| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolombatto |  | Mali | The bolombatto is a traditional stringed instrument that features in the music of West Africa. It consists of four strings, stretched over a gourd, which serves as a resonator. In addition, the instrument also has a tin rattle attached to its body, which the musician plays by striking the strings and gourd simultaneously, adding an element of percussion to the music. In this way, it is similar to the sinding. The bolombatto was originally played by shepherds, who used the combined sounds of the strings and percussion to frighten away wild animals. |
| Bouzouki |  | Greece | The bouzouki (plural sometimes transliterated as bouzoukia) is the mainstay of modern Greek music as well as other Balkan folk music, particularly of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin. The front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound. |
| Byzaanchy |  | Tuva | The byzaanchy (Tuvan: бызаанчы; Russian: Бизанчи; also transliterated byzanchi or byzanchie) is a four-stringed vertical spike fiddle used in the traditional music of Tuva. It is similar to the Chinese sihu. However, the byzaanchy's soundbox is generally made of wood whereas the sihu usually has a metal soundbox. The byzaanchy's soundbox may be cylindrical or, more rarely, cubical. The instrument's four strings are in courses of two, one of each pair tuned together, to the interval of a fifth. The horsehair bow is divided into two portions of hair. A carved horse's head generally features at the top of the instrument's wooden neck. |
| Cavaquinho |  | Spain | The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete (in the Portuguese Atlantic islands and Brazil), manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho. It is frequently and fondly called cavaco in Brazil. |
| Celempung |  | Indonesia | The celempung and siter are plucked string instruments used in Javanese gamelan. They are related to the kacapi used in Sundanese gamelan. The celempung and siter each have between 11 and 13 pairs of strings, strung on each side, between a box resonator. Typically the strings on one side tuned to pélog and the other to slendro. The siter is generally about a foot long and fits in a box (which it is set upon while played), while the celempung is about three feet long and sits on four legs, and is tuned one octave below the siter. They are used as one of the elaborating instruments (panerusan), that play cengkok (melodic patterns based on the balungan). Both the siter and celempung play at the same rapid speed as the gambang. |
| Cello |  | Europe | The violoncello, usually abbreviated to cello or 'cello, is a bowed string instrument. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra. The cello is most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice. The cello is typically made from wood, although other materials such as carbon fibre or aluminum may be used. A traditional cello has a spruce top, with maple for the back, sides, and neck. The top and back are traditionally hand-carved, though less expensive cellos are often machine-produced. The sides, or ribs, are made by heating the wood and bending it around forms. The neck, pegbox, and scroll are normally carved out of a single piece of wood. The cello has four strings, which are referred to either by number or by their standard tuning. The cello developed from the bass violin, first referred to by Jambe de Fer in 1556, which was originally a three-string instrument. |
| Celtic Harp |  | Europe | The Celtic harp or folk harp is small to medium-sized and usually designed for traditional music. It can be played solo or with small groups. It is prominent in Welsh, Breton, Irish, Scottish and other Celtic cultures within traditional or folk music and as a social and political symbol. It’s around 1 meter tall, with curved neck and pillar. It has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. The image shows a reenactor playing a Celtic harp on the Hill-McNeil Store porch, New Salem, Illinois, 2006. |
| Çeng |  | Turkey | The çeng is a Turkish harp. Descended from ancient Near Eastern instruments, it was a popular Ottoman instrument until the last quarter of the 17th century. The word comes from the Persian word "chang," which means "harp" (and also "five fingers"). The çeng is an angled harp. Its strings are stretched between the peg box and the resonator. There is nothing in front of the longest (and deepest) string. |
| Chanz |  | Mongolia | Chanz is a Mongolian long-necked spiked lute with an oval wooden frame and snakeskin covering stretched over both faces. The three strings are fixed to a bar, which is inserted in the body. The instrument is struck or plucked with a plectrum made of horn or with the fingers. |
| Chanzy |  | Tuva | A chanzy is a three-stringed lute instrument from the Tuvan Republic. It is most commonly used to accompany throat singing. |
| Chapman Stick |  | United States | The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. He set out to create an instrument designed for the "Free Hands" tapping method of both hands parallel to the frets that he invented in 1969. The first production model of the Stick was shipped in 1974. Superficially, a Stick looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar, with 8, 10 or 12 strings. It is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. |
| Charango |  | South America | The charango is a small South American stringed instrument of the lute family, about 66 cm long, traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo (not to be confused with a Cuban style of music called "charanga"). It typically has 10 strings in five courses of 2 strings each, although other variations exist. Traditionally made with a dried armadillo shell for the back and wood for the soundbox top, neck etc, today charangos are commonly made of wood, with a bowled back imitating the shape of the armadillo shell. |
| Chitarra Batente |  | Italy | The chitarre battente (Italian: lit. "beating guitar") is a musical instrument, a chordophone of the lute family. At a casual glance, it is similar to the everyday classical guitar, but larger and typically strung with four steel strings. Nowadays it is typical of folk music mainly in Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata, as well as in other areas of southern Italy; in previous centuries was common in most of central and southern Italy. There are versions of the historical 17th instrument in museums, but the commonly played folk instrument comes in three sizes: small, medium, large. The medium and large instruments are the most popular; the small instrument is a toy and has traditionally been used to train children to play. |
| Chonguri |  | Georgia | Chonguri is a four-string unfretted lute from Western Georgia. It is played by plucking and strumming. Three of the strings are fingered, while the fourth is a drone string. It is used almost exclusively for the accompaniment of singing. Another traditional Georgian string instrument is called panduri. Chonguri is longer than panduri and it does not have frets. The image shows a chonguri and a panduri unusually united into one instrument. The longer neck one is the chonguri. |
| Citole |  | Europe | Citole, also spelled Sytole, Cytiole, Gytolle, etc. (probably a French diminutive form of cithara, and not from Latin cista, a box), an archaic musical instrument of which the exact form is uncertain. It is generally shown as a four-string instrument, with a body generally referred to as "holly-leaf" shaped. There is a surviving instrument from around 1300 from Warwick Castle which is now in the British Museum, albeit at some point in antiquity converted into a violin with tall bridge, 'f'-holes and angled fingerboard - thus the instrument's top (see image) is not representative of its original appearance. |
| Cittern |  | Europe | The cittern is a fretted instrument similar to a mandolin. It is a stringed instrument of the lute family dating from the Renaissance. With its flat back, it is much simpler and cheaper to construct than the lute. In its simplest form it has four courses of 2 or 3 strings each. It is played by plucking the strings with the fingers or with a plectrum. |
| Clarsach |  | Scotland | Clàrsach Scots Gaelic, Cláirseach Old Irish are the Gaelic words for 'a harp'. The word clarsach is used in Scottish English and the word cláirseach is used in Irish Language to refer to a variety of small Irish and Scottish harps. In the 1890s a similar new harp was also developed in Scotland for the cultural Gaelic revival. These new instruments were popular and formed the basis of the 20th century revival in Ireland, Scotland and across the world. In Scotland they are called clàrsach though in Ireland they are called Irish harp not cláirseach. Elsewhere they are called Celtic harp or folk harp or small harp or lever harp. The image shows the medieval 'Queen Mary harp' Clàrsach Màiri Banrighinn preserved in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. |
| Clavichord |  | Europe | The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard. |
| Cobza |  | Romania | The cobza or cobsa is a type of four-course (triple-strung courses) folk lute found primarilly in Romania and Moldova . Some courses had 3 strings. The cobza was tuned in fifths similar to the mandolin. In Hungary the same instrument is known as the koboz. Both are now increasingly rare. The cobza is a short necked, unfretted lute very similar to the oud of Iraq and Syria. It consists of a half-pearshaped resonance box with a belly made of thin spruce and a short broad neck of strong wood, whose pegbox is bent back at an obtuse or right angle. The image shows a part of "The Last Judgment" painting painted on the exterior of the Church of St. George at Voronet Monastery, Romania. |
| Crwth |  | Wales | The crwth is an archaic stringed musical instrument, associated particularly with Wales, although once played widely in Europe. The crwth consists of a fairly simple box construction with a flat, fretless fingerboard and six gut strings, purportedly tuned gg´c´c´´d´d´´. The crwth can be played on the shoulder like a violin, between the knees like a cello, on the lap held either upright or at a slightly oblique angle across the player's torso against the left shoulder, or braced against the chest, supported with a strap around the player's neck. |
| Cuatro |  | Puerto Rico | The cuatro is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. It belongs to the lute family of string instruments. Very little is known about the exact origin of the Cuatro. However, most experts believe that the Cuatro has existed on the island in one form or another for about 400 years. The Spanish instrument that it is most closely related to is the vihuela poblana (also known as the Medieval/Renaissance guitar), which had 4 courses, 2 strings each for 8 strings in total as well as the Spanish Medieval/Renaissance 4 course citola and the Spanish laud. |
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