Musical instrument

A musical instrument (or simply instrument, from Latin instrumentem), is a device, such as a violin, piano, or drums, for making musical sound.

Since music can be made with the voice, instruments are not necessary, however, to make music--unless the voice itself is considered an instrument, as it often is. If so, then "musical instrument" can be defined simply as "anything that can be used to make music."

History and origins

Many of the musical instruments in common use today evolved from earlier devices which were purely utilitarian in function. For example, various sound devices were used for communication purposes, such as signalling in either battle or hunting. The Romans used a device for battlefield signals which later evolved into the trumpet. In its original form, this sound device produced a sound far from melodic. The common drum is another such utilitarian communication device which eventually began to be used in a musical context.

Another common origin can be seen in devices used as part of ceremonies, religious or otherwise.

And finally, some utilitarian devices produced pleasing sounds as a by-product of their usage. An ecample is the simple bow and arrow, whereby the plucking of the stretched bow produced a melodic sound. The bow and arrow itself was not a musical instrument, but the sound produced eventually gave rise to a number of plucked string instruments, including the harp.

When these early devices began to be developed into a form where the purpose was listening for pleasure is when they became musical instruments in their own right.

Classification of musical instruments

There are numerous possible ways to classify musical instruments and, over the course of time, many different ways have been used. The ancient Chinese employed a system whereby they were classified by the materials out of which they were made. The Indians developed a classification scheme based on the acoustic properties of the devices.

The first European system dates to the 14th century and divided the instruments into three groups, to wit:

• stringed instruments;
• wind instruments; and
• percussion instruments

The tools we have to make music are remarkably diverse, and fall into some commonly-recognized and sometimes overlapping classes:

Stringed instruments

Stringed instruments include both bowed string instruments, such as the violin, and plucked string instruments, such as the guitar

Wind instruments

Wind instruments are sometimes divided into brass such as the trumpet and woodwinds such as the flute

Keyboard instruments

Keyboard instruments such as piano, although this is sometimes classified as a stringed or a percussion instrument, and organ, which is also considered a wind instrument

Percussion instruments

Percussion instruments include such common devices as drums

Electronic instruments

such as synthesizers

Voice

Voice, such as singing and mouth music

There is also a remarkable diversity of musical instruments across both space and time. The indigenous instruments of China, for instance, are considerably different from the indigenous instruments of Italy, for example. There has also been considerable evolution of the design of musical instruments. None of the instruments that were common in ancient Celtic music, for instance, are still being played in the same form today.

Excluding the human voice, the oldest musical instruments appear to be various forms of flute and drum. Instruments known to date back to antiquity include various stringed instruments such as the harp and--oddly enough, perhaps--the bagpipe.