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Folk and World Music Instruments

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Hachi - Japanese cymbals used in Buddhist rites. Hackbräde - Swedish term for the hammered dulcimer.

Haegum - Korean two-string fiddle. It is of Chinese origin.

Häjedalspipa - Swedish wooden flute.  

Halam - Senegalese plucked lute. Also known as kontingo, xalam, ngoni and koni.

Hammered Dulcimer - a large zither with many strings in pairs, stretched over long bridges. It is played with small wooden or cane hammers. Played in the British Isles and North America.

Hardanger fiddle- a small Norwegian fiddle with four sympathetic running under the fingerboard. It is narrower, shorter-necked and more arched than the ordinary violin.

Hardingfele - See Hardanger fiddle

Hardingfela- See Hardanger fiddle.

Härjedalspipa - wooden whistle from Northwest Sweden.

Harmonica - a European free reed instrument formed by a block of 10 or more double sided reeds, mouth blown. The harmonica is also called mouth harp or simply harp in the United States. especially in blues music.

Harmonium - small, portable, bellow-blown reed organ used in India, Pakistan and Western countries. In Indian and Pakistani music, the player usually sits on the ground, with one hand fingering the keyboard and the other pumping bellows.

Harpe- Norwehian harp. Hasapi- two-stringed mandolin from Sumatra (Indonesia).

Hayashi - General term for a Japanese musical ensemble that includes drums.

Hayashi-bue - Bamboo transverse flute used in hayashi music.

Highland pipes- Scottish bagpipes that are played standing, usually in pipe bands. The chanter has eight holes. There are two tenor drones, tuned an octave below the chanter and a bass drone a further octave down.

Hejjuj - Arabic word for Gnawan lute (sintir).

Hira-daiko - flat drum. General term for a drum wider than it is deep.  

Hne - Burmese flute.

Horagai - A large shell used as trumpet-type instrument. The horagai is not a Conch shell, but either the Pacific Triton or the Shank shell.

Höömeï- Tuvan throat singing

Hosho- shaker (Zimbabwe)

Hsiao - Chinese vertical flute made of bamboo.

Hu - Chinese bowed lute.

Huada- Chilean maracas.

Hualaychos - groups of roving Bolivian street musicians that play during Christmas and New Year.

Huapanguera - a 9 string Mexican guitar from the Jarocho region. It is used to play the huapango song and dance.

Hu-ch'in - one of most widely used chinese bowed lutes.

Hulusi - a double-reed with a gourd and two drone bamboo pipes with an interval of a major third (China).

Huluxiao - a gourd flute similar to the Hulusi (China).

Huehuetl- Pre-Hispanic Mexican long drum. I is a vertical drum made from a hollow trunk that stands on three legs. The upper end is covered with animal skin.

Hummel - Dutch/Flemish instrument of the dulcimer family.

Huqin - Chinese fiddle. The huqin was introduced into China around 140 B. C., and has been one of the prevailing Chinese string instruments since that time. The huqin in Chinese music is equivalent to the violin in its melancholy effects. The erhu, ching-hu, gao-hu, and ban-hu are well-known members of the huqin family.

Hurdy Gurdy - a string instrument in which a wheel turned by a hand crank vibrates the strings. The pitches are varied by a set of keys. See also vielle, zanfoña, nyckelharpa.  

Hyang-p'iri - Korean shawm. Cylindrical in form, it has seven finger holes. 

Hyooshigi - Wooden blocks used as clappers, struck at the tips.  

Last Updated Friday, May 18 2007 @ 12:02 PM EDT|16,853 Hits