Fa’atete – Tahitian short drum covered with a tight, single membrane. It is played with two sticks.
Fandromboa – Two pieces of wood struck together. Madagascar.
Fiddle – The term used in traditional American music (bluegrass, country, blues, old time, etc.) for a violin.
Firikyiwa – Thumb bell. A round hollow iron shell worn on the finger. It is struck by a heavy ring worn on the thumb. Ghana.
Fisarmonica – Accordion in Italian.
Flageolet – Six-hole recorder developed in France.
Flauta – Flute in Spanish.
Flauta de millo – hort flute, with a reed, played horizontally. It is made out of millet or sorghum cane. Colombia.
Flautas de Carrizo – Small flutes made out of bamboo or reed grass. They come with 3, 4 and up to 5 or 6 finger holes. The three hole version is the most common and produces the seven sounds of a major scale. They are used in Mexican traditional dances, in the Nahoa region and other states such as Tabasco, Chiapas and Oaxaca.
Flauta rociera – A three-hole flute used in the El Rocio pilgrimages in southern Spain. Also known as pito rociero. Spain.
Flejguta – Maltese cane whistle flute.
Flojere – Kosovar Albanian end-blown flute.
Flowerpots – Ordinary flowerpots tuned with water and played with the hands or with mallets.
Floyera – Shepherd’s flute. Originally the flutes were made out of a branch or bamboo. More recent versions are made out of metal and plastic. Also spelled flogera, phlogera, floghera, and fluera. Greece.
Flute – A wind musical instrument made out of wood, bone, metal or some other materials in the form of a tube with various round holes that are covered by fingers or keys. The instrument is played by blowing a stream of air into the tube through a sharp edge opening. Variations of the flute include the transverse concert flute, piccolo flute (pitched an octave higher), the alto flute and the bass flute.
Fotutu – Conch shells used as horns by the indigenous tribes in pre-colonial Cuba.
Frame drum – Ancient percussion instrument with a drum head width greater than its depth. It has a single drum head that is usually made of rawhide. Typically, it comes in two forms: round and square. The frame drum is found in many cultures worldwide.
Frame drum variations include adufe (Portugal), bendir (North Africa, Turkey), bodhran (Ireland), buben (Russia), daf (Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Middle East), daffu (India), dayereh (Iran, Central Asia, Eastern Europe), doyra (Uzbekistan), ghaval (Azerbaijan), kanjira (India), mazhar (Egypt), pandeiro (Brazil, Spain), plenera (Puerto Rico), pandereta (Spain, Philippines and Latin America), pandero (Spain), pandero cuadrado (Spain), pandero cuequero (Chile), pandero jarocho (Mexico), ramana (Thailand), ravann (Mauritius), riq (Middle East and North Africa), tamborim (Brazil), tambourine (Europe, North America), tamburello (Italy), tammorra (Italy), tar (North Africa), thappu (India), timbrel (Israel), timpan (Romania), uchiwa daiko (Japan).
Frula (фрула) – A six-hole shepherd’s flute made out of wood. Also known as svirala (свирала) or jedinka. Serbia.
Fue – Fue means flute in Japanese.
Fuelle – Argentine slang for bandoneón.
Fujara – Shepherd’s flute, approximately 1.80 meters long (6 feet). The fujara was inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. Slovakia.
Fujara bezotworowa – Polish shepherd’s flute without holes.
Fujara trombita – Slovak mountain horn, 2-6 meters long.
Fyell – Kosovar Albanian end-blown shepherd’s flute.
Updated May 5, 2021