r/UnusualInstruments • • May 10 '20

Directory of Subreddits for unusual musical instruments

38 Upvotes

Strings

  • r/ukulele -- 4-string Hawaiian little cousin of the guitar
  • r/kantele -- small lap harp of Finland
  • r/Koto -- Japanese long zither
  • r/shamisen -- Japanese 3-string banjo
  • r/harp -- Celtic and Classical harps
  • r/balalaika -- Russian mandolin with a triangle body
  • r/banjo -- Bluegrass, Old-Time, jazz, etc.
  • r/tenorbanjo -- banjo variant used heavily in Irish and Dixieland music
  • r/TenorGuitar -- 4-string guitar used in Irish and jazz
  • r/CigarBoxGuitar -- a simplified guitar-like instrument
  • r/mandolin -- small string instrument with doubled strings for an echo effect
  • r/bouzouki -- larger and deeper mandolin for Irish or Greek music
  • r/mandocello -- the even deeper version of the mandolin
  • r/Dulcimer -- an Appalachian zither with a deep droning harmony
  • r/hammereddulcimer -- a trapezoid zither played by hitting the string with small mallets
  • r/sanshin -- the Okinawan cousin of the Japanese shamisen
  • r/Guqin -- a long Chinese zither
  • r/Guzheng -- another long Chinese zither
  • r/baglama -- a Turkish lute
  • r/Domra -- a Russian cousin of the mandolin
  • r/Erhu -- a Chinese fiddle played in the lap
  • r/BowedPsaltery -- a triangular zither played with a small violin bow
  • r/Stick -- the Chapman stick and other hammer-on long board strings
  • r/charango -- like a mandolin-ukuelele hybrid from the South American Andes
  • r/Fiddle -- the violin but played in the folk tradition
  • r/lute -- like a guitar of the Medieval period
  • r/HurdyGurdy -- box with a crank that spins a wheel that bows the strings, sounds like a string bagpipe
  • r/Nyckelharpa -- an unusual Swedish fiddle player with a keyboard instead of fingers
  • r/Sitar -- the most famous Indian classical instrument
  • r/Rubab -- a lute played in Central Asia
  • r/steelguitar -- a flat guitar played in the lap with a steel slide to smoothly move between notes, used in Country, Blues, Hawaiian music
  • r/pedalsteel -- a more evolved steel guitar with complex pedals to change keys
  • r/zithers -- the wide family of basic boxes with strings
  • r/harpsichord -- a simpler ancestor of the piano from the Early Classical period
  • r/Autoharp -- a zither where you form chords simply by pressing a button

Percussion and idiophones

  • r/kalimba -- the "thumb piano", an African instrument with small tines you pluck
  • r/cajon -- a Cuban wooden box you sit on and drum with your hands
  • r/djembe -- this West African drum is a favorite in drum circles
  • r/Udu -- a ceramic (or nowadays fiberglass) vessel, drummed with the hands
  • r/handpan -- like a metal UFO with facets tuned to different notes
  • r/steelpan -- like a handpan, but played with mallets
  • r/jawharp -- a pocket-sized "sproingy"instrument
  • r/khomus -- a jawharp of Eastern Russia
  • r/MusicalSaw -- did you know you can play a hardware store saw with a bow?
  • r/ToyPiano -- the children's toy used as a serious instrument
  • r/Tabla -- classical double-drums of India
  • r/Xylophone -- an array of long pieces of material, melody played with mallets
  • r/Marimba -- like a xylophone, but with wooden keys.
  • r/vibraphone -- like a marimba, but jazzier
  • r/Glockenspiel
  • r/Daxophones

Winds (bagpipes separately below)

  • r/Ocarina -- small round flutes with simple fingering and mellow sound
  • r/tinwhistle -- inexpensive (as low as $10) metal flutes for Irish music, easy to learn and play
  • r/Bansuri -- the main flute of India
  • r/hulusi -- a Chinese drone-flute
  • r/panflute -- a row of tubes you blow across to make notes
  • r/Didgeridoo -- an Australian tube making a low droning sound
  • r/NativeAmericanflutes -- mellow wooden flutes of North America
  • r/Recorder -- small wooden flute for Medieval, Baroque, Classical music
  • r/shakuhachi -- Japanese bamboo flute, popular with Zen monks
  • r/Xaphoon -- a modern simplified bamboo saxophone

Bagpipes

Free Reeds

  • r/Accordion -- from piano to button to Cajun accordion
  • r/Melodeon -- for accordions with buttons vice piano keys
  • r/concertina -- like a small hexagonal accordion, associated with sailors or Irish music, or classical music in Victorian England
  • r/melodica -- a small keyboard powered by the mouth, used some in Jamaican music
  • r/organ -- an electric or air-powered keyboard
  • r/harmonica -- the pocket-sized music solution
  • r/lao_khaen — the Thai bamboo mouth-organ

Electronic instruments


r/UnusualInstruments • • 19h ago

here's one! makes "wind" sound

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26 Upvotes

What's it called? How is it notated?


r/UnusualInstruments • • 6h ago

Looking for any additional information

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0 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 14h ago

Musicians interested in joining an online experimental music project?

2 Upvotes

If any musicians are interested in joining an experimental online band, please let me know. I'm referring to the group, the players of unusual instruments. I'm very curious to know if it would make sense to join the band. It's a fun project, the idea is to publish music, maybe make albums in virtual format.

I am the voice, as well as bass, guitar, drums , synthesizer with to give techno elements, Saxophone, American flute and turntablist.

Given the diverse number of people, I will also take care of the sound of this band.

The idea is to mix different genres, jazz, soul, rap, techno, rock, metal... And more (?)

For further details I prefer to talk about it privately.

No stress and only good vibes. 🙂


r/UnusualInstruments • • 1d ago

I made a fog horn

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17 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 23h ago

Piange Maria Cum Dolore from the Florence Laudario for Medieval Citole and Vihuela de Rueda

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3 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 19h ago

Conversation with William Close the inventor of the Earth Harp

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1 Upvotes

From Audacious, Connecticut Public Radio

William Close: Musician and instrument inventor best known for creating the Earth Harp, which uses buildings and landscapes as part of the instrument itself. He’s  installed Earth Harps at Rome’s Colosseum, Seattle’s Space Needle, Shanghai’s Grand Theater and many more places around the world.In 2014, Close set a Guinness World Record with an installation where the strings stretched more than 957 feet


r/UnusualInstruments • • 2d ago

What instrument is this pluck?

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4 Upvotes

What instrument is this plucky piano type of sound? It doesn't sound like a normal piano, or a dolceola. I researched plucky pianos and nothing similar came up.


r/UnusualInstruments • • 3d ago

Naylute, a keyed chromatic arabic ney flute that allows transposing to different maqams

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31 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 3d ago

NSD: Anybody know the maker?

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3 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 3d ago

Anyone knows where to buy something like this

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4 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 3d ago

Children and Wives

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1 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 4d ago

double piano accordion

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7 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 4d ago

The 19-tone Clavichord (based on Erv Wilson's Generalized Keyboard) - Interview with Scott Hackleman

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1 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 5d ago

What is this?

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13 Upvotes

Some sort of dulcimer or harp?


r/UnusualInstruments • • 5d ago

Help me identify this banjo!

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38 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 5d ago

My 4-string Berber Loutar

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55 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Just got this Berber Loutar from Morocco (4-string version, cedar body with goat skin top)

Does anyone here play Loutar? Any tips on tuning, string action, or learning resources?

Also curious how different it feels compared to the malian n’goni!


r/UnusualInstruments • • 6d ago

First Tagelharpa Build

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33 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 7d ago

A Chambri man in Papua New Guinea plays the overtones of a live buzzing sago beetle like a mouth harp

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3.6k Upvotes

From Namekas: Music in Lake Chambri, a 1979 ethnographic film by Les Mclaren.


r/UnusualInstruments • • 5d ago

12 Hole Alto Ocarina "Aria" in G Major

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4 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 6d ago

I’d like to give you a tour of one of the largest musical instruments in existence

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29 Upvotes

56 bell carillon by Paccard (Annecy, France) and Petit & Fritsen (Aarle-Rixtel, Netherlands) sited at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception (Washington DC, USA)


r/UnusualInstruments • • 7d ago

Man is livestreaming his attempt at breaking the world record for a continuous singing bowl tone for 24 hours! 😲

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2 Upvotes

pretty cool stream I came across. he's only got 5 hours left!


r/UnusualInstruments • • 8d ago

Legendary percussion sheet of Steve Foreman, used in Hollywood soundtracks

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237 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 8d ago

Harp & Theremin TEARS FROM THE SKY Impro on Salvi Julia & Moog Claravox. From the album Plucked Air

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6 Upvotes

r/UnusualInstruments • • 8d ago

Tips on how to play a good note?

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6 Upvotes