| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zabumba |  | Brazil | A zabumba is a type of bass drum used in Brazilian music. It is made of boards of wood glued to alternating shafts of metal inside a cylindrical box, with one or two skins stretched atop it. It is played with sticks. The zabumba is used in the genres of forró, Coco, baião, xaxado and xote. |
| Zambomba |  | Spain | Zambomba is a friction drum from Spain. It is a percussion instrument consisting of a single membrane stretched over a sound box, whose sound is produced by the player causing the membrane to vibrate by friction. Zambomba can be made from a variety of materials and rubbed either with a rod or with rope. It is particularly associated with Christmas when it used to accompany the singing of carols. The Zambomba features in the 1895 painting titled “Monaguillo tocando la zambomba” by Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench, a Spanish painter. |
| Zampogna |  | Italy | Zampogna is a generic term for a number of Italian double chantered pipes that can be found as far north as the southern part of the Marches, throughout areas in Abruzzo, Latium, Molise, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, and Sicily. The tradition is now associated with Christmas, and the most famous Italian carol, "Tu scendi dalle stelle" (You Come Down From the Stars) is derived from traditional zampogna music. All chanters and drones are fixed into a single round stock that the bag is attached to. Each chanter is tuned differently, according to the tradition it represents, and there are dozens. Today some pipers are substituting the traditional goat and sheep hide bags with a rubber inner tube which is covered with an artificial fleece. |
| Zhonghu |  | China | The zhonghu (中胡) is a low-pitched Chinese bowed string instrument. It is an alto member of the huqin family together with the erhu and gaohu, and was developed in the 20th century to be used in Chinese orchestras. The zhonghu is the same as the erhu but is slightly larger and is lower pitched. Its body is covered on the playing end with snakeskin. The instrument has two strings, which are generally tuned to the interval of a fifth, to A and E or to G and D. |
| Zhongruan |  | China | The zhongruan (or zhong ruan; 中阮; literally "medium ruan"), is a Chinese plucked string instrument that may be played with a plectrum or fingerstyle, similar to the pipa. The zhongruan is the tenor size of the ruan (moon guitar.) It has a straight neck, a round sound box, and 24 frets on the fretboard. |
| Zil |  | Turkey | Zils, also zills or finger cymbals, (from Turkish zil, "cymbals") are tiny cymbals used in belly dancing and similar performances. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. Zils commonly have a diameter of about 5 cm (2 in). Accomplished dancers will often have a second - slightly larger - set for use in noisy situations. A set of zils consists of four cymbals, two for each hand. |
| Zimbelstern |  | Germany | The Zimbelstern (Meaning "Cymbal Star" in German, also spelled Cymbelstern or Zymbelstern) is a "toy" organ stop consisting of a metal or wooden star or wheel on which several small bells are mounted. When engaged, the star rotates, producing a continuous tinkling sound. It was common in northern Europe, Germany in particular, throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. After about 1700, the bells were tuned to particular notes. |
| Zither |  | China | The zither is a musical string instrument, mainly used in folk music, most commonly in German-speaking Alpine Europe and East Asian cultures. Like many other stringed instruments, acoustic and electric forms exist; in the acoustic version, the strings are stretched across the length of the soundbox, and neither version has a neck. They can be divided into two classes: fretted and fretless. The earliest known instrument of the zither family is a Chinese guqin found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng dating from 433 BC, featuring tuning pegs, a bridge and goose-like feet. The image shows a concert zither with a fretted fingerboard. |
| Zurla |  | Macedonia | The zurla is an oboe-like woodwind instrument similar to the Turkish zurna, used in the Republic of Macedonia and nearby Balkan countries. |
| Zurna |  | Georgia | The zurna (also called Surnay, birbynė, lettish horn, surla, sornai, zournas, zurma) is a woodwind instrument with a double reed, popular in the towns of Eastern Georgia and also in Kartlian villages. It has 7 or 8 finger holes above and one finger hole below. The Zurna had often been featured in the Ottoman military bands. |
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