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The erxian takes many years to master
Word of the week: One of China’s most important traditional bowed instruments with an unmistakable sound, dating back at least 2,000 years, with a hardwood neck and a rounded bamboo soundbox and two strings, it looks simple, but takes years to master
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The firikyiwa can be played on one hand
Word of the week: Pronounced free-chee-wah, and best known in Ghana and other parts of West Africa, this is a two-piece single-handed pod bell percussion instrument, with a round hollow iron shell worn on the index finger struck by the ring on the thumb
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Ghungroo ankle bells
Word of the week: The word for a small bell, it describes one of many to form ghungroos, a musical anklet tied just above the feet of classical Indian dancers to accentuate and accompany complex footwork
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Hyōshigi will regularly feature in Japanese kabuki theatre to call attention to the audience
Word of the week: Hyōshigi (拍子木) describes a simple, clapping percussion instrument with a sound evocative of Kabuki theatre and other Japanese traditions – two pieces of hardwood or bamboo connected by a thin ornamental rope – they bang together, sometimes with increasing speed.
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Don’t look back in anger, but inanga
Word of the week: A trough-style traditional zither played in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the soundboard with concave sides and six to eight string pitches on the pentatonic scale, its evocative plucked sound is often accompanied by poetic, sometimes whispered song narratives
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Milin Tulankar playing Jal Tarang
Word of the week: Also known as jal tarang (Hindi: जलतरंग) meaning waves of water this is a traditional, Indian subcontinent percussion instrument dating back to the 4th–6th centuries CE, comprising up to 22 porcelain or glass bowls filled with water and struck with sticks
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The k'lông pút is not played by touch, but handclaps forcing air through each tube
Word of the week: Also simplified to klong put, this Vietnamese traditional xylophone, played by Bahnar people, comes with a difference – instead of its bamboo tubes being struck, they are not touched at all – resonant pitches are produced by hand-clapping
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Sets of launeddas from Sardinia
Word of the week: A traditional polyphonic Italian reed instrument from Sardinia, also known as the triple pipe or clarinet, comprising three canes that requires circular breathing to produce drone and tuneful melodies
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Probably the largest Mokugyo fish drum in the world, located at Hasedera Temple in Kamakura, Japan
Word of the week: Seeking a calming, meditative sound? This wooden fish-decorated wooden drum, known also as mokugyo in Japan, is an ancient instrument with a deep spiritual significance in Buddhism used in ceremonies and rituals
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Romanian nai virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir
Word of the week: This Romanian 17th-century panpipe is a mainstay of traditional folk and classical music, wide in range and resonant, it is made up of at least 20 pipes made of bamboo or reed in the diatonic scale of C or G, and emits a clean, distinctive sound
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That’ll be the degu: from the octodont genus
Word of the week: Meaning, in Latin, having eight teeth, but also a general term for particular groups furry mammals who are part of the Octodontidae or Octodon genus of rodents of South America, particularly the degu
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The płock, płocka or fidel płocka
Word of the week: Also called płock, płocka or fidel płocka, a box-shaped six-string traditional Polish folk violin, without fingerboard or tailpiece, played vertically resting on the knee, and pairs of strings doubling pitch to bring a rich, resonant sound
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Dance craze: depiction of the first quadrille in England at Almack’s in 1816
Word of the week: A sprightly, sociable18th- and 19th-century dance form that sprung from folk contredanses, it comprises four couples in rectangular formation and was all the range in polite society in the Victorian age in Europe and colonies, and is linked to American square dancing
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A variety of ronroco models
Word of the week: An Andean 10-string (5 doubles) form of mandolin, baritone or bass charango, this beautiful instrument was invented in the 1980s by Gonzalo Hermosa González, of the group Los Kjarkas from Cochabamba, Bolivia and has been used in many acclaimed film scores
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The sistrum is an international percussion instrument but its origins date back to Ancient Egypt and the goddess Hathor
Word of the week: A percussion instrument dating back to Ancient Egypt with different varieties, mostly of U-shaped brass or bronze frame, with crossbars and moving metal hoops that when shaken make a soft clank or loud jangling
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A terpidion’s interior workings with rolling cylinder and leather-covered hammers create sound via friction
Word of the week: The terpodion, also known as uranion, is an extremely rare 19th-century keyboard instrument that, when keys are pressed, creates sound via friction against a rotating coated wooden cylinder
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The ululation of the wolf …
Word of the week: The noun of the verb ululate, meaning to to deliver a high-pitched cry, or howl, very much like that of a wolf in the forest, though it can also be applied to the human voice
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Vicuñas on high slopes of Peruvian Andes
Word of the week: Also spelled vicuña (Lama vicugna) this, is one of the two species of wild South American camelids living in high alpine areas of the Andes, a relative of the llama and the wild ancestor of the alpaca
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The curlew emits a wheeple
Word of the week: A Scottish dialect term dating back to at least the 19th century, meaning to utter a shrill, prolonged whistle or cry, often used to describe the high-pitched call of the curlew or plover
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The xaque-xaque has many alternative names …
Word of the week: Sometimes also xique-xique, a wonderfully evocative, onomatopoeic term for any kind of Brazilian rattle instrument, but when used in English referring more specifically to the maracas rattle
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