Musical world

Piano The  piano  is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by  Bartolomeo Cristofori  around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a  keyboard , which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word  piano  is a shortened form of  pianoforte , the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from  gravicembalo col piano e forte  and  fortepiano . The Italian musical terms  piano  and  forte  indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively,in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the string...

Flute The  flute  is a family of  musical instruments  in the  woodwind  group. Unlike woodwind instruments with  reeds , a flute is an  aerophone  or  reedless wind instrument  that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of  Hornbostel–Sachs , flutes are categorized as  edge-blown aerophones . A  musician  who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, flautist, flutist or, less commonly, fluter or flutenist. Flutes are the  earliest extant musical instruments , as paleolithic instruments with hand-bored holes have been found. A number of flutes dating to about 43,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the  Swabian Jura  region of present-day  Germany . These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.

Trumpet A  trumpet  is a  brass instrument  commonly used in  classical  and  jazz   ensembles . The trumpet group ranges from the  piccolo trumpet  with the highest  register  in the brass family, to the  bass trumpet , which is pitched one octave below the standard B-flat or C Trumpet. Trumpet-like instruments have historically been used as signaling devices in battle or hunting, with examples dating back to at least 1500 BC. They began to be used as musical instruments only in the late 14th or early 15th century.  Trumpets are used in  art music  styles, for instance in  orchestras ,  concert bands , and  jazz  ensembles, as well as in  popular music . They are played by blowing air through nearly-closed lips (called the player's  embouchure ), producing a "buzzing" sound that starts a  standing wave  vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since...

Drums The  drum  is a member of the  percussion  group of musical instruments. In the  Hornbostel-Sachs  classification system, it is a  membranophone . [1]  Drums consist of at least one  membrane , called a  drumhead  or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a  percussion mallet , to produce sound. There is usually a  resonance head  on the underside of the drum, typically tuned to a slightly lower pitch than the top drumhead. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the  thumb roll . Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. Drums may be played individually, with the player using a single drum, and some drums such as the  djembe  are almost always played in this way. Others are normally played in a...

Guitar The  guitar  is a  fretted   musical instrument  that usually has six  strings . It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar  pick  or the fingers/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting (pressing the strings against the frets) with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar (for an  acoustic guitar ), or through an  electrical amplifier and a speaker . The guitar is a type of  chordophone , traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut,  nylon  or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. The modern guitar was preceded by the  gittern , the  vihuela , the four- course   Renaissance guitar , and the five-course  baroque guitar , all of which contributed...