Musical instruments

Every audible musical sound ultimately originates from one of three kinds of vibrating source -- a stretched string, a column of air, or a stretched membrane/struck plate -- and musical instruments are classified accordingly into three broad families.

STRINGED instruments use one or more stretched strings, tuned to specific frequencies by adjusting their tension, and are further divided by HOW the string is set vibrating: PLUCKED-string instruments (the string is plucked directly by the fingers, e.g. tanpura, sitar, guitar, veena), BOWED-string instruments (the string is set vibrating by drawing a bow across it, e.g. violin, sarangi), and STRUCK-string instruments (the string is struck with a stick or hammer, e.g. santoor, piano).

WIND instruments rely on a vibrating column of air, and are similarly divided by how that air column is excited: FREE-REED instruments (a free brass reed is set vibrating by blown or compressed air, e.g. mouth organ, harmonium), EDGE instruments (air is blown against a sharp edge, e.g. flute), and REED-PIPE instruments, which may use a single reed (e.g. clarinet, saxophone), a double reed (e.g. bassoon), or no reed at all (e.g. bugle).

PERCUSSION instruments produce sound by setting a stretched membrane vibrating (e.g. tabla, dhol, mridangam, sambal, daphali, drum), or, in some cases, by striking metal plates against each other or with a beater (e.g. cymbals/jhanja, xylophone). …