the larger and louder tanbur. The setar is significantly different from the Indian sitar, with which it is sometimes confused due to the similarity of their names. |
| Seung |  | Thailand | The seung (also spelled sueng or süng) is a plucked fretted lute from the northern region of Thailand. The instrument is made from hardwood and its strings (numbering either four or six) are most often made of steel wire. It has nine raised frets. The seung is part of a northern Thai traditional ensemble called the salaw-saw-seung ensemble, along with the salaw (3-string spike fiddle) and pi saw (free reed pipe). The image shows a 4-string (right) and a 6-string seungs displayed in a small museum of musical instruments in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. |
| Shakuhachi |  | Japan | The shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute which is held vertically like a recorder, instead of transversely like the Western transverse flute. Its name means "1.8 foot", its size. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in wood and plastic. It was used by the monks of the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism in the practice of suizen (blowing meditation). Its soulful sound made it popular in 1980s Western pop music. |
| Shamisen |  | Japan | The shamisen or samisen (Japanese: 三味線, literally "three taste strings"), also called sangen (literally "three strings") is a three-stringed musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. It is the most common instrument in Japanese traditional music. The shamisen is similar in length to a guitar, but its neck is much slimmer and without frets. Its drum-like rounded rectangular body, known as the dō, is covered front and back with skin in the manner of a banjo, and amplifies the sound of the strings. |
| Shawm |  | Europe | The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the late 13th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood, and terminated in a flared bell somewhat like that of a trumpet. The bassoon-like double reed, made from the same Arundo donax cane used for oboes and bassoons, was inserted directly into a socket at the top of the instrument, or in the larger types, on the end of a metal tube called the bocal. The pirouette, a small cylindrical piece of wood with a hole in the middle resembling a thimble, was placed over the reed. |
| Shehnai |  | India | The shehnai is an aerophonic instrument which is thought to bring good luck, and as a result, is widely used in North India for marriages and processions. This tube-like instrument gradually widens towards the lower end. It usually has between six and nine holes. It employs two sets of double reeds, making it a quadruple reed woodwind. By controlling the breath, various tunes can be played on it. |
| Shekere |  | Nigeria | The shekere is a percussion instrument from Africa, consisting of a dried gourd with beads woven into a net covering the gourd. Throughout the continent it is called different things, such as the lilolo, axatse (Ghana), and chequere. It is predominantly called shekere in Nigeria. The instrument is used for folkloric as well as some of the popular music. In performance it is shaken and/or hit against the hands. |
| Sheng |  | China | The sheng (Chinese: 笙) is a mouth-blown free reed instrument from China. . It is commonly called as the "Chinese mouth organ" by western people. Sheng is one of the oldest Chinese musical instruments. It consists of 13-17 bamboo pipes with different lengths that are mounted together onto a gourd-shaped base. Each bamboo pipe has a free reed made of brass. Traditionally, the sheng has been used as an accompaniment instrument for solo suona or dizi performances. In the modern symphonic Chinese orchestra, it is used for both melody and accompaniment. |
| Shimedaiko |  | Japan | The shimedaiko (also sarugaku taiko) is a small hand drum used in the Eisā (エイサー) folk dance. The word "shime" comes from the verb "shimeru", meaning to bind or make tight. The body of the instrument is made of zekova, pine or on occasion sendan or Japanese bead tree. The skin is horse skin stretched on an iron frame. The skin is 35-centermeter in diameter and its circumference is lacquered for about 4.5 cm. In the very center, where the drum is struck, there is a small circle 4-centermeter in diameter of deer skin. There are eight holes around the drum skin and heavy cords called shirabe are used to tie the skins to the body of the instrument. |
| Shinobue |  | Japan | The shinobue (kanji: 篠笛; also called takebue) is a Japanese transverse flute that has a high-pitched sound. It is found in hayashi and nagauta ensembles, and plays important roles in noh and kabuki theatre music. It is heard in Shinto music such as kagura-den, as well as in traditional Japanese folk songs. The image shows three types of Uta-you shinobue: (1) in Bb, top binding (2) in B, black painted (3) in C, without binding |
| Shishi Odoshi |  | Japan | Shishi odoshi is a Japanese device that is made to threat and send away the birds and beasts damaging agriculture. Sōzu (そうず, 添水) is a kind of Shishi Odoshi. It is a traditional water fountain used in Japanese gardens. Usually made of bamboo, it contains one or more uprights with a hollow pivoting arm attached into which water pours from a tube or pipe above it. When the arm gets full, the weight of the water causes it to tip over and empty, making a sharp sound when it hits a hard surface below it. This noise is intended to startle any deer which may be grazing on the plants in the garden. The empty arm is then free to swing back up into position and refill. The rhythmic clacking sound among the garden with sounds of silence of Japanese style, reminds visitors to the garden of the passage of time. |
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