A way into one instrument: some of its players and records, chosen from what the catalogues hold, never all of them.
AllBooks 2Genres 10On the radio 56Prizes and contests 5Artists 42Sessions and festivals 11Instruments 28Countries 78Last.fm 3Pages 4
43 albums · 1936–2022
The cello is the bass of the violin family, played seated, the instrument between the knees on its endpin, its four strings tuned C, G, D and A and bowed or plucked.
46 albums · 1925–2023
The trumpet is a brass tube bent into a loop, sounded by the player's lips buzzing into a cup-shaped mouthpiece.
39 albums · 1925–2015
The clarinet is a wooden tube with a single reed on its mouthpiece. All 39 albums, 1925–2015, in full.
42 albums · 1956–2024
The flute has no reed: the player blows across a hole or against an edge, and the air in the tube sounds. All 42 albums, 1956–2024, in full.
47 albums · 1955–2019
The double bass is the largest and lowest of the bowed strings, about as tall as a person, with four strings tuned in fourths.
48 albums · 1955–2018
The Hammond organ was first sold in 1935 by Laurens Hammond's company in Chicago. All 48 albums, 1955–2018, in full.
46 albums · 1965–2019
A bagpipe is a bag of air, filled by the player's breath or by bellows under the arm, that feeds a chanter, the pipe the melody is fingered on, and drones that hold one note beneath it.
47 albums · 1949–2025
The guitar has six strings, plucked with the fingers or a pick, over a fretted neck. All 47 albums, 1949–2025, in full.
39 albums · 1924–2021
The banjo is a drum with a neck: its strings run over a skin or plastic head stretched across a round frame, and its notes ring bright and die away fast.
40 albums · 1924–2017
The ukulele is a small guitar with four nylon strings, most often tuned G, C, E and A with the G string high, so it sounds light and bright.
39 albums · 1949–2023
The mandolin is a small lute with four pairs of metal strings, tuned like a violin and played with a plectrum.
42 albums · 1927–2021
The harmonica is a small free-reed instrument: metal reeds over a comb of channels, sounding as the player blows and draws.
39 albums · 1956–2024
The sitar is the long-necked lute of Hindustani music, the classical music of northern India and Pakistan: a gourd body, curved movable frets, six or seven playing strings plucked with a wire plectrum, and a dozen or more sympathetic strings beneath that ring with the notes.
47 albums · 1958–2021
The oud is the short-necked lute of the music from Morocco to Iraq, and of Turkey and Armenia: a deep pear-shaped body, a neck without frets and five or six courses of strings plucked with a long plectrum.
44 albums · 1945–2023
The harp has many forms. All 44 albums, 1945–2023, in full.
28 albums · 1957–2023
The steelpan was made in Trinidad in the late 1930s and the 1940s. All 28 albums, 1957–2023, in full.
36 albums · 1975–2025
The guembri, or sintir, is the three-stringed bass lute of Gnawa music, a Moroccan tradition with roots in West Africa.
29 albums · 1976–2024
The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.
51 albums · 1936–2020
The Spanish guitar, six nylon strings on a light wooden body, is two instruments. All 51 albums, 1936–2020, in full.
46 albums · 1979–2023
The accordion was patented in Vienna in 1829, but its sound became France's. All 46 albums, 1979–2023, in full.
34 albums · 1961–2026
The alphorn is a straight wooden horn three to four metres long, its bell resting on the ground. All 34 albums, 1961–2026, in full.
35 albums · 1967–2024
The guitarra portuguesa is a cittern with a pear-shaped body and six courses of double strings, tuned by a fan of screws at its head.
27 albums · 1949–2021
The zither is a flat wooden box with thirty to forty strings: a few melody strings over a fretboard, plucked with a thumb pick, and the rest open for chords and bass.
48 albums · 1950–2026
The saxophone was invented around 1840 by Adolphe Sax of Dinant, in Belgium, and patented in Paris in 1846: a brass body with a single-reed mouthpiece.
35 albums · 1932–2024
The violin took its modern form in northern Italy in the sixteenth century, and Cremona became the home of its great makers: Andrea Amati, Antonio Stradivari and the Guarneri family.
37 albums · 1952–2024
The piano was invented around 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence: a harpsichord that could play soft and loud, because hammers struck its strings instead of plucking them.
40 albums · 1936–2025
The bouzouki is a long-necked lute with a pear-shaped body and metal strings, three courses in the old days and four since Manolis Chiotis added one in the 1950s.
41 albums · 1963–2021
The mandole is a large flat-backed mandolin made in Algiers in the 1930s for El Hadj M'Hamed El Anka. All 41 albums, 1963–2021, in full.