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Page Title : Musical Instruments

Musical Instrument is an instrument capable of producing musical sounds and performing music artistic recreations. By playing Musical Instruments, people express and communicate their thoughts and feelings. There are different views on the definition of musical instrument in music circle and musical instrument circle. The music industry believes that the instruments used for music are Musical Instruments. Musical Instruments in the field of academic circles usually will be plenty of music voice, such as the ancient war drums sounded, pray chanting in religion, marriage funeral etiquette in solicit the annunciator of signal, and merchants, also as a musical instrument, even to some productive labor appliance and daily life, such as: bow, saw, pestle, help, cup, dish, cup, bowl, etc., in the play, all with words, as the bow, saws, enjoyed cup, pestle, etc. The main products of the musical instrument industry are basically Musical Instruments involved in the music industry, namely instruments that can be recreated in music art. In addition, a few horse bells, camel bells, oil brands and car and boat horns are also produced. The production of Musical Instruments is different from that of general industrial products. It not only requires products to have a reasonable beautiful appearance modeling, but also must have good acoustic quality, including timbre, music and the specified pitch height. Therefore, the selection of materials is very strict.

History of Musical Instruments[edit]

Music is a form of art, which derives from the Greek word meaning "art of the Muses." In ancient Greece, the Muses were the goddesses who inspired the arts, such as literature, music, and poetry.

Music has been performed since the dawn of human time with instruments and through vocal song. While it is not certain how or when the first musical instrument was invented, most historians point to early flutes made from animal bones that are at least 37,000 years old. The oldest known written song dates back 4,000 years and was written in ancient cuneiform.

Instruments were created to make musical sounds. Any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument, most particularly, if it was designed for that purpose. Take a look at the various instruments that have cropped up over the centuries from different parts of the world.

Chinese Traditional Music Instruments[edit]

Cucurbit flute[edit]

Cucurbit flute, also known as "gourd xiao", is an instrument of yunnan ethnic minorities in China. It originated in lianghe county, dehong dai and jingpo autonomous prefecture, and is mainly popular in dehong and lincang areas of yunnan where dai, achang, wa, deang and brown ethnic groups live.cucurbit flute can be divided into three types: high, medium and low. Its unique beautiful timbre, appearance of simple, soft, elegant, simple to learn, small and easy to carry, by the majority of music lovers and foreign tourists love.

Xiao[edit]

Xiao, divided into dongxiao and qinxiao, both single-pipe and vertical, is a very old musical instrument played by the han nationality.Xiao has a long history, with a round and soft tone, quiet and elegant, suitable for solo and ensemble. It is usually made of bamboo with a blow hole at the top. According to the number of "sound holes", it is divided into six holes xiao and eight holes xiao. The sound hole of six holes is the first five and the last one, while the sound hole of eight holes is the first seven and the last one. Eight holes xiao is the product of modern improvement.

Western instruments[edit]

Piano[edit]

Piano (Italian: pianoforte) is a western classical music keyboard instrument, has the "king of instruments" reputation. It consists of 88 keys (52 white, 36 black) and a metal string soundboard. The Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) invented the piano in 1709.Piano ranges from A0 (27.5Hz) to C8 (4186Hz), almost covering all the music in the music system. It is the instrument with the widest range except for pipe organ. The piano is generally used for solo, ensemble, accompaniment and other performances.

Bartolomeo Cristofori has been innovating on pianos in his Uffizien workshop in Florence, changing the intensity of sound with the force of a keyboard stroke. To do so, he used a small leather mallet that struck the strings with a percussion machine. The newly constructed piano was originally named 'Gravecembalo col piano e forte', which was later shortened to 'piano forte'. By that time, the Christopher lee's percussion machine was astonishingly perfect. With the help of prince Ferdinand and the Medici family, Christopher established the Piano factory Cristofori Piano Studio in Florence.

Drum kit[edit]

Drum kit, is very important in jazz band a percussion instrument, it usually consists of a solid Bass drums, Bass Drum, also known as "Drum"), a snare Drum, two or more (Tom - Tom Drum), one or two hanging tablets (Crash Cymbal), a rhythm tablets (Ride Cymbal) and a pedal the hi-hat - Hat (Hi), and other parts.. Of course, sometimes due to the need for performance will add some such as cowbell, wood fish, sand hammer, triangle iron, hanging bell, sound tree, no matter how many additional devices, are played by one person. The drummer sounds the parts with a drumstick. The drumsticks commonly used in jazz music include wooden drumsticks, drum brushes made of steel wire, bunches of sticks made of a bunch of thin wooden strips, etc.Drum kit was formed in the 1940s, it contains a variety of different types, different timbre of hand percussion instruments and foot percussion instruments. Hand percussion instruments have small drums, plumb drums, cymbals and so on, foot percussion instruments have big drums, cymbals. On this basis, additional percussion instruments may be added or subtracted at any time according to the needs of performance. In the band, the drummer controls the speed and rhythm of the music and other important parts. Especially in jazz, the drummer needs to keep a tacit cooperation with other musicians.Drums are usually played with other instruments, but they can also be played solo.

Guitar[edit]

Guitar (Chitarra in Italian), also translated as guitar or six-string. A plucked instrument, usually with six strings, similar in shape to a violin.The guitar is often seen as a major instrument in pop music, rock music, blues, folk songs, and flamenco. In classical music, the guitar is often played as a solo or duet. Of course, in chamber music and orchestral music, the guitar also plays a considerable role as a foil.Classical guitar and violin, piano and listed as the world's three famous Musical Instruments.

The ancestor of the guitar can be traced back to the ancient Egyptian nepharr, ancient babylonian and ancient Persian plucked instruments two or three thousand years ago. The oldest modern guitar-like instrument found by archaeologists is the "hittite guitar" from the ruins of the ancient hittite gate in Asia minor and northern Syria before 1400 BC. The anvil-shaped body of the guitar determines the unique acoustic resonance and musical characteristics of the guitar, which also become the most prominent characteristics of the guitar and other plucked instruments.

Technological Developments of Music Instruments[edit]

Conventional Western thinking claimed that the earliest instruments were slightly modified natural objects such as bones, shells, or gourds. They played only one pitch and then evolved into more complex forms. However, it appears that bone flutes from Neanderthal caves had finger holes, and recent archaeological finds in China included bone flutes from 7000 BC that not only have seven finger holes but an additional aperture that may have been drilled to correct a poorly placed hole. Thus, early humans appear to have been just as sensitive to pitch and tone colour as were most other sentient creatures, such as birds, cats, dogs, and whales. None of the sounds they heard or made moved from simple to complex. Aztec clay versions of shell trumpets imitated the internal chambers of the nautilus; the instruments’ construction may indicate a sophisticated use of the overtone series to obtain varied pitches (as is done on the bugle).

The first step in the building of any instrument is the selection and preparation of material. Wood used for wind or stringed instruments needs to be seasoned, as do the reeds used in oboes, clarinets, saxophones, and related instruments. Metals, which are widely used for strings, bells, cymbals, gongs, trumpets, and horns, must be manufactured and cast—often originally by secret processes. Next, the construction and tuning of all instruments require skill and craftsmanship: the piercing of a tube to a uniform or expanding width, the flaring of the bell of a wind instrument to increase sonority, the measurement of the bars of a saron(for the Javanese gamelan) or of a glockenspiel, the curvature of the back of a lute or ʿūd, the internal and external structure of the body of a violin, a koto, or even a shakuhachi. All of these involve accurate workmanship from experts in wood and metal and, in many instances, a knowledge of the mathematics of sound.

The mathematical basis of accurate tuning systems has been the subject of philosophical and scientific speculation since ancient times; nevertheless, no single system has been deemed perfect . All practical tuning systems involve a series of compromises, a fact that instrument makers have known for centuries.

References[edit]

1.Montagu. Jeremy (2007). Origins and Development of Musical Instruments. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5657-8.

2.Kartomi. Margaret J. (1990). On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-42548-1.

3.French R M .(2008).History of the Guitar. Springer US. DOI：10.1007/978-0-387-74369-1_1.

4.Jane Chin.(2006).A multimedia introduction to Chinese traditional music and musical instruments.Columbia University. United States.

5.Pat Missin.(2011).How to Play Bawu and Hulusi: A Beginner's Guide to These Popular Chinese Wind Instruments.CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN-13: 978-1467912983.

6. Theodore C. Grame, Jack Allan Westrup.(2019, January 13). Musical instrument:Technological Developments. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-instrument.