| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosho |  | Zimbabwe | The hosho is a Zimbabwean musical instrument consisting of a maranka gourd with seeds, usually hota (Canna indica) inside it, or net of beads around it and which often accompanies Shona music, especially mbira music. It is a type of rattle. A smaller version of the hosho is made of a wild orange called a damba, tied together with sticks and filled with hota seeds or pebbles. |
| Hyoshigi |  | Japan | The hyoshigi (拍子木) is a simple Japanese musical instrument, consisting of two pieces of hardwood or bamboo that are connected by a thin ornamental rope. Hyoshigi are used in traditional theaters in Japan to announce the beginning of a performance. The clappers are played together or on the floor to create a cracking sound. They are struck, slowly at first, then faster and faster. |
| Ipu |  | Hawaii | Ipu is a percussion instrument made from gourds that is often used to provide a beat for hula dancing. There are two types of ipu, the ipu heke and the ipu heke 'ole. Both are made from gourds that have been cut off at the neck and hollowed. The ipu heke is two such gourds joined together with a hole cut in the top to allow the sound to escape. Ipu are usually polished smooth with sand or sandpaper. |
| Jal Tarang |  | India | The jal tarang (or jaltarang, jal-tarang, jal-yantra, jalatarangam) is an ancient musical instrument. It is rarely seen or heard, even though the gentle tinkle of its unique sound is quite pleasing. Literally Jaltarang means "waves in water" but indicates motion of sound created or modified with the aid of water. Cups, of varying sizes were made of either bronze or porcelain. Today only China bowls are preferred by artistes, numbering around sixteen in normal use. |
| Jhyali |  | Nepal | Jhyali or Jhyalis are traditional percussion instruments from Nepal. They are a pair of round plates (cymbals) made from alloys. They are used in folk as well as classical music in Nepal. |
| Jing |  | Korea | The jing is a gong made of brass and is called by several different names such as the chong, ching, geum, geumna, and na. It is used in various types of Korean traditional music and played with a padded stick. The jing is approximately 37.27 centimeter in diameter and the daegum, a bigger gong, is about 48.48 centimeter. |
| Kagul |  | Philippines | The kagul is a type of Philippine bamboo scraper gong/slit drum of the Maguindanaon with a jagged edge on one side, played with two beaters, one scarping the jagged edge and the other one making a beat. The Maguindanaon and the Banuwaen use it in the rice paddies to guard against voracious birds, using the sound it produces to scare them away. The Maguindanaon and the Bukidnon also use it for simple dance rhythms during social occasions. |
| Kalimba |  | Africa | The kalimba is an instrument in the percussion family. It is a modernized version of the African mbira. It is a sound box with metal keys attached to the top to give the different notes. Also known as the African Thumb Piano. Several reeds or tines are plucked with the thumb or fingers, and the reed vibrations are amplified by a hollow box resonator or a sounding board. |
| Kane |  | Japan | The kane (鐘/鉦) is a large bell from Japan. It is a tradition in Japan to ring the large Buddhist temple bells 108 times together with Japanese folk music a few minutes before the new year. This tradition is called "joya no kane." |
| Kayamb |  | Réunion | The kayamb is a flat musical instrument used in the Mascarene Islands (a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar) to play sega and maloya music. It is called maravanne in Mauritius. Kayamb is made of reed (or sugar cane flower stems) and is filled with jequirity or canna seeds, it is shaken horizontally with both hands. |
| Kecer |  | Indonesia | The kecer (or kecèr) are a pair of small cymbals set inside a rack (rancak) used in the gamelan of Indonesia. The rack is similar in design to that of a saron, except less wide. The bottom cymbals are permanently fixed in the rack, while the top are attached by a cord to the bottom ones. They are used in the accompaniment of wayang (an Indonesian and Malay word for theatre.) |
| Kempul |  | Indonesia | A kempul is a type of hanging gong used in Indonesian gamelan. It is often placed with the gong suwukan (the smaller gong in the set used for smaller phrases) and gong ageng (the largest gong in a Javanese and Balinese gamelan), hanging on a single rack, at the back of the gamelan, and these instruments are often played by the same player with the same mallets. |
| Kenong |  | Indonesia | The kenong is one of the instruments used in the Indonesian gamelan. It is technically a kind of gong, but is placed on its side and is roughly as tall as it is wide. It thus is similar to the bonang, kempyang and ketuk, which are also cradled gongs. Kenongs are generally much larger than any of those, however. Its pitch is actually rather high considering its size; its sound stands out however because of its unique timbre. |
| Kkwaenggwari |  | Korea | The kkwaenggwari is a small flat gong used primarily in folk music of Korea. It is made of brass and is played with a hard stick. It produces a distinctively high-pitched, metallic tone that breaks into a cymbal-like crashing timbre when struck forcefully. |
| Kong Thom |  | Cambodia | The kong thom, or Kong vong thom, is a large gong circle. It plays a melodic line in the Cambodian pinpeat ensemble almost identical to that of the roneat thung (large xylophone). The kong thom dwells more steadily on the pulse without pulling or delaying the beat (melody). The player uses soft mallets for indoor performance, hard ones for outdoors. The gong circle-maker creates sixteen bossed gongs made of copper with bronze admixture. He suspends them on rattan frames in a circle around the player. A small gong circle is called kong vong toch or kong toch. |
| Kulintang |  | Philippines | Kulintang is a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums. As part of the larger gong-chime culture of Southeast Asia, kulintang music ensembles have been playing for centuries in regions of the Eastern Malay Archipelago — the Southern Philippines, Eastern Indonesia, Eastern Malaysia, Brunei and Timor. The kulintang is played by striking the bosses of the gongs with two wooden beaters. The image shows a kulintang ensemble performance in Daly City. |
| Kulintang A Kayo |  | Philippines | The kulintang a kayo (literally, “wooden kulintang”) is a Philippine xylophone of the Maguindanaon people with eight tuned slabs arranged horizontally atop a wooden antangan (rack). Made of soft wood such as bayug, the kulintang a kayo is a common found among Maguindanaon households with a musical background. |
| Kulintang A Tiniok |  | Philippines | The kulintang a tiniok is a type of Philippine metallophone with eight tuned knobbed metal plates strung together via string atop a wooden antangan (rack). Kulintang a tiniok is a Maguindanaon term meaning “kulintang with string” but they also could call them kulintang a putao, meaning “kulintang of metal.” The Maranao refer to this instrument as a sarunay (or salunay, salonay, saronay, saronai, sarunai), terminology which has become popular for this instrument in America. |
| Lagerphone |  | Australia | In Australia, a lagerphone is a home-made musical instrument made of beer-bottle metal tops, loosely nailed to a stick, which jingle when hit or tapped. |
| Lithophone |  | United States | A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a plurality of rocks or pieces of rock, in which musical notes are sounded by striking one or more of the rocks in combination (harmony) or succession (melody). One of the most celebrated examples of a lithophone is The Great Stalacpipe Organ of Luray Caverns (see image), Virginia, USA, which uses 37 stalactites to produce the tones of the Western scale. |
| Luo |  | China | The luo, or Chinese gong, is made of high-tin bronze. Its central resonating area can be either flat or convex. Its long history can be traced back to the early Western Han period (206 BC-AD 24) according to an archaeological find from a tomb of that period in Guangxi. There are many varieties of gongs, each with varying tone qualities. The name is usually preceded by a prefix to specify each different kind. The largest type (over 120 cm in diameter) called dachaoluo, known for its deep and grave tone, is used in official settings like weddings, funerals and temple ceremonies. The smallest, the goujiaoluo (狗叫锣, lit. dog-calling gong), only 8 cm in diameter, can often be seen in theatrical ensembles in the southern parts of Fujian. Both the larger and the smaller boast distinct acoustic features, functions and performing styles. The image shows the large gong used in the Nakhi (Naxi) Orchestra of China. |
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