Babandir – small “timekeeper” gong. The Philippines.
Babatoni – a one-string bass instrument from Malawi.
Babi – Single tree leaf of the Hani community of Yunnan, China. Source: Laurent Jeanneau.
Bachi – General term for drum sticks in Japanese music.
Bada – Gourd drum made from a large gourd with the top third cut off, a goatskin is fastened to the gourd with rope and tuned using Mali weave. Ivory Coast.
Bafoko – West African calabash drum, covered by a goat skin.
Bagana – A large eight to ten-string plucked lyre. It has a trapezoidal wooden frame. Also spelled Bägänna. Ethiopia.
Baglama – A long-necked lute, with a pear shaped body, about 1 meter long. It is one of the most popular musical instruments in Turkey. Read more about the baglama.
Bagpipe – A bagpipe is a single or double reed instrument with an air reservoir in an animal skin bag. The bag can be filled with air by mouth through a blowpipe or with the use of bellows. Arm pressure on the bag sends air through a reed on a fingered chanter that makes the sound. Bagpipes are believed to have originated in ancient Mesopotamia and from there they traveled west to Greece and Rome and East to Persia (current day Iran) and India.
Bagpipes are currently used in many countries throughout the world. Some of these include gaida, gaita, gaita de fole, biniou, union pipes, uilleann pipes, Northumbrian pipes, piob mhor, Scottish smallpipes, dudelsack, zampogna, cornemuse, musette, musette bechonnet, and cabrette.
Bagpipe organizations: International Bagpipe Organisation. The IBO organizes an annual conference.
Bai – Clappers. Ghana.
Bajflöjt – Drone flute. Sweden.
Bajo sexto – A twelve-string guitar. Mexico.
Bala – A West African xylophone made with strips of wood, increasing in length, connected together with thread, and with hollow gourd resonators of varying sizes attached to the bottom to achieve a greater tonal range. Also known as balaphone and balafon.
Balaban – A short Persian cylindrical oboe, with a very smooth and variable sound. Similar to the Armenian duduk. Iran.
Balalaika –Three-stringed folk lute with triangular body. Russia.
Balaman – Short cylindrical oboe with a very smooth and variable sound. Azerbaijan.
Balo – West African xylophone made with wooden bars. Also known as bala and balafon.
Bandola – 1. Three string guitar. Spain. 2. A teardrop shaped lute derived from the Spanish vihuela, flat or concave back. Colombia and Venezuela.
Bandolín – Small South American Creole lute, pear shaped, with a fretted neck. It comes in various sizes and ranges from 8 to 15 steel strings.
Bandolim – Brazilian 10-string mandolin, popular in choro music.
Bandoneón – A square-built button accordion used in Argentine and Uruguayan tango. Name variations: fuelle, mandolión. Argentina and Uruguay.
Bandura – A fretless plucked dulcimer. It has a short neck, an oval flat body and is held vertically. Ukraine.
Bandurria – Small 12-string mandolin-type instrument with a very short wide neck and 14 metal frets, popular in Spain and Spanish-speaking America and also present in the Philippines. It’s played with a pick.
Bandurria sonora – A bandurria with 6 metal strings instead of gut strings.
Bangu – Frame drum struck by bamboo sticks. Name variations: pan-ku, bang’gu, adanpi. China.
Banjo – A string instrument developed by African American musicians. It has a guitar-type neck and can be found with 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 or more strings. The banjo has become very popular in American old time and bluegrass music. It is also used by Celtic music performers. Banjo variations include the clawhammer banjo, the banjolele, the banjolin and the tranjo (travel-size banjo). USA. Read more about the banjo.
Banjolele – A hybrid instrument: Ukulele + Banjo. USA.
Banjolin – A hybrid instrument: Mandolin + Banjo. USA.
Bansuri – Bamboo flute. Also spelled bansoori. India.
Bapó – Shaker. Brazil.
Bara – West African gourd drum with goatskin.
Baraban – Klezmer bass drum.
Barbat – Persian lute. Iran.
Barrel drum – A large two-headed drum that is laid horizontally. Barrel drums include: barriles de bomba (Puerto Rico), buk (Korea), dhak (India), Dhol (India), dholak (North India, Pakistan, and Nepal), glong khaek (Thailand), glong songna (Thailand), glong thad (Thailand), kabaro (Ethiopia), kendhang (Indonesia), khol (India), mridangam (South India), Pakhawaj (North India), sampho (Cambodia), tanbou (Haiti), tanggu (China), taphon (Thailand).
Barung – middle-range Javanese gamelan musical instrument. Indonesia.
Bassoon – Double reed conical instrument that appeared in European Baroque music in the late 1600s. The contrabassoon is one octave lower.
Batá drums – The batá drums is a set of three hourglass-shaped drums from Cuba. They are used in Santería ritual drumming and also in Cuban jazz. The smallest drum is the okónkolo. The medium drum is called itótele. The largest batá drum is the iyá. The Cuban batá tradition derives from the Yoruba drumming tradition. Read the article Batá Drums.
Batar – Drum. Somalia.
Barriles de bomba – Barrel drums made of wood and covered with goatskin. Puerto Rico.
Bawu – A single-reed transverse flute. China.
Bayan – Chromatic accordion with a button keyboard. Russia and Belarus.
Bebandil – A set of 3 medium sized, single bossed vertically-hung brass gongs. There are 2 types: 1 taritik and 2 bandil. The bebandil are usually handled by 2 players and is the equivalent of the rhythm guitar in a modern day band. They are usually decorated with dragons and geometrical designs. Sarawak, Malaysia. (source: Bisayah Gong Orchestra)
Belamentengo – The smallest of the Mandinka drums.
Belengo – The second smallest of the Mandinka drums.
Bell – Metallic instrument in the shape of an upside down wine glass. It is played by striking it with a mallet.
Bembé – A set of three drums made from hollowed palm tree logs, with nailed-on skins which are tuned with heat.
Bena – Sardinian cane clarinet. Italy.
Bendir – A North African frame drum with snares along the inside part of the head. The snares are usually made of string, not traditional Western metal snares.
Berda – Croatian fretted bass.
Berimbau – A bow strung backwards, with a gourd resonating chamber facing the player’s stomach. Brazil.
Bianqing – Stone chimes in the shape of scythes. China.
Bianzhong – A set of tuned bronze bells that produce several notes each at different intervals. China.
Bilbil – Kosovar Albanian ducted flute with a mouthpiece that is usually cut diagonally and stopped with a plug.
Biłgoraj suka – The Biłgoraj suka is a traditional string instrument originating from the town of Biłgoraj in southeastern Poland. A long-lost medieval ancestor of the violin, the suka has a crude pegbox and a wide neck, and unlike modern string instruments, is played vertically, using the fingernail technique.
In the 1990s, based on only a few centuries-old images and texts, Polish musician and researcher Maria Pomianowska meticulously reconstructed the Biłgoraj suka and was the first modern musician to play and reconstruct this instrument. Source: Polish Cultural Institute New York.
Bili – Ancient flute. China.
Biniou – A Breton instrument that resembles a set of bagpipes with a small seven-holed chanter with a single drone, pitched an octave higher than usual. France.
Bin-sasara – A strung clapper made of many small slats of wood connected by a spine of string with handles at each end. By flicking the handles back and forth, the slats strike each other. Also spelled bin-zasara and bin-sazara.
Binyege – Seed rattles used by the Bunyoro people of Uganda. Young male dancers tie the rattles around the lower legs and compete for the attention of young women.
Bin – Plucked lute. India.
Birbynė – Single or double-reeded instrument with or without a mouthpiece. The birbynė can be made out of diverse materials: wood, bark, horn, straw, goose feather. Modern birbynės are made out of wood with horn bells and normally have ten tone holes. They are divided by pitch range into three categories: soprano, tenor, and contrabass. Lithuania.
Birimbao – A horseshoe shaped Jew’s harp from Galicia (Spain). Made out of wood or iron.
Bishur – Mongolian shawm.
Biwa – A Japanese lute with a cranked neck developed from the Chinese pipa, and played with an oversized plectrum called a bachi. The biwa has three strings and four frets.
Blekete – A large bass drum with double skin. The player holds it under his left arm, and plays a stick with his right hand. Ghana.
Blul – A Kurdish shepherd flute made of ebony. Blur See blul.Blur See blul.
Blekete – A large double-skinned bass drum played with a stick like a talking drum (Ghana).
Blockflöjt – Swedish recorder.
Blockflöte – German recorder.
Bo – A pair of large Chinese cymbals that are struck together. Also known as po. China.
Bobo – 1. Double reed pipe (China). 2. Pegged drum with antelope skin played with hands or hand and stick (Ghana).
Bodhran – Irish frame drum made out of goat skin, generally played with a double-ended beater or tipper. It is usually 45 cms. (18 inches) and 7.5-10 cms. Deep (4 inches). The rim is usually circular. Also spelled bodhrán. Read more about the bodhran.
Bolombatto – Harp from West Africa with four gut strings over a gourd resonator and an attached tin rattle.
Bolon – Harp-shaped musical instrument that includes a gourd resonator and a bow-shaped neck with 1 to 4 strings. Its resonating gourd can be used as a drum. UNESCO added the Malian bolon to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2021. Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau.
Boloye – One-string bass. Ivory Coast.
Bols – Asian vocal percussion.
Bombarde – A small Breton clarinet-like reed instrument with its own distinctive sound.
Bombo – 1. A large sheepskin bass drum used in Spain and Spanish America. 2. Afro-Uruguayan comparsa drum.
Bombo criollo – An adaptation of the Spanish military bass drum, used in Cuba for carnival.
Bombo huilliche – Chilean bass drum.
Bombo rociero – Bass drum used during religious pilgrimages in southern Spain.
Bongos – A set of two small drums attached by a thick piece of wood, played while held between the knees. The bongos were developed in Cuba’s Oriente province.
Bongó de monte – A larger set of bongos used in Cuban changüí. The mountain bongos are larger and tuned lower than the regular bongos. Bongó de monte has tack-heads instead of tunable hardware.
Bongyi – Large Burmese drum.
Bonkó echemiyá – Afro-Cuban abakuá drum, about a meter tall. Source: Fernando Ortiz, Los Instrumentos de la Música Afrocubana, 1952
Bonshe – Long Burmese drum.
Bontoe – Small Burmese drum.
Boogh – ram’s horn trumpet (Iran).
Booglin – shaman jew’s harp from Mongolia.
Boo-sasara – a long, notched stick that is scraped with a smaller stick.
Botija – A ceramic jug originally used to transport Spanish olive oil, used to provide a bass accompaniment in Cuban son and changüí. Also known as botijuela.
Bouzouki – A Greek long necked lute with 3 or 4 double courses of metal strings. Read more about the bouzouki.
Box – Accordion. Also known as squeezebox.
Braguinha – A cavaquinho from Madeira. Portugal.
Brekete – A two-headed round bass drum from Ghana with thin goatskin. It has a thin shell and thin head and is played with sticks.
Brelka – A double reed instrument. Russia.
Bubani – A Kosovar Albanian short wooden cylinder covered at each open end with leather stretched with rope. It is played with two wooden drumsticks.
Budongo – Thumb piano. Uganda.
Bugarija – Stringed instrument featuring circular sound holes and a lengthy neck, typically with four strings. Croatia and Bosnia.
Buita – Angolan percussion.
Buk – 1. Tibetan cymbals used by Buddhist monks. 2. Chinese suspended drum, played vertically by one or two drummers, who also dance as they play the drum. 3. Barrel drum used in traditional Korean music.
Bukkehorn – In Norway, the bukkehorn (ram’s horn) is associated with mountain farms and shepherds. The ram’s horn was, from its earliest days, a practical tool rather than a musical instrument, used as a means of giving warnings and signals. Later horns were made with two, three, and up to eight finger holes. It is also called the trumpet horn (trompethorn). A variation on the ram’s horn is known as the tongue horn (tungehorn). It has a reed made of juniper wood that is similar to a clarinet reed, and has from four to eight finger holes. (Source: Folknett Norway)
Bullroarer – A specially shaped piece of horn or wood attached to a string. The sound is created by swinging it around in circles over the head. By adjusting the speed and length of the string, the player can create different pitch and sounds.
Bumb – Huge drum from the Braj area in Uttar Pradesh (India).
Bup – A large Tibetan cymbal.
Byat Saung – Harp. Myanmar.
Byaw – Drum. Myanmar
Byoo-daiko – Nailed-head drums. Japan.
Byzaanchy – Four-stringed spike fiddle with interlocking bow, from Tuva.
