Music in Our Schools Month: Musical Instruments - High School

Can't tell a trombone from a trumpet? Don't fret! Review this list of musical instruments, from accordion to xylophone, and learn everything about woodwinds, percussion, brass, and strings. It's time to face the music!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. accordion
    a portable box-shaped free-reed instrument
  2. acoustic guitar
    sound is not amplified by electrical means
  3. bagpipe
    a tubular wind instrument
  4. balalaika
    a stringed instrument that has a triangular body and three strings
  5. banjo
    a stringed instrument that has long neck and circular body
  6. baritone
    the second lowest brass wind instrument
  7. bass
    a musical instrument with the lowest range of its family
  8. bass clarinet
    a large clarinet whose range is an octave below the B-flat clarinet
  9. bass guitar
    an instrument that has the lowest pitch or range
  10. bassoon
    a double-reed woodwind instrument that makes a low sound
  11. bongo drum
    a small drum; played with the hands
  12. bow
    a curved piece of wood used in playing stringed instruments
  13. brass
    a wind instrument that consists of a brass tube (usually of variable length) that is blown by means of a cup-shaped or funnel-shaped mouthpiece
  14. bugle
    a brass instrument without valves
  15. calliope
    a musical instrument with steam whistles played from a keyboard
  16. carillon
    set of bells hung in a bell tower
  17. castanets
    pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone made to click together
  18. celesta
    a musical instrument consisting of graduated steel plates that are struck by hammers activated by a keyboard
  19. cello
    a large stringed instrument
  20. chordophone
    a stringed instrument of the group including harps, lutes, lyres, and zithers
  21. clarinet
    a single-reed instrument with a straight tube
  22. clavichord
    an early keyboard instrument closely related to a piano
  23. clavier
    a stringed instrument that has a keyboard
  24. concertina
    free-reed instrument played like an accordion by pushing its ends together to force air through the reeds
  25. cornet
    a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone
  26. cymbal
    a percussion instrument consisting of a concave brass disk
  27. double bass
    largest and lowest member of the violin family
  28. down-bow
    a downward stroke from the heel to the tip of the bow
  29. drum
    a musical percussion instrument
  30. drumstick
    a stick used for playing a drum
  31. dulcimer
    a stringed instrument used in American folk music
  32. electric guitar
    a guitar whose sound is amplified by electrical means
  33. embouchure
    the aperture of a wind instrument into which the player blows directly
  34. fiddle
    a hand-held stringed instrument played with a bow
  35. fife
    a small high-pitched flute similar to a piccolo
  36. flugelhorn
    a brass instrument resembling a cornet but with a wider bore
  37. flute
    a high-pitched woodwind instrument
  38. French horn
    a brass musical instrument consisting of a conical tube that is coiled into a spiral and played by means of valves
  39. fret
    bar of metal across the fingerboard of a musical instrument
  40. glockenspiel
    a percussion instrument consisting of a set of metal bars
  41. gong
    a large metal disk that sounds a note when struck
  42. guitar
    a stringed instrument usually having six strings
  43. hand organ
    a musical instrument that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs
  44. harmonica
    a small rectangular instrument into which air is blown
  45. harmonium
    a free-reed instrument in which air is forced through the reeds by bellows
  46. harp
    a chordophone with strings between the neck and the soundbox
  47. harpsichord
    a musical instrument with strings plucked by plectra
  48. helicon
    a tuba that coils over the shoulder of the musician
  49. hurdy gurdy
    a musical instrument that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs
  50. kettledrum
    a large brass or copper drum
  51. keyboard
    set of levers that can be pressed, as on a piano or computer
  52. koto
    Japanese stringed instrument that resembles a zither
  53. lute
    a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body
  54. lyre
    a harp used by ancient Greeks for accompaniment
  55. mallet
    a light drumstick used to strike percussion instruments
  56. maraca
    a rattle-like instrument that is shaken to make noise
  57. marimba
    a deep-toned wooden bar instrument played with soft-headed mallets
  58. mute
    a device used to soften the tone of a musical instrument
  59. oboe
    a slender double-reed instrument
  60. ocarina
    egg-shaped terra cotta wind instrument with a mouthpiece and finger holes
  61. organ
    a wind instrument whose sound is produced by means of pipes
  62. panpipe
    a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together
  63. percussion
    section of a band or orchestra that plays struck instruments
  64. piano
    a musical instrument played by pressing black and white keys
  65. piccolo
    a small flute; pitched an octave above the standard flute
  66. player piano
    a mechanically operated piano that uses a roll of perforated paper to activate the keys
  67. psaltery
    an ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre or zither but having a trapezoidal sounding board under the strings
  68. rain stick
    a percussion instrument that is made from a dried cactus branch that is hollowed out and filled with small pebbles and capped at both ends; makes the sound of falling rain when tilted; origin was in Chile where tribesmen used it in ceremonies to bring rain
  69. reed
    a thin strip of material that vibrates and produces a tone
  70. rosin
    any of a class of solid or semisolid viscous substances obtained either as exudations from certain plants or prepared by polymerization of simple molecules
  71. samisen
    a Japanese stringed instrument
  72. saxophone
    a single-reed woodwind with a conical bore
  73. sitar
    a stringed instrument of India
  74. snare drum
    a small drum with two heads and a snare stretched across the lower head
  75. sousaphone
    the lowest brass wind instrument
  76. spinet
    a small and compactly built upright piano
  77. steel drum
    a concave percussion instrument made from the metal top of an oil drum; has an array of flattened areas that produce different tones when struck (of Caribbean origin)
  78. steel guitar
    guitar whose steel strings are twanged while being pressed with a movable steel bar for a glissando effect
  79. stringed instrument
    a musical instrument in which taut strings provide the source of sound
  80. synthesizer
    (music) an electronic instrument (usually played with a keyboard) that generates and modifies sounds electronically and can imitate a variety of other musical instruments
  81. tambourine
    a shallow drum with metallic disks in the sides
  82. theremin
    an electronic musical instrument
  83. triangle
    an instrument made of a metal bar bent into a three-sided shape
  84. trombone
    a brass instrument with a long tube and a U-shaped slide
  85. trumpet
    a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone
  86. tuba
    the lowest brass wind instrument
  87. tympanum
    a large brass or copper drum
  88. ukulele
    a small guitar having four strings
  89. up-bow
    an upward stroke from the tip to the heel of the bow
  90. valve
    a device for altering the pitch of a brass wind instrument
  91. vibraphone
    a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone but having metal bars and rotating disks in the resonators that produce a vibrato sound
  92. viola
    a stringed instrument played with a bow
  93. viola da gamba
    viol that is the bass member of the viol family with approximately the range of the cello
  94. violin
    a hand-held stringed instrument played with a bow
  95. whistle
    acoustic device that produces a loud shrill sound
  96. wind instrument
    a device played by blowing air to create musical tones
  97. woodwind
    any wind instrument other than the brass instruments
  98. xylophone
    a bright-toned wooden bar instrument played with hard-headed mallets
  99. zither
    a musical instrument with strings over a flat sounding board
Created on Tue Jan 31 16:07:51 EST 2017 (updated Wed Mar 29 16:06:41 EDT 2017)

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