| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tarogato |  | Hungary | The tárogató ( Romanian: taragot) refers to two different woodwind instruments, both of them Hungarian. The tárogató has a Persian origin, and it appeared in Hungary during the turkish wars. Up to about the 18th century, the tárogató was a type of shawm, with a double reed, conical bore, and no keys. This instrument is documented as far back as the 15th century. In the 1890s a modern version was invented by Venzel József Schunda, a Budapest instrument maker. It uses a single reed, like a clarinet or saxophone, and has a conical bore, similar to the saxophone. The instrument is made of wood, usually black grenadilla wood like a clarinet. |
| Tea Chest Bass |  | Europe | A tea chest bass is a home-made musical instrument that uses a tea chest (a wooden chest of the type once used in the shipment of tea) as the resonator for an upright stringed bass. The instrument is made from a pole, traditionally a broomstick, placed into or alongside the chest. One or more strings are stretched along the pole and plucked. In Europe, particularly England and Germany, the instrument is associated with skiffle (a type of folk music with a jazz and blues influence) bands. In Australia it was traditionally used to provide the low end for "bush bands", though most such groups today use electric bass or double bass. |
| Tekerőlant |  | Hungary | The tekerőlant is a small-wheeled Hungarian hurdy gurdy. The wheel diameter is less than 14 cm, or about 5.5 inches. The tekerőlant most commonly has three strings: one melody string, one tenor drone and one bass drone. It sometimes has up to five strings. It has a wedge-adjusted buzzing bridge. The broad keybox is often carved or decorated extensively. The image shows two tekerőlants made by Béla Szerényi. |
| Teleharmonium |  | United States | An early electromechanical instrument was the Telharmonium or Teleharmonium (also known as the Dynamophone), developed by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. The Telharmonium was intended to be listened to using telephone receivers. Like the later Hammond organ, the Telharmonium used tonewheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by additive synthesis. An authoritative history of the Telharmonium is 'Magical Music from the Telharmonium' by Reynold Weidenaar, Scarecrow Press, 1995. |
| Temple Block |  | Korea | The temple block is a percussion instrument originating in China, Japan and Korea where it is used in religious ceremonies. It is a carved hollow wooden instrument with a large slit. In its traditional form, the wooden fish, the shape is somewhat bulbous; modern instruments are also used which are rectangular in shape. Several blocks of varying sizes are often used together to give a variety of pitches. In western music, their use can be traced back to early jazz drummers, and they are not uncommon in modern orchestral music. Its sound is similar to that of the wood block, although temple blocks have a darker, more "hollow" timbre. The image shows a temple block from Korea. It is called a moktak. |
| Tenor Saxophone |  | Belgium | The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. It is the second most common size of saxophone (after the alto) and is a transposing instrument, pitched in the key of B♭, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding a major ninth lower than the written pitch. The tenor saxophone uses a slightly larger mouthpiece, reed, and ligature than the alto. It is used in many different types of ensembles, including concert bands, big band jazz ensembles, small jazz ensembles, and marching bands. |
| Teponaztli |  | Mexico | A teponaztli is a type of slit drum used in central Mexico by the Aztecs and related cultures. Teponaztli are made of hollow hardwood logs, often fire-hardened. Like most slit drums, teponaztli have three slits on their topside, cut into the shape of an "H". The resultant tongues are then struck with rubber balls on mallets, which were often made of deer antlers. Since the tongues are of different lengths, or carved into different thicknesses, the teponaztli produces 2 different pitches. Teponaztli were usually decorated with relief carvings of various deities or with abstract designs, and were even carved into the shapes of creatures or humans. The image is an illustration of the "One Flower" ceremony, from the 16th century. The two drums are the teponaztli (foreground) and the huehuetl (background). |
| Teukjong |  | Korea | The teukjong is a single large bronze bell used in Korean ritual music. It is suspended from a wooden frame. A “kaktoe” made from cow horn is used to strike the teukjong. The bell sounds like a bronze bell in a temple. The teukjong was made popular by King Sejong the Great. |
| Thavil |  | India | The thavil is a barrel shaped percussion instrument from South India. It is used in folk music and Carnatic music, often accompanying the nadaswaram. The thavil consists of a cylindrical shell hollowed out of a solid block of wood. Layers of animal skin (water buffalo on the right, goat on the left) are stretched across the two sides of the shell using hemp hoops attached to the shell. The right face of the instrument has a larger diameter than the left side, and the right drum head is stretched very tightly, while the left drum head is kept loose to allow pitch bending. |
| Theatre Organ |  | United States | A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra, but in latter years new designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself. Theater organs took the place of the orchestra when installed in a movie theatre during the heyday of silent films. Such instruments were typically built to provide the greatest possible variety of timbres with the fewest possible pipes, and often had pianos and other percussion instruments built in, as well as a variety of sound effects such as a siren. The imagw shows the horseshoe-shaped console of the 3/13 Barton Theater Pipe Organ at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater. |
| Theorbo |  | Europe | A theorbo (from Italian tiorba, also tuorbe in French, Theorbe in German) is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second peg-boxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pieces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angelique or angelica. The instrument was called both chitarrone and tiorba. It is important to note that, although theorbo and chitarrone are virtually identical, they have different etymological origins, chitarrone being a descendant of chitarra italiana. |
| Theremin |  | Russia | The theremin (theramin, or thereminvox, also known as an aetherphone) is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. It was invented by Russian inventor Léon Theremin in 1919, and it is unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The controlling section generally consists of two metal antennas to sense the relative position of the player's hands. These sensors control audio oscillator(s) for frequency from one hand, and volume from the other. The electric signals from the theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. To play the theremin, the player moves his hands around the two metal antennas. |
| Thon |  | Cambodia | The thon is a goblet-shaped drum from Cambodia. It is played with the hands. |
| Three Hole Pipe |  | France | The three-hole pipe, also commonly known as tabor pipe is a wind instrument designed to be played by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play a tabor, bell, psalterium, bones, triangle or other percussive instrument. The tabor pipe has two finger holes and one thumb hole. In the English tradition, these three holes play the same notes as the bottom three holes of a tin whistle, or tone, tone, semitone. Other tabor pipes, such as the French galoubet, Picco Pipe, the Basque txistu, the Aragonese chiflo or the Andalusian pito rociero, are tuned differently. A much larger 3-hole pipe, the fujara, is played in Slovakia. |
| Thumb Piano |  | Zimbabwe | The African thumb piano is a musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone often classified as a lamellophone, and which is common throughout Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. It consists of a set of tuned metal or bamboo tongues of varying length fitted to a board, box, or calabash resonator, their free ends being twanged by the player's thumbs and fingers. Supplementary buzzing devices are often added, and board-mounted varieties are often played inside a half calabash or bowl to enhance the resonance. They serve mainly for song accompaniment. |
| Timbales |  | United States | Timbales (or tymbales) are shallow single-headed drums, shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned. The player (known as a timbalero) uses a variety of stick and hand strokes, rim shots, and rolls on the skins to produce a wide range of percussive expression during solos and at transitional sections of music, and usually plays the shells of the drum or auxiliary percussion such as a cowbell or cymbal to keep time at other parts of the song. Timbales were invented in the early 20th century as a more portable replacement for the standard timpani used in Afro-Cuban orchestras. |
| Timila |  | India | Timila is an hour-glass drum from Kerala, South India. It is made from polished jackwood. The drumheads made of calf hide are held together by leather braces which are also twined round the waist of the drum. This mechanism helps in adjusting the tension and controlling the sound. A Panchavadyam performance is begun with Timila Pattu and ends with the Timila Idachal thus making Timila a very important component of Panchavadyam. |
| Timpani |  | Germany | Timpani (also known colloquially as kettle drums) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl commonly made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet. Unlike most drums, they produce a definite pitch when struck. |
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