Rackett – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #20

Rackett The appropriately named rackett is my favorite obscure and unusual instrument. It is a Renaissance double reed instrument that could be considered an ancestor of the bassoon. It has a deep, loud, low sound that is rougher and blatty-er than the bassoon. What I really love about this instrument (besides its sound) is its [...]

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Nose Flute – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #19

Nose Flute The nose flute has a rich and ancient history. More ancient models were shaped as a pipe… or even two pipes. This model allowed holes for fingering the notes, but required almost too much air for one little nose to handle. Modern incarnations of this instrument have ingeniously solved this problem. Instead of an air-hogging [...]

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Ocarina – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #18

Ocarina Although it has a similar sound to a flute or recorder, the ocarina is one of the few wind instruments that is not shaped like a pipe. While flutes and recorders use hole placement to get different pitches, ocarinas use hole size, as the sound resonates through the hole chamber. Because of this, ocarinas [...]

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Glass Armonica – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #17

Glass Armonica Have you ever rubbed your finger on the rim of a goblet to make a sound? The glass armonica operates using the same principles. Benjamin Franklin arranged glass bowls of varying sizes on a spindle that turned so that you could hold your fingers against the rims. The arrangement of the glasses makes [...]

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Kora – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #16

Kora This African string instrument is an interesting cross between a lute and a harp. It looks as if you should hold it the way you would hold a guitar or banjo, but actually you sit with the instrument standing upright in front of you. It has two rows of strings (one for each hand) [...]

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Khene – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #15

Khene The khene is a Laotian mouth organ comprised of bamboo pipes with metallic reeds inside. In theory, its setup is similar to that of a melodica, but instead of playing a keyboard, your fingers cover holes in the bamboo. I love the sound that it makes, and also how it looks when you play it [...]

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Konghou – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #14

Konghou Although the modern Chinese konghou looks similar to a regular concert harp, it can do much more its western cousin. My favorite “special feature” of the konghou is its capability to pitch bend. The konghou’s strings are folded into halves with a wooden board between the two ranks. Because the strings on either side [...]

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Hurdy Gurdy – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #13

Hurdy Gurdy It just occurred to me that although I referenced the hurdy gurdy in the nyckelharpa post, it hasn’t actually had a post of its own yet! So without further ado, the hurdy gurdy would like to make your acquaintance. As previously mentioned, the hurdy gurdy is played by pressing keys that mechanically fret the strings [...]

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Cimbasso – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #12

Cimbasso Here is yet another interesting descendant of the serpent. The cimbasso is a trombone/tuba hybrid with a cylindrical bore and played with valves rather than a slide. It has a large range of pitch and timbre and has great potential to be bombastic. If you want to go hear a cimbasso in all its [...]

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Nyckelharpa – Obscure and Unusual Instruments #11

Nyckelharpa The Swedish nyckelharpa reminds me a little of a hurdy gurdy because they both use a system of keys to fret the strings, rather than fingers. However, the nyckelharpa has a much gentler sound because it has several resonant strings as well as the melody strings and the drone. This gives it a light, floaty [...]

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