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Although bass drum is rarely the defining element of a song, quite a few classic hits just wouldn't be the same if they had a different kick sound. Try to imagine, for instance, Led Zeppelin's “When the Levee Breaks” with a dull, thuddy, disco-type bass drum. Or at the other extreme, how about the Commodores' “Brick House” with a huge, boomy kick? Clearly, such changes would make either song sound and feel very different.

The fact is that the sound of the kick is often critical to the success of a mix, particularly in rock, dance, and other types of music for which the bass drum plays a foundational role.

But what's the best way to record bass drum? One challenge is the big range of bass-drum sizes that today's engineer is likely to encounter, from tiny 16-inch boppers to 26-inch behemoths. Various tunings, head configurations, and types of heads can also affect how the recording engineer approaches capturing this bottom-dwelling instrument.

In this column, I'll offer some tips and techniques for recording kick drums. Of course, my prescriptions are meant only as guidelines; your own results will necessarily vary depending on the recording space, drum, heads, tuning, muffling, mics, preamps, recording medium, and so on.

May I suggest?

For obvious reasons, it can be difficult to suggest changes to setups when working with drummers who bring their own kits into your studio. Still, some scenarios may warrant polite intervention from the recording engineer.

A relatively common problem is worn-out or “dead” drum heads. Note that a head can look okay and still be sonically dead. Worn-out heads will almost always lack a strong fundamental tone — a thin, one-dimensional sound coming from an otherwise decent drum should send up a quick warning flag. Another telltale sign is a head that must be tensioned tightly just to producea tone. That usually means the head has been beaten so long and hard that the material (typically Mylar) has stretched or is pulling loose from the collar.

For engineers who record lots of different bands, it makes sense to have a few new replacement heads on hand. For kick drum, the most common sizes are 20 and 22 inches. One of each size should suffice.

Unwanted noise from kick-drum pedals can also present problems. Though the sound of John Bonham's squeaky pedal may be an endearing feature of some Led Zeppelin songs (at least to Zep heads), the usual goal is a silent pedal. Solo the kick and overhead mics and listen carefully for any squeaks, scrapes, clicks, or other unwanted sounds coming from the pedal. If the pedal is making noise, applying a drop or two of lightweight oil to moving parts — springs, bearings, hinges, or what have you — will usually take care of it.

Finally, a word about attack, the “click” of the beater striking the bass-drum head. For pop-oriented drum tracks, as well as many others, a well-defined attack is an important part of the composite sound of the kick drum. A mushy felt beater is not going to make the job easier. Therefore, you might also consider keeping on hand a hard plastic or wooden beater, which will help emphasize the attack.

Little bopper

The jazz kick — think early Elvin Jones — is traditionally a small drum, typically 18 inches in diameter, fitted with single-ply heads front and back, with little or no damping. The heads are often tensioned fairly tautly, which, combined with the lack of damping, can result in the drum sounding more like a low tom than a standard kick. (The playing style adds to the effect: rather than be relegated to timekeeping and low-end syncopation duties, like a rock bass drum, the jazz kick is more an equal voice in the drum kit, often with as much say in accents, rolls, and phrases as the snare and toms.) Some players tame a bit of the resonance with one or more felt strips stretched across the head or heads and secured beneath the hoops; others prefer to leave the drum “wide open.” Either way, the traditional be-bop kick produces a resonant tone, making it quite a different beast from the usual thumpmeister.

Jazz drummers tend to be particular about tuning and the overall sound of their kits, so accuracy of sound capture is usually key. In multimic setups, I have achieved my best results using a high-quality large-diaphragm condenser mic positioned anywhere from six inches to two feet back from the kick drum, with the capsule (in cardioid mode) parallel to and facing the resonant head (see Fig. 1). One of my favorite mics for this application is the Neumann FET U 47; I have also gotten excellent results using my Microtech Gefell M71KMT.

Up to a point, the farther back you position the mic from the kick, the more natural the drum will sound, because the low-frequency sound waves have more time (space) to develop. Because this approach captures not only the sound of the kick drum but the sound of the rest of the kit as well, mic placement is critical. Most importantly, make sure the signal coming from the kick-drum mic blends in well with the other drum-mic signals.

In the case of a jazz kick that is too resonant for the track, a quick and easy fix is leaning a pillow against the resonant head. The larger the pillow is — and the more contact it makes with the head — the more damping will result.

Hole in the front

The double-headed kick drum with a hole or port in the resonant head is popular among drummers in many styles because of its versatility. Generally preferred for pop, rock, and funk, double-headed-with-port kick drums are usually in the 20- to 24-inch range. Often these drums will have batter heads that are double ply (possibly oil filled) or fitted with a semiperforated edge muffler. Depending upon the application, the drummer may have fitted the drum with some form of extra muffling to further damp the heads. Mufflers come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from felt strips to pillows or blankets to purpose-built contraptions. In general, a muffled double-headed kick with a port provides a nice balance of attack and some resonance.

The port opens up (pun intended) some options when it comes to miking the drum, allowing you to position a microphone fully or partially inside the drum or even to use two mics (more on that in a moment). A single-mic setup that has worked well for me has been to place a large-diaphragm, unidirectional dynamic mic — for example, an AKG d12e or EV RE20 — just inside the port and facing the batter head. That gives you the archetypal “basketball bouncing” kick-drum sound, which is often desirable for pop, rock, and funk tracks. As always, small changes in mic positioning can yield very different results, so make sure to experiment. For more attack, you can aim the mic toward, or move it closer to, the point where the beater strikes the head; for more resonance, pull the mic back or aim it more toward the shell of the drum.

The double-headed-with-port kick drum is a good candidate for using two microphones, one inside the drum and the other outside. The internal mic is used primarily to capture the attack transient while the external mic picks up the overall ambient sound of the drum. If you are adding a second mic, it is customary to use a large-diaphragm condenser; however, good results can also be had with other types of microphones, most notably boundary-layer mics such as pressure-zone microphones (PZMs), which can be placed on the floor directly in front of the drum.

When using two microphones, pay particular attention to ensure that the two mics are not significantly out of phase with each other, which can lead to a deterioration of the sound — thinness or hollowness, typically — when the two channels are combined. To check for phase problems, solo the two channels with one fader up and the other down and then listen carefully as you bring up the second fader. Simply put, the sound should get better — fuller, clearer, better defined — not worse. Another way to test for phase problems is to reverse the polarity on one of the mic channels (whether at the preamp or channel strip) and listen for changes in the quality of the sound. Then, choose the polarity configuration that sounds best.

Even when you use just one microphone, the ratio of initial transient to fundamental tone can be modified significantly with compression. If you want more attack, slow down the attack time; if you need more sustain, set a longer release time. One of my favorite units for altering the ratio of transient to fundamental tone is the SPL Transient Designer 4, a unique dynamics processor that allows you to emphasize or smooth the attack and extend or shorten the sustain without introducing other compression characteristics (see Fig. 2). (SPL also offers the Transient Designer 2, a lower-end version of the same processor.)

One-headed wonder

If you're after the ultimate in smack and dryness, the single-headed kick is the way to go. Generally, single-headed kick drums are at their best when muffled, typically with a blanket or large pillow resting snugly against the lower portion of the batter head.

On single-headed kicks, a good, if slightly retro, sound can readily be captured with the ubiquitous Sennheiser MD 421 dynamic microphone (see Fig. 3). If you want a sound that's even more bandwidth limited, try deploying a Shure SM57. A condenser microphone can serve up a great kick sound, too, especially if you are looking to emphasize attack. Do some research first, though — not all condensers can handle the high SPLs a kick drum delivers.

Because the drum is open to the studio, you can expect more leakage of the bass drum into the room microphones and other mics used on the kit. There are several ways to get around that. One is to apply a gate to the drum track. However, that is almost always better done during the mixdown stage — after all, you can't “ungate” a sound after the fact.

A good way to treat the problem at the source is by walling off the sound, either with thick blankets draped around the drum and mic (which also attenuates the loudness of the drum somewhat; see Fig. 4) or through some kind of tunnel that fits around the drum and channels the sound to the kick-drum mic. The tunnel approach is especially helpful because it lets you move the mic back from the drum, thus bolstering resonance (by allowing the bass waves to develop) while minimizing leakage from the rest of the kit.

One way to build a tunnel is by bending a fairly stiff rectangular piece of carpet into a semicircle and then fitting it around the drum, using tape, clothespins, or whatever to secure it in place. A quilt or thick blanket draped over the top of the carpet tunnel will provide even more isolation. Because the front of the tunnel remains open, any leakage that does get through to the other mics will sound relatively natural (as opposed to the more muffled sound that results from simply draping the drum and mic with a thick blanket).

My favorite thing to use for a tunnel is a Sonotube — one of those heavy cardboard tubes used as a form to pour cement into. They can be purchased from building-supply stores or lumberyards for $10 to $15 apiece. Diameters vary considerably. I have some 24-inch-diameter tubes in several lengths — 2, 4, and 8 feet. The 2- and 4-feet ones get the most use in my studio (see Fig. 5).

You can also use smaller-diameter tubes — an 8-inch-diameter PVC pipe, for example — to capture more unusual bass-drum sounds. This technique is most effective on double-headed-with-port kick drums. If possible, match the diameter of the tube to the diameter of the port. Position the tube flush with the head at the port and mic the drum at the other end of the port. This typically provides a whoosh sound and resonance from the pipe, which can sound really cool — or really bad, depending.

Two-headed monster

The late John Bonham had a penchant for oversize drums, but it wasn't the size of his drums alone that resulted in his typically monstrous kick-drum sound. A large component of Bonzo's sound came from the massive rooms the songs were tracked in — something to keep in mind if you're trying to get a similarly huge sound.

Still, a 24- or 26-inch kick with two heads, no port, and little or no muffling is going to make a big sound in almost any room. Like the open-tuned bop bass drum, it is usually better treated as part of the kit rather than as a separate instrument, meaning that you should get some distance between the drum and the microphone. Not only does that allow the low-frequency waveforms to develop, but it also helps avoid picking up any resonant “flub” from the movement of the resonant head. A high-quality large-diaphragm condenser microphone placed a couple of feet away from the kit and aimed toward the kick drum is probably your best bet. This positioning also allows for capture of room resonance — again, a critical part of the sound if you're after a huge Bonzo-type kick. Experiment with positioning to find just the right balance of direct drum sound and reflected room resonance.

Insufficient attack is a shortcoming that is not uncommon with this setup. In that case, try positioning a second mic — a Shure SM57 is a good pick — on the batter-head side of the kick with the capsule aimed at the point where the beater strikes the head. However, because this mic is aimed in the opposite direction of the large-diaphragm condenser out in front of the kick, the signals the two mics pick up will naturally be out of phase — around 180 degrees out, in fact. Conventional wisdom holds that it is therefore necessary to reverse the polarity on one of the mic channels. Though this is often the case, try all the possible permutations of polarity settings between the two channels — sometimes what should sound best in theory doesn't do so in practice. After determining which settings yield the best sound, the two signals can be mixed to one channel during tracking or, better yet, recorded to two separate tracks and blended together during mixdown.

Mixing it up

Unless you are truly blessed, some EQ or other signal processing will often be required to make the kick-drum sound “fit” into the track. Although it is possible to process the sound before it hits your recorder, it's usually best to concentrate on capturing a clean representation of what is coming from the drum. On the other hand, occasionally a bizarre sound can inspire similar madness in all subsequent tracks — if that's where you want to go, by all means, print the processed track as is.

However, try to limit premix processing to minor EQ adjustments — after you've exhausted the possibilities for tonal improvement by way of drum positioning in the room, drum tuning, and mic selection and positioning, of course. Rather than boosting specific frequencies, try cutting. Usually, a cut in the 400 to 600 Hz region will remove tubbiness and make for a tighter, more powerful sound. If you aren't getting enough attack, try boosting somewhere between 2 and 5 kHz.

As for compression, the primary reason I compress a kick drum when tracking is to bring out the low-frequency ring and boom — components of the sound that happen after the initial transient. A good compressor can really bring out the resonance yet maintain or even enhance the desirable click from the beater. Note, however, that I record primarily to 2-inch tape. For those recording to digital media, it may be advisable to use a compressor or limiter also as a means to avert digital clipping.

In addition, noise gates can be effective for removing sounds (snare, hats, or whatever) that occur in the spaces between kick-drum hits. If the decay of the drum starts to sound odd, try using less than the maximum dynamic range the gate offers.

Final saves

No matter how carefully you record a kick drum, it's always possible to discover (usually after the drummer has packed up and gone home) that the kick is too thin sounding or just isn't working for the track. In the case of it sounding too thin, you can beef up the sound by means of a low-frequency oscillator used in conjunction with a noise gate that features a key input. To do this, first split (mult) the kick-drum signal and insert one signal into the noise gate's key input. Next, insert a low-frequency tone from a synthesizer or another oscillator into the gate's input. Experiment with the length of time that the gate stays open and the frequency of the tone. Long gate times will yield a booming, Roland 808-type kick. (By the way, the sound used by Roland in the 808 is actually a floor tom tuned way down.)

As a last resort, a drum module with trigger inputs can mean the difference between saving a track and rerecording it. Most models will have a gate and sensitivity control that allow the unit to reject unwanted sounds on the kick-drum track. If not, it may be necessary to insert a gate between the tape output and the drum module. Of course, for those working on computers, drum tracks can readily be replaced, either manually (one hit at a time) or with the help of automated software such as Digidesign's SoundReplacer for Pro Tools.

It is all relative

When recording drums, keep in mind that most any drum will sound good if monitored loudly enough. Therefore, monitor at low levels, at least during the initial setup, to limit the “flatter effect” caused by sheer volume.

Another thing to be aware of is that your impression of the drum sound will change once the rest of the instruments are added to the mix. Thus, in addition to soloing the kick and other drum channels, make sure to audition the drums along with the other instruments. That way you can ensure that the sound is working for the song.

When your drum head is too tight or the pitch you are playing in is too high, try to place it in a cold place. When the pitch of the drum is stable, coat the drum head with a thin layer of beeswax.

It is more common to have problems with a drum head being too loose. This means that it will have quite a dead sound. The first thing you can try is to put the head side down onto a cloth heading pad at medium heat for 12 minutes. If this does not help, you will need to take further action. Use a cloth to get the skin head wet (inside and out) without getting any moisture on the rim. Place a wet 50-75mm square of cloth on the centre top of the head. Place in a warm place, with the wet cloth in place for 5 to 10 hours. Once the edge of the drum head is dry, remove the small wet cloth and let the drum dry in a warm location for a further 5 hours. The drum can not be played during this process.

Today, the Industrial Revolution transforms musical machines. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

The word French horn is a slang term for a long hunting horn that's been bent into a coil. The proper word, in any language, is simply horn. And it traces straight back to the first animal-horns that played only one pitch.

Animal horns had mutated into a huge array of wind instruments by 1600, but most were still straight tubes, flared toward one end. A lot of hunting and military horn-playing was done on horseback, so horns stayed short and high-pitched. Then horn-makers started bending instruments to make them more compact.

In no time, longer horns with richer tones appeared fully coiled. Horns were suddenly being bent about in remarkably complex ways. A French horn is really just a Swiss Alpenhorn. Of course, a 15-foot Alpenhorn will no more fit into an orchestra pit than it will on a horse. So the orchestra brasses took on a wild profusion of forms. Some became real plumbers' nightmares.

Horn players have always used their lips to vary pitches. Players then and now set up different standing waves by changing the set of their mouths. But that alone gives a limited range of pitches. Music, like machinery, underwent a great change during the Industrial Revolution. That Revolution also produced Beethoven and the demand for orchestras with a far greater range of sound. In the decade before Beethoven's death, French horns took on sophisticated valving just as the new steam engines had. Valves let players splice small lengths of tubing into the coils so horns would play naturally in more convenient keys.

By the 20th century you could buy a double horn -- a pair of horns, in different keys, coiled together with a single mouthpiece anda single bell. With one of these, a player is secure in the upper registers while he keeps the nice tone quality of the lower notes.

French horns now come in a thousand variations: single, double, and even triple horns are made in four keys or combinations of keys. Three kinds of valving, many coil arrangements, extra valves, and different bore sizes! Choosing a horn poses a startling combinatorial problem.

Mechanical sophistication was the outcome of the Industrial Revolution, and it touched the whole orchestra. The modern piano emerged, with enormously complex mechanisms and a structure that reflected the new iron bridges.

Today, musical instruments are wed to 20th-century electronics, yet the ideal is the same. The technology of every age has been used to enhance the beauty of natural sounds -- blown animal horns and reeds, resonant cavities, and vibrating strings.

I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

Kinnor is the Hebrew name for an ancient stringed instrument, the first mentioned in the Bible (Gen. iv. 21), where it is now always translated harp. The identification of the instrument has been much discussed, but, from the standpoint of the history of musical instruments, the weight of evidence is in favor of the view that the Semitic kinnor is the Greek cithara. This instrument was already in use before 2000 s.c. among the Semitic races and in a higher state of development than it ever attained in Greece during the best classic period. It is unlikely that an instrument (which also appears on Hebrew coins) so widely known and used in various parts of Asia Minor in remote times, and occurring among the Hittite sculptures, should pass unmentioned in the Bible, with the exception of the verses in Dan. iii.

Tunning

There are different variations of the Kinnor, each having a different number of strings. The following sample tunings are based on the Eb Major / C Minor scale:

• 12-string Kinnor: Eb,D,C,Bb,G#,G,F,Eb,D,C,Bb,G# (High to Low)
• 10-string Kinnor: Eb,D,C,Bb,G#,G,F,Eb,D,C (High to Low)

Strings age and wear out whether they're metal or gut. Preventive medicine is the prescription. Do a "transplant" before they give out during a performance.

Instructions

• STEP 1: Loosen all four strings gradually. Remove each string from the hole in the doweling that penetrates the scroll.
• STEP 2: Retrieve the bridge that supported the strings. Place it in the violin case for later use.
• STEP 3: Cut the violin strings from the "tail-piece" keyholes. Mark these holes to remember which string is mounted where.
• STEP 4: Tie a small knot at the base end of each string to fit below the string slot, forming an anchor point when tension is applied.
• STEP 5: Thread the clean end of each new string through the underside of the hole slots in the tailpiece. Be sure the string is securely set and will not slip when tension is increased.
• STEP 6: Thread the opposite end of each violin string through the holes in the proper doweling rod so that additional turns will lie on top of the end of that string and prevent it from slipping. Tension is not to be applied yet.
• STEP 7: Set the strings on top of the bridge indentations with the bridge foot over the tone post.
• STEP 8: Gradually tighten the strings; tighten them all in rotation, a little at a time.
• STEP 9: Use a four-note pitch pipe or a piano to begin the pitch matching and the tuning process.
• STEP 10: Be aware that the tuning will gradually "flatten" due to the normal stretching of new strings. Stretching should be complete in one week.

Tips & Warnings

The average modern piano has over 230 strings under a combined tension of 15 to 20 tons. A concert grand piano may have a combined string tension of up to 30 tons. Pianos made in the eighteenth century were not as powerful and used low-tension wire made from an alloy different from the wire used today.

Piano String : Scale design

The scale design of a piano refers to the calculations the piano manufacturer used to determine the pitch, diameter, length, and the tension of each wire. Good quality pianos usually have a better scale design that involves a lot of engineers and scientists taking many measurements and crunching the numbers. The piano is then built in the laboratory and is tested by listening to it. If the piano does not sound good, the design team does more calculations, makes another test piano and listens to it. This continues either until the piano manufacturer is completely pleased with the results or until the research budget runs out!

Piano Bass Strings

If the bass strings were made of plain steel wire, the lowest notes would have a string length of around 25 feet long! Since the piano has to be able to fit into normal-sized living rooms, the designers had to achieve a lower pitch using shorter wires. Getting a lower pitch with shorter wire requires using a larger diameter wire. Unfortunately, if a wire is used that has too large of a diameter, the wire will break under the required tension. The solution is to use a smaller steel core wire and then to use another wire wrapped around the core wire to add mass. The extra mass makes the wire behave as though it is a larger diameter wire without causing the problems of string breakage.

Originally, the wire that was used to wrap around the core wire was made of iron. Later, some pianos were made with aluminium-wrapped bass strings, and now copper wrapping is used. Plain steel music wire is used throughout the tenor and treble sections of the piano.

A common question is "Why does the piano have only one or two wires for each note in the bass section and three wires in the rest of the piano?" The short answer is that the number of wires used for each note helps determine the volume of that note. A large bass string can produce much more volume than a smaller plain wire. The volume is balanced by using more wires for each note in the treble section and fewer wires for each note in the bass section.

Broken Piano Strings

Occasionally a wire will be broken and need to be replaced. If the string is not replaced promptly, it can cause uneven wear on the hammer that will lead to additional repairs being necessary. A string can break for a number of reasons. In most cases of string breakage, there usually is the presence of rust that weakens the string. The string might break because of a kink or a bend in the wire, or there may be a defect in the wire. In tropical areas or areas with high humidity, pianos are made using tinned wire to prevent excess rust. Strings frequently become brittle with age, and the splintered ends ofa broken wire can testify to that. Concert instruments and other pianos that receive a lot of heavy use are notorious for popping strings.

When a piano is being tuned and a string breaks, it is usually due to a weakness in the string as listed above. Sometimes the wire can also be broken by a piano tuner who does not use a proper technique in using the tuning lever. When the broken wire is examined and the wire shows evidence of "necking down" (the wire being overstretched to the point that the wire is damaged) it often is the fault of the tuner. If a piano is flat in pitch because it has been neglected, the pitch raise can cause rusty strings to break. However, I have successfully raised pitch on a number of old pianos that had very rusty strings and were more than a whole note flat in pitch, and often the entire tuning will proceed without any of the strings breaking. Other times I may be tuning a much newer piano that is not flat, and a string will just decide to break.

Piano String Repairs

When a piano string breaks, there are several repair options available. A broken string can be repaired by tying a tuner's knot to splice the old wire to a short piece of new wire. The advantage of such a repair is that an older wire that is spliced will often match the tone of the surrounding strings better than if it had been replaced. In addition, a string that has been repaired this way will stabilize much more quickly than a new wire. Tying a broken string eliminates the need to return several times to retune the string back to the correct pitch. The drawback is that a wire with a knot in it doesn't match the other wires in appearance.

Piano String Replacement

My preference is to replace a broken wire with a new wire. Piano wire comes in long coils that are several hundred feet long. I use a micrometer to choose the appropriate gauge of wire, cut off the appropriate length, and do the replacement. When a bass string breaks, you have the option of having the string replaced with a universal bass string or a custom-made bass string.

A universal bass string set has a number of different sizes of core wires with different sizes of copper wrapping. The replacement is cut to the correct length, and then the wrap wire is "unravelled" until the beginning and end of the wrapping matches the other bass strings on the piano. The problem with using universal bass strings is that often the tone of the new piano string is decidedly different from the surrounding strings. It is rare to find a universal bass string that will perfectly match the core diameter and wrap diameter of the broken wire. Also, I have personally had a problem with universal bass strings breaking shortly after they are installed.

A string maker will make a custom bass string precisely to the correct size. The string maker already has a list of stringing scales for many current production pianos, but an older or obscure brand of piano may not be in their files. To find the correct size of wire requires either sending the broken string to the string maker, making a paper pattern, or taking several measurements of the broken string. Custom-made bass strings involve more work, take more time, and are more expensive, but it is my preference to use them, because they give the advantage of matching the tone of the existing strings much more closely.

Piano Restringing

An older piano often will develop a lot of rust on the strings, or it may have a problem with breaking strings. The bass strings often become tubby and "dead" because dirt and debris will be caught in the coils and make the strings not as flexible. The bass strings can sometimes be rejuvenated by working to get the junk out of the coils, but it is preferable to replace the entire set.

When restringing a piano, the tuning pins and strings are usually replaced as a unit at the same time. When the strings are removed, they are carefully measured and the scale design is calculated to determine what size of strings should be used for replacement. Good quality newer pianos often will have an acceptable scale design, but old or obscure piano designs can often be improved upon, especially in the bass section. The tone of the piano can often be improved by "tweaking" the scale design.

Although piano wire is made of steel, it does have some elasticity and does stretch. A new piano, or one that has been restrung, will continue to stretch and go flat for quite some time. If you have ever replaced a set of strings on your guitar, you know what I am talking about! After a piano has been restrung and returned to the customer's house, it needs to be tuned a minimum of four times that first year and a minimum of twice a year thereafter. It is my opinion that a piano will stabilize much more quickly the more frequently it is tuned.

A musical instrument that is struck (or sometimes shaken or scraped) to produce sound. This category includes instruments whose own hard substance is made to vibrate (idiophones) and instruments that include a tight membrane that vibrates (membranophones). Percussion instruments may produce tones of definite or indefinite pitch. Their primary function is often rhythmic, but many are used as melody instruments. They include the bell, carillon, cymbal, drum, dulcimer, gamelan, glockenspiel, marimba, piano, steel drum, tabla, tambourine, timpani, vibraphone, and xylophone.

Some percussion instruments can play melodies. These are called tuned percussion. The xylophone, glockenspiel, marimba, vibraphone,and timpani are all tuned percussion instruments.

Other percussion instruments that do not produce a definite pitch are generally termed unpitched percussion. These include most drums (snare drum, bass drum, drum set, etc.) and also other instruments used mostly for special effects. Some of these instruments which add colour to an ensemble are the triangle, gong, castanets, rattle, cowbell, woodblock, tambourine, maracas, claves, and whistles.

The word, "percussion", has evolved from Latin terms: "percussio" (which translates as "to beat, strike" in the musical sense, rather than the violent action), and "percussus" (which is a noun meaning "a beating"). As a noun in contemporary English it is described at Wiktionary as "the collision of two bodies to produce a sound". The usage of the term is not unique to music but has application in medicine and weaponry, as in percussion cap, but all known and common uses of the word, "percussion", appear to share a similar lineage beginning with the original Latin: "percussus". In a musical context then, the term "percussion instruments" may have been coined originally to describe a family of instruments including drums, rattles, metal plates, or wooden blocks which musicians would beat or strike (as in a collision) to produce sound.

Finger cymbals are a percussion instrument made out of wood, bone or metal, held between the thumb and fingers. They are clicked together in rhythm to dance.

The term "finder cymbals" is a general term as there is many styles and types of finger cymbals through out the world. Some terms used are:

• Zils or Zills in Turkey
• Sagat, Sunouj or Zagat in Arabic
• Zang in Persia
• Salasil in Iran/Persia
• Chinchines in Spain
• Zillia or Zilia in Greece

There is many different definitions of finger cymbals on the web, depending on the country. Here are a few given definitions:

A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance

An early Asian percussion instrument often used by female dancers. They are small non-pitched cymbals that are commonly attached to the thumb and middle finger of one or both hands and struck together in a specific rhythmic pattern.

Finger cymbals are called "zils" or "zills" in Turkey and "sagat" or "zagat" in Arabic. They are small metal disks, worn on your hands and played while you are belly dancing. Most belly dancers wear four of them: one on each thumb, and one on the middle finger of each hand. In Morocco, there is a style of playing the finger cymbals that employs only three finger cymbals: two on one hand, and one on the other hand.

For more than four decades, Fender electric guitars and amplifiers have had a tremendous influence on the way the world composes, plays and listens to music. While guitarists in the early part of this century played country, folk or blues on acoustic guitars, in the 1930s, jazz musicians experimented with amplifying traditional hollow-body guitars so they could play with other instruments at the same sound level. One problem was that the speakers and pick-ups tended to generate feedback when played at a high level.

In the 1940s, a California inventor named Leo Fender had made some custom guitars and amplifiers in his radio shop. Eventually, Leo would create the world's very first instrument amplifiers with built-in tone controls. More importantly, though, was Leo's vision of better guitar. With his knowledge of existing technologies, he knew he could improve on contemporary amplified hollow-body instruments . . . and improve upon them, he did. In 1951, he introduced the Broadcaster, the prototype solid-body guitar that would eventually become the legendary Telecaster. The Tele, as it became affectionately known, was the first solid-body electric Spanish-style guitar ever to go into commercial production. Soon to follow the Tele were the revolutionary Precision Bass® guitar in 1951, and the Stratocaster in 1954.

In 1965, because of poor health, Leo Fender sold his company to corporate giant CBS. Over the next two decades, Fender Musical Instruments experienced some tremendous growth. But as time wore on, CBS's lack of commitment and real understanding of music and musicians was becoming apparent.

In 1981, CBS recruited a new management team to "re-invent" Fender. William Schultz was soon named President, and was supported by associates William Mendello and Kurt Hemrich. They had developed a five-year business plan based on the idea of increasing Fender's presence in the marketplace by dramatically improving quality and making a significant commitment to research and development. This association continued until CBS decided to divest itself from the non-broadcast media business.

So, in 1985, a group of employees and investors led by William Schultz purchased the company from CBS. This sale put Fender in the hands of a small group of musically dedicated people who have committed their lives to creating the world's best guitars and amplifiers.

The team had to start from scratch - there were no buildings or machines included in the deal. They owned only the name, the patents, and the parts that were left over in stock. Supported by a core group of loyal employees, dealers and suppliers - some of whom had been with the company since Leo Fender began making guitars and amplifiers - Bill Schultz and his colleagues set out to re-build an American icon.

Initially, Fender imported their guitars from offshore manufacturers who had proven their ability to produce affordable, viable instruments. But the quest for even more control over quality soon led to the construction of Fender's flagship domestic factory in Corona, California. Eventually, Fender would build a second modern manufacturing facility in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, with the goal of being able to build quality instruments and offer them at more budget-oriented prices.

In 1987, Fender acquired Sunn, a storied line of amplifiers whose past endorsees have included The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones. This jump-started Fender's re-entry into the amplifier business by making accessible Sunn's manufacturing facilities in Lake Oswego, Oregon. But this was still an early stage of the "new" Fender, so Schultz put the Sunn line of amps on the shelf until the Fender name had been re-established as the world's leading amplifier.

Fender has always recognized the importance of an open-door policy for the professional musician. When artists first started requesting specific features for their guitars, they were accommodated on an individual basis. These relationships led to the formalizing of Fender's custom operation in 1987. Today, the world's greatest guitarists work with the renowned Fender Custom Shop in Corona, California, to create their dream instruments. Recently, Fender has added amplifiers to the list of custom-made instruments that can be produced at the Custom Shop in Corona.

In 1991, Fender moved its corporate headquarters from Corona to Scottsdale, Arizona. From here, administration, marketing, advertising, sales and export teams oversee the operations of Fender's satellite facilities around the world, which now include the locations in the United States (California, Tennessee, New York and Rhode Island), as well as international operations in: Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico; London, England; Dusseldorf, Germany; Suresnes, France; Brussels; Japan; Korea; and China.

Also brought to Scottsdale at this time was Fender's Amplifier and Pro Audio Research & Development. With guitar amplifiers, Fender sets the standard for sound and value. Its R & D staff has pioneered many technological advancements in developing amplifiers that meet the needs of the performing musician. In late 1992, the Amp Custom Shop was opened in Scottsdale, Arizona, to offer custom and limited editions of professional amplifiers for working musicians.

Recognizing that country music and acoustic guitars were increasing in popularity, Fender expanded upon its acoustic guitar line. In addition to working with respected manufacturers in Japan, Korea and China to produce quality acoustic guitars, the company has become the exclusive North American distributor of the prestigious Manuel Rodriguez line of nylon-stringed guitars, which have been hand-crafted in Spain by the Rodriguez family since 1905. These additions have put the company in an excellent position for growth within the acoustic guitar market.

Founded in a loft in New York City in 1952, Guild Guitar Company continues to be known for its quality instruments and exceptional value. Faced with internal financial troubles in the early 1990's, Guild management had decided to sell the company. Fender acquired Guild in 1995, signalling a return to ownership by a group of people dedicated to producing the finest value in American-made acoustic and electric guitars. Today, Guilds are still being produced at its historic, 60,000 square-foot facility in Westerly, Rhode Island.

1998 would prove to be a banner year for Fender and its subsidiaries. With Fender amplifiers once again enjoying a very strong presence in the market place, it was now time to dust off the Sunn line of amps. R&D had spent the previous three years studying the original Sunn products and developing prototype models that faithfully replicated the trademark Sunn sound. The timing was right, and Fender introduced the new Sunn line of amplifiers to an immediate industry acclaim.

And for Guild, 1998 brought the expansion of its Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee. First opened in 1996, the new Guild Custom Shop boasts an 8,000 square-foot , climate controlled facility near downtown Nashville that allows a great deal of extra space for production and storage of raw materials.

Guild had also introduced DeArmond guitars in 1998. Fender had purchased the DeArmond brand of musical instrument pick-ups in 1997, and then combined the company with Guild to produce an alternative line of high quality, affordable guitars and basses that are modelled after Guild designs. The guitars themselves are built and assembled in Korea before being sent back to Corona, where they are fitted with American-made DeArmond pick-ups. Following their successful test runs in European and Asian markets, DeArmond guitars were introduced to American and Canadian consumers and received instant acclaim as an exceptional value.

But the biggest event for Fender in 1998 was the opening of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Corona. The 177,000 square-foot facility was built on a nineteen acre site, with over half of that space set aside for future growth, and is the culmination of a vision that at times seemed almost impossible. The entire line of American-made Fender guitars are built at the Corona factory, which is capable of making over 350 guitars each day. In addition, the Corona facility utilizes the innovative UVOXÔ system, which combines ultraviolet light, a special scrubber process, and a carbon bed absorption system to help ensure that the air emitted from the factory is 95% clean. The new factory is not only a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, but a tribute to how a group of dedicated individuals, when they set their minds to it, can create the "impossible".

The Fender Custom Shop also shares space at the new facility. Over fifty artisans now work at the Custom Shop, offering the world's finest custom made instruments to professional musicians, as well as a complete line of hand-crafted replications of classic Fender models. And to complete the Corona operation, the amplifier Custom Shop was brought back from Scottsdale and folded into the guitar Custom Shop.

Simultaneously, a new 70,000 square-foot addition was completed at the Ensenada facility. The extra space was added to bring amplifier production, aside from those produced at the Custom Shop, into one main facility.

During the past decade, Fender has grown dramatically in sales and stature. The company manufactures and distributes virtually everything that a guitarist needs to perform, from the guitar, strings and accessories, to the pro audio products including amplifiers and mixing boards. Today, under Schultz's direction, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is a world leader in the manufacturing and distribution of electric guitars and amplifiers.

Fender became the world leader by defining the sounds we hear, meeting the needs of musicians, creating quality products and backing them up with service and stability. As Fender Musical Instruments Corporation forges through the 1990's and into the 21st century, its management team will maintain Fender's number-one status through a winning combination of business acumen and a love of music.

Clarinets have been around for quite a long time, although not in their present form. The history of the clarinet goes as far back as the late 1600s, when an instrument known as a chalumeau was in occasional use in orchestras. The chalumeau is commonly considered to be a forerunner of our modern clarinet, although it bore little resemblance to the ones we play today.

The chalumeau was a cane pipe measuring about 20cm (about 9 inches) long. It had seven holes, including a thumb hole, and a range of not much more than an octave. The name chalumeau suggests a French origin for this little instrument. But it was Johann Denner, a leading German woodwind maker, who was credited with improving it, and in doing so inventing the early clarinet. Sometime around 1700, Denner added two keys to the chalumeau, expanding its range by giving it an upper register. He also may have given it a separate mouthpiece and reed.

The history of the clarinet continued to develop as two-keyed clarinets underwent a variety of improvements and were introduced to France and England. By about 1750, the clarinet body had taken the basic shape we see today, but the key work continued to evolve. In about 1780, five keys were being used. And by 1820 or 1830, clarinets were commonly in use that had 12 or 13 keys. By 1850 or so Boehm system key work had been introduced. This system, based on the key work then being used on the flute, managed to eliminated some very difficult fingerings. It is the system most commonly used today although Albert fingering systems are also still in use, primarily in Europe. In North America, it is rare to see a clarinet that does not use Boehm key work.

In the mid to late 1700s, composers had begun writing musical pieces that included, or were specifically written for, clarinets. The instrument became much more prominent in the 1800's, and large volumes of music were written for it in the early 1900's.

We will likely see continued minor changes, although it will probably happen very slowly, over decades. Today, there are minor variations in different models. Manufacturers use slightly different bore diameters and shapes, and occasionally additional keys. Most modern clarinets have 17 or 18 keys.

Dhrupad is the oldest surviving genre of classical singing in India. Its name, from dhruva-pada, seems to mean "the eternal verse", and its foremost characteristics are a somber, dignified, devotional mood, its very slow tempo and slow melodic development. Like all Indian classical music, Dhrupad is modal, with a single melodic line and no harmonic parts. The modes are called raga, and each raga is a complicated framework of melodic rules.

From what we know, Dhrupad originated as devotional singing in Hindu temples and can be traced as far back as the Vedas themselves. From the Vedas evolved the "Udatt" and "Anudatt" forms of music, which later on evolved into Dhrupad, possibly around two thousand years ago. Under the Islamic Mughal ("Mogul") rule, it was appropriated as court music.

Dhrupad, as we know it today, hasa repertoire of short songs (two to sixteen lines) which are performed by a solo singer, or a small number of singers in unison, to the beat of a double-headed barrel drum, the pakhawaj. The songs are mostly in praise of Hindu deities, but in recent centuries, Islamic or simply regalist lyrics have been written and added to the repertoire. The song itself, which is known as the Dhrupad, is preceded in performance by a wholly improvised section, the alap, without accompaniment of the drum. The alap in Dhrupad is sung without words, using instead a set of syllables in a recurrent, set pattern: a re ne na, té te re ne na, ri re re ne na, te ne toom ne (this last group is used in cadences to reach the tonic or the end of a long phrase). The syllables are like various colours on the palette of the painter and are popularly thought to be derived from a sacred mantra.

Today, alap comprises the greater part of most Dhrupad performance. It can easily last an hour, with a slow tempo and gradual, controlled development of melody (raga). It is broadly subdivided into alap (unmetered), jor (with steady rhythm) and jhalla (speeding up) or nomtom. In this last part, the syllables are sung at a very rapid pace, sometimes incorporating very special-sounding ornamentation techniques (gamaka), and the nomtom has become one of the most popular parts of Dhrupad concerts.

Traditionally, the only instrument used for playing Dhrupad was the been, which is technically a fretted stick zither with strings set along a bamboo or wooden neck with a large gourd mounted at each end. The word "been" is a colloquial form of the Sanskrit "veena", the generic word used for plucked-string instruments all over India. To differentiate the been from the different south Indian veena, the latter is often called Saraswati Veena and the former Rudra Veena.

Some players have used other instruments for Dhrupad. Preferably, such instruments should have a deep bass register and long sustain. As in all Indian classical playing, the instruments must support bending of the note.

Recent history

The 18th century saw the beginning of a great decline of Dhrupad singing. A new genre, khyal, gained popularity at Dhrupad's expense. It placed fewer constraints on the singers and allowed for displays of virtuosity that were rare in Dhrupad. In addition, the basically Hindu Dhrupad was somewhat out of context in a Muslim setting; here, khyal offered something less devotional and more entertaining. Also, new instruments were being developed – the sitar and the sarod – that were not suited to the slow tempo and low register favoured by Dhrupad, so that Dhrupad instrumental also began to lose ground.

As a consequence, in the first half of the 20th century khyal was all-pervasive, along with the new instrumental style of classical music, and Dhrupad was becoming all but extinct. Only a few families carried on the tradition.

Almost single-handedly, one of these families, the Dagars, brought about the Dhrupad revival. Dagar singers toured widely and were beginning to be recorded. Soon, this was to co-incide with the growing foreign interest in Indian music. Starting in the 1960s, Dhrupad was to become almost more popular outside India than at home. Perhaps it is the stylistically easier style on the Western ear, but, as it is the older style, it was also seen as the most "genuine" and traditional. The Dagar revival also helped breathe new life into a few other families of Dhrupad singers.

Today, Dhrupad enjoys a place as a well-known, respected but not very popular genre on the north Indian classical scene. It is no longer on the brink of extinction.

Styles of Dhrupad

There are said to be four broad stylistic variants of Dhrupad – the vanis (or banis): Gauri (Gohar), Khandar, Nauhar, and Dagar. These are tentatively linked to the five singing styles (geetis) known from the 7th Century: Shuddha, Bhinna, Gauri, Vegswara, and Sadharani – but more importantly, there are a number of Dhrupad gharanas: "houses", or family styles.

How the gharanas relate to the vanis is a debated question. At any rate, the most well-known gharana is that of the Dagar family, who of course sing in the Dagar vani. The Dagar style puts great emphasis on alap, and for several generations, their singers have been known to perform in pairs (often pairs of brothers). Perhaps a bit peculiarly, the Dagars are Muslims, but sing Hindu texts. Dagar family lore speaks of twenty generations of Dhrupad singers in an unbroken line. Some of the best Dhrupad singers outside the Dagar family, such as Uday Bhawalkar and Dr. Ritwik Sanyal belong to Dagar vani.

From Bihar state come two another gharanas, the Malliks and the Mishras. The Malliks are linked to the Khandar vani, and emphasize the composed song over improvised alap. The Mishras practice Nauhar and Khandar vani, with some unique techniques for nomtom alap. In Pakistan, Dhrupad is represented by the little-known Talwandi gharana (Khandar vani).

Alongside the classical performance tradition, the practice of singing Dhrupad in temples continues to this day. Only a very small number of recordings of this singing has been made. It bears little resemblance to the style we otherwise know: there is very little or no alap; percussion such as bells and finger cymbals, which are not permitted in the north Indian classical setting, are used, and the pakhawaj used is a smaller, older variant called mrdang, quite similar to south Indian classical mrdangam.

Compositions exist in time-cycles (talas) as sultala (7 beats), tivratala (10 beats) or chautala (12beats). A composition set to the 14-beat time signature is however called a dhamar. It is seen as a lighter musical form, and associated with the Holi spring festival of colours.

Before the development of the very first electric guitar in the 1930s, the acoustic guitar was the only available guitar. The soft melodic tone of the acoustic guitar made it hard to hear when it was played alongside the now larger brass sections in musical groups.

During the 1930s, the first electric guitar was created. Since then it has significantly affected the direction of 20^th century music. The electric guitar still had critics, but the ability to play with more creativity and individual style won people over.

First pick-up guitar

Lloyd Loar devised and created the first magnetic pick-up in 1924 while working as an inventor and engineer at the Gibson guitar company. He figured out that he was able to convert the vibrations of guitar strings into electrical signals. These electrical signals could then be amplified through a typical speaker system. This first pick-up design was crude, but it would slowly be refined into the pick-up design we see today.

First electric guitar

Adolph Rickenbacker, George Beauchamp and Paul Barth founded the Electro String Company in 1931. The Electro String Company developed the first electric guitars that we marketed to the general public. These guitars were made from cast aluminium and were played on a person's lap using a steel slide much like todays steel guitar. Because of their unusual material, they were affectionately called "Frying Pans".

The Gibson guitar company saw the success of the frying pan guitars and were prompted to also build their first electric guitar, the ES-150. This guitar is a legend today.

First solid-body electric guitar

Electric guitars quickly became popular but suffered a flaw in their construction. The body of the guitar would vibrate due to the amplified sounds from the speakers. This created what we know as feedback. A remedy was found by building an electric guitar with a solid body that would not vibrate. Like most innovations, this caused a lot of controversy.

Les Paul created a guitar call The Log in the 1940s. It was called this as it was made from a simple 4x4 wood post with a neck attached to it and home-made pick-ups and hardware. Around the same time, engineer Paul Bigsby and guitarist Merle Travis developed a solid-body electric guitar that closely resembled the solid-body electric guitars available today.

First mass produced electric guitar

The Fender Broadcaster was the first mass produced electric guitar created by Leo Fender in 1950. As the name Broadcaster was already being used by another company, this guitar was quickly renamed to the infamous Telecaster. Leo followed this guitar up with the most well known guitar of all time, the Stratocaster.

The success of Leo and the Fender company lead other guitars makers to follow. The Gibson guitar company teamed up with Les Paul to create the famous Gibson Les Paul electric guitar.

More Affordable Electric Guitars

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, famous brand electric guitars made by Fender and Gibson we to expensive for average people to buy. Cheap imitations flooded the market but were sub-standard in sound and harder to play. In the 1980's the Japanese started to manufacture electric guitars that were the same quality as the expensive American models but at more affordable prices.

The new Japanese guitars prompted Fender and the other leading guitar makers to produce cheaper versions of their classic models. This allowed electric guitars to be as affordable and accessible as they are today.

The Gibson and Fender guitar makers are still producing some of their well-known, "top of the line" guitars. Other quality guitar makers such as BC Rich, ESP and Peavey ensure that the market stays competitive and forces constant innovation in designs, shapes, materials and technologies to make better sounding eclectic guitars.

The competitive market and constant innovation has also meant that some modern guitars have the ability to sound like other types of guitars or even sound like other types of instruments.

A wind instrument consists of a tube containing a column of air which is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set into the end of the tube. The pitch is determined by the length of the tube and hence the length of the vibrating column of air.

A range of notes is obtained by:

• adjusting the effective length of the tube by one of
  • opening holes in the side of the tube, or
  • valves adding extra lengths of tubing in the middle, or
  • lengthening the tube by a sliding mechanism
• getting the column of air to vibrate at different harmonics (see harmonic series).

Wind instruments fall into one of the following categories:

• Brass instruments
• Woodwind instruments

Although brass instruments were originally made of brass and woodwind instruments have traditionally been made of wood, the material used to make the body of the instrument is not a reliable guide to its family. For example, the saxophone is made of brass but is a woodwind instrument, while the cornett and serpent, although made of wood, are in the family of brass instruments.

A more accurate way to determine whether an instrument is brass or woodwind is to examine how the player produces sound. In brass instruments, the player's lips vibrate, and that causes the air enclosed within the instrument to vibrate. In woodwind instruments, however, the player either causes a reed to vibrate which then agitates the column of air (as in a clarinet or oboe), blows against an edge (as in a recorder), or blows across an open hole (as in a flute).

In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, wind instruments are classed as aerophones.

A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument in which sound is produced by blowing against an edge or by a vibrating reed, and in which the pitch is varied by opening or closing holes in the body of the instrument using a mouthpiece.

There are three main sorts of woodwind instrument:

• Single Reed instruments use a reed -- a thinly sliced piece of cane, (or less frequently, plastic)-- that is held against the aperture of the mouthpiece with a ligature. When air is forced between the reed and the mouthpiece, the vibrations create the sound. Single reed instruments include the clarinet and saxophone families of instruments.
• Double Reed instruments use two precisely cut, small pieces of cane joined together at the base . The finished, bound reed is inserted into the top of the instrument and vibrates as air is forced between the two pieces of bound cane. There are two sub-families
  • exposed double reed instruments, where the reed goes between the player's lips. The oboe, cor anglais (also called english horn) and bassoon make up the more popular instruments within this family.
  • capped reed instruments, where there is a cap covering up the reed with a hole in that the player just blows through. This family includes the bagpipes and the crumhorn
• Flute woodwind instruments where the sound is produced by blowing against an edge. There are two subfamilies
  • open flute family, where the player uses their lips to form the stream of air which goes directly from the players lips to the edge, e.g. the transverse flute
  • closed flute family, where the instrument forms and directs the stream over the edge. This family includes whistle and the recorder family

One interesting difference between woodwind and brass instruments is that woodwind instruments are non-directional. This means that the sound produced propagates in all directions with approximately equal volume. Brass instruments, on the other hand, are highly directional, with most of the sound produced travelling straight outward from the bell. This difference makes it significantly more difficult to record a woodwind instrument accurately. It also plays a major role in some performance situations, such as in marching bands.

The first free reed instrument was the Chinese sheng (笙; pinyin shēng), which is mouth-blown. It is thought that Johann Wilde and Pere Amiot traveled to China and brought the first shengs back to Europe in 1740 and 1777 respectively, although some believe shengs were known in Europe centuries earlier. However, it was only in the early 1800s that Amiot's sheng inspired the invention of the harmonica, accordion, and reed organ.

There are many types of sheng, Gaoyin Sheng (高音笙, pinyin Gāoyīn Shēng), Zhongyin Sheng (中音笙, pinyin Zhōngyīn Shēng), Diyin Sheng (低音笙, pinyin Dīyīn Shēng), etc. The Gaoyin Sheng is a high pitch sheng, the Zhongyin Sheng, middle pitch, and the Diyin Sheng, a low pitch sheng. There are different number of tubes on different shengs, ranging from 21 to 51 tubes.

A concertina, like the larger accordion, is a member of the Free Reed family of instruments. Instead of buttons on one side and a piano-like keyboard on the other, it has buttons on both sides.

There are two common kinds:

• The Anglo concertina (from "Anglo-German") has buttons in curved rows following the fingertips. Pushing and pulling the bellows give two different notes from the same button. It is the ancestor of the bandoneon.
• The English concertina has buttons in a rectangular arrangement of four staggered rows, with the short side of the rectangle at the wrist. Pushing and pulling give the same note. A scale in most keys alternates between one side and the other.

There are also various duet system concertinas, which are much more rarely seen than Anglo and English concertinas. Their button layouts provide low notes in the left hand, high notes in the right, with some overlap (like a piano), and the same notes pushing and pulling.

Needless to say, a player of one of these "systems", given a concertina of a different system, will feel like s/he is playing an entirely new instrument.

The crumhorn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It was popular in the Renaissance period. In the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in Early Music and people started to play crumhorns again.

The crumhorn is a capped reed instrument. Its construction is similar to that of the chanter of a bagpipes. A double reed is mounted inside a chamber at one end of a long pipe. Blowing into the chamber produces a musical note. The pitch of the note can be varied by opening or closing finger holes along the length of the pipe. One unusual feature of the crumhorn is its shape; the end is bent upwards in a curve, so that the instrument resembles a banana, or more prosaically, the letter J.

Crumhorns sound something like a trumpet, something like an oboe and somthing like a duck. They have a limited range, usually an octave and one note, because it is not possible to get the reed to overblow at higher harmonics, since the reed is not held in the mouth. As a result, music for crumhorns is usually played by a group of instruments of different sizes and hence at different pitches. Such a group is known as a consort of crumhorns.

The cor anglais or English horn is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It is essentially the same as an oboe, but larger.

The technique of playing the cor anglais is the same as playing the oboe, but it is tuned a perfect fifth lower, having a range from the E flat below middle C to the A a thirteenth above middle C. It is perceived to have a mellower and more plaintive tone than the oboe. Its appearance differs from the oboe in that the reed is attached to a slightly bent metal tube and the bell has a bulbous shape.

Despite its name, the instrument is not thought to be English in origin. A common explanation of the name is that it is a corruption of the French cor anglé, meaning bent horn, although there is no certainty that this is the case.

There is no such thing as a dedicated cor anglais player. Instead, oboists will double on the cor anglais, just as flutists double on the piccolo.

There are very few solo pieces for the instrument, although the timbre of the instrument makes it well suited to the introduction of expressive, melancholic solos in the slow movements of orchestral works.

The bassoon is the bass member of the woodwind family. Like the oboe it has a double reed and overblows an octave higher. The bassoon is considered to have a register tone similar to that of the human voice, particularly in the central and upper register. The instrument has a significant length (slightly over 8 feet), made playable by doubling the tube back on itself. A metal keying system is vital to allow the player to operate the widely spaced holes, which control pitch. A large relative, the contrabassoon (or double bassoon), plays an octave lower.

The range of the bassoon begins at B♭0 (the first one below the bass staff) and extends upward about three and a half octaves; higher notes are possible but difficult to produce and very rarely called for. Bassoon music is written in untransposed bass clef, while tenor clef is frequently used for the higher ranges.

History

The first bassoon was invented about 500 years ago. It was called a dulcian meaning "soft and sweet" in Latin. This instrument was one piece and had a double reed made from cane. The English version of the dulcian was called a curtal.

Around 1643-1715, French instrument makers developed a new curtal that had four separate pieces. It had about 4 or 8 keys. It is similar to today's traditional bassoon. Use of this new kind of bassoon spread like wildfire throughout Europe. Throughout the 1700's, more keys were added and more notes could be played.

Though more keys were added, the tone of the bassoon was awful. In 1820, Carl Almenader and his partner, Adam Heckel, developed a bassoon with many notes it could play and the tone was not damaged. They had developed the German bassoon, which is still used today, except with some minor changes.

The recorder is a flute-like woodwind musical instrument. In German it is called the Blockflote, in French the flute bec, and in Italian the flauto dolce. It is held vertically from the lips (rather than horizontally like the 'transverse' flute). The player's breath is directed by a wooden 'fipple' or 'block' in the mouthpiece of the instrument along a duct called the 'windway'. Exiting from the windway, the breath is directed against a hard edge called the labium, which agitates a column of air, the length of which (and the pitch of the note produced) is modified by finger holes in the front and back of the instrument. Because of the fixed position of the windway with respect to the labium, there is no need to form an embouchure with the lips. The recorder is descended from very early folk-whistles. It was used in Renaissance music and Baroque Music, and has more recently been revived, gaining a reputation as a children's and amateur's instrument.

Known in the 18th century simply as Flute = Flauto - the transverse form was separately referred to as Traverso. It was for the recorder that J.S. Bach wrote the 4th Brandenburg concerto in G major (though Thurston Dart mistakenly suggested that it was intended for flageolets at a higher pitch, and in a recording under Neville Marriner using Dart's editions it was played an octave higher than usual on sopranino recorders). In fact Bach scored this work for two "flauti d'echo", or echo flutes, an example of which survives in Leipzig to this day. It consisted of two recorders in f' connected together by leather flanges: one instrument was voiced to play softly, the other loudly. Vivaldi wrote three concertos for the "flautino", an instrument first thought to be the piccolo. It is now generally accepted, however, that the instrument intended was the sopranino recorder.

The instrument went into decline after the 18th century, being used for about the last time as an other-worldly sound by Gluck in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Although it was revived at the begining of the 20th century by German scholar/performers and in England by Arnold Dolmetsch and others, even in the early 20th century it was uncommon enough that Stravinsky thought it to be a kind of clarinet. Subsequent to its rediscovery it became very popular in schools, since it is inexpensive, easy to play at some level, is pre-tuned, and is not too strident in even the most musically-inept hands. It is however incorrect to assume that mastery is similarly easy - like other instruments, it requires talent and study to play it at an advanced level.

Recorders are most often tuned in C and F, though instruments in D, G, Eb were not uncommon historically and are still found today. The normal, school instrument, recorder is the soprano in C (in England known as the descant) which has a lowest note of c'. Above this are the sopranino in F and the gar klein Flötlein ("really small flute") in C. And above that again is the piccolino in c. Below the soprano are the alto in F (in England known as the treble), tenor in C and bass in F. Lower instruments in C and F exist (great bass in C, contrabass in F, sub-contrabass in C, and sub-sub- or octo-contrabass in F) but are more rare. They are also difficult to handle: the contrabass in F is about 2 meters tall. The soprano and the alto are the most common solo instruments in the recorder family.

The range of a recorder is more or less 2 octaves, chromatically. Some higher notes exist, but notably the augmented prime, two octaves above the base note, is absent or can only be played by covering the end of the instrument typically using one's upper leg. Basically, a recorder is a diatonic instrument, with one hole for each note of the scale of its lowest note. The chromatic scale degrees are played by so-called "fork" fingerings, uncovering one hole and covering one or more of the ones below it. Fork fingerings have a different tonal character from the diatonic notes, giving the recorder its characteristic, woody, and somewhat uneven sound.