| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wagner Tuba |  | Germany | The Wagner tuba is a comparatively rare brass instrument that combines elements of both the horn and the tuba. It was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, other composers have written for it. Wagner wanted an instrument that could intone the Valhalla motif somberly like a trombone but with a less incisive tone like that of a horn. That effect was obtained by a conical bore (like a horn) and the use of the horn mouthpiece (tapered as opposed to a cup mouthpiece such as on a trombone). The instrument is built with rotary valves which, like those on the horn, are played with the left hand. |
| Waist Drum |  | China | A waist drum (or yaogu) is a drum used by Chinese people during the waist-drum dancing to greet the Spring Festival (first day of the first lunar month) and the Lantern Festival (15th of the first lunar month.) A dancer with a red drum tied to her waist holds a drumstick with red silk, beating the drum while dancing. The rhythmical drum sound and graceful dance show the straightforward and uninhibited character of villagers in northern Shanxi Province and is an expression of their happy and passionate feelings. |
| Walk-on Piano |  | United States | Inside the FAO Schwarz, a specialty toy retailer based in New York City, there is a 22-foot walk-on piano ($250K). The piano was featured in the 1988 Tom Hanks film Big, in which Hanks and Robert Loggia danced "Heart & Soul" and "Chopsticks" on the store's piano. |
| Washboard |  | United States | The washboard is a musical instrument. The traditional washboard is usually constructed with a rectangular wooden frame in which are mounted a series of ridges or corrugations for the clothing to be rubbed upon. For 19th century washboards, the ridges were often of wood; by the 20th century, ridges of metal were more common. A "fluted" metal washboard was patented in the US in 1833. Zinc washboards were manufactured in the US from the middle of the 19th century. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, ridges of galvanized steel are most common, but some modern boards are made of glass. Washboards with brass ridges are still made, and some who use washboards as musical instruments prefer the sound of the somewhat more expensive brass boards. |
| Washtub Bass |  | United States | The washtub bass, or "gutbucket," is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses have a single string whose pitch is adjusted by pushing or pulling on a staff or stick to change the tension. The washtub bass was used in jug bands that were popular in some African-Americans communities in the early 1900s. In the 1950s, English skiffle bands used a variant called a tea-chest bass, and during the 1960s, US folk musicians used the washtub bass in jug band-influenced music. |
| Water Organ |  | Italy | The water organ or hydraulic organ (early types are sometimes called hydraulis or hydraulos or hydraulus or hydraula) is a type of automatic pipe organ blown by air, where the power source pushing the air is derived by water from a natural source (e.g. by a waterfall). Consequently, the water organ lacks a bellows, blower, or compressor. In addition to being the source of power to push air through the organ pipes, the water is also used as a source of power to drive a mechanism similar to that of the Barrel organ, which has a pinned barrel that contains a specific song to be played. The image shows the most famous water organ of the 16th century. It is at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Italy. |
| Waterphone |  | United States | A waterphone is a unique type of atonal acoustic musical instrument constructed largely of a stainless steel resonator "bowl" with a cylindrical "neck", containing a small amount of water, and with brass rods around the rim of the bowl. The waterphone produces a vibrant ethereal type of music sometimes classified as "ambient music." Several sizes and design variants of the instrument are available. It is generally played in a seated position by a soloist and played by bowing or drumming and movement so as to affect the water inside, and thus the resonant characteristics of the bowl and rods. The waterphone appears in movie sound tracks, record albums, and is used in live performance. The image shows Alex Wong of The Animators playing the waterphone at The World Cafe Live on 01/21/2007. |
| Welsh Bagpipes |  | Wales | Welsh bagpipes have been documented in Wales since the 10th century. Welsh traditional music declined somewhat with the rise of Nonconformist religion in the 18th century, which emphasised choral singing over instruments and religious over secular uses of music, the pipes had disappeared from use in Wales by the late 19th century. In the last 20 or so years there has been a revival in piping in Wales. This revival led to the formation of a repertoire of Welsh piping tunes, the reconstruction of extinct instruments and the introduction of new instruments based on common European types. |
| Western Concert Flute |  | Europe | The Western concert flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It is a transverse side-blown musical instrument made of metal. The flute is recognisable by its clean, pure sound. Thousands of works have been composed for the concert flute. The standard concert flute is pitched in C and has a range of about three and a half octaves starting from the musical note C4 (corresponding to middle C on the piano), however, some experienced flautists are able to reach C8. Modern professional flutes may have a longer B-foot joint, which can reach B3. |
| Whip |  | Russia | A whip is an instrument played by a percussionist that is used in modern orchestras, bands, and percussion ensembles. There are two types of whips. The first has two planks of wood connected together by a hinge, with a handle on each. The percussionist holds the instrument by the handles and hits the two pieces of wood together, creating a loud whip noise. The other type also has two planks of woods, one longer than the other, with one handle, connected with a spring hinge so it can be played with just one hand, though it cannot produce sounds as loud as a whip requiring both hands. The whip was used by the orchestraions of Maurice Ravel, Vladimir Jurowski and Henk de Vlieger's version for percussion essemble. |
| Whistle |  | China | A simple whistle is a woodwind instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. Many types exist, from small police and sports whistles (also called pea whistles), to much larger train whistles, which are steam whistles specifically designed for use on locomotives and ships. Although whistles have a musical characteristic (for example train whistles sound a minor-seventh musical chord) whistles are not usually considered "musical" in the sense of being able to play a chosen melody, but mainly the small whistles can also be used as a – very shrill and loud – noise and rhythm instrument. The whistle has its roots dating back to ancient China. Chinese night watchmen used to blow into the tops of acorns in order to alert the towns of invading Mongolians. |
| Wood Block |  | Europe | A wood block is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound. The orchestral wood-block instrument of the West is generally made from teak or another hardwood. The dimensions of this instrument vary considerably, although it is always a rectangular block of wood with one or sometimes two longitudinal cavities. The wood block may be the oldest musical instrument known to man, given that it would have been possible to construct and play this idiophonic instrument before the Bronze Age. |
| Wooden Fish |  | China | A wooden fish (Chinese: 木魚; mùyú), (Japanese: mokugyo), (Korean: moktak), is a wooden percussion instrument similar to the Western wood block. The wooden fish is used by monks and laity in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. The wooden fish is mainly used by Buddhist disciples in China, Japan, Korea, and other East Asian countries where the practice of Mahayana, such as the ceremonious reciting of sutras, is prevalent. In Buddhism the fish, which never sleeps, symbolizes wakefulness. Therefore, it is to remind the chanting monks to be concentrate on their sutra. The round wooden fish comes in many sizes, ranging from 6 inches to 4 feet. The image shows a huge 3 foot wide Mokugyu drum at the Chapin Mill Buddhist Retreat center located near Batavia New York. It sounds like a heart beat. |
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