Labi – 6-holed bamboo flute of the Hani community of Yunnan, China. Source: Laurent Jeanneau.
Lahe – 3-stringed small lute of the Hani community of Yunnan, China. Source: Laurent Jeanneau.
Lahute – One-stringed instrument in the lute family, tuned in fifths. A folk instrument of the Kosovar Albanians.
Lajas de piedra – Chips of stone. Used in traditional Andalusian folk music. Spain.
Lali – A slit log drum. Lali drums were originally used as a form of communication to announce births, deaths and wars. A smaller version of the lali drum called lali ni meke is used to perform music. Fiji.
Lambe – Large Wolof upright bass drum with closed bottom used in a sabar drum set. Senegal.
Langeleik – Harmonic zither or dulcimer. The langeleik has only one melody string and up to 8 drone strings. It is played with a plectrum. The langeleik tradition has survived in the Valdres region of Norway.
The roots of the Norwegian zither go back to the Middle Ages. This instrument has an oblong-shaped resonance box with or without a bottom, and a varying number of strings that run from one end of the box to a fastening at the other end. The fingerboard under the uppermost string is fretted, and it is here that the melody is produced. The Norwegian zither is first mentioned in sources from 1622, where it is called langspill. The oldest known Norwegian zither was found at Vardalsåsen by Gjøvik. The year 1524 is inscribed on it. (Source: Folknett Norway)
Langspil – A bowed drone zither. It consists of an oblong box with two strings, one of which is a drone. Iceland
Laouto – A long-neck fretted lute with only one sound hole. Greece.
Lapas – Limpet shells used as a percussion instrument in the Canary Islands. Two shells are struck against each other creating a sound like a castanet. Spain.
Larchemi – Panpipe with a row of six reed pipes. Also known as larchemi. Georgia.
Laúd – Laúd means lute in Spanish. The laud has a flat back, with 12 metal strings in 6 courses and a pear shaped body. Spain.
Launeddas – A polyphonic reed instrument from Sardinia that is made up of three canes. It is also known as the triple pipe. Given that it requires a constant flow of air, it is played using circular breathing. Italy.
Laure – Percussion instrument composed of a 20 cm. bell and a wooden hammer. Ivory Coast.
Lavta – A long-neck fretted lute similar to the Greek laouto. Turkey.
Lé – Small drum used in Bahian candombles. Brazil.
Leena – Hopi long flute. United States of America.
Leizi bili – Vertical six-hole flute indigenous to the Naxi ethnic group in Yunnan. China.
Lera – A 4-6 finger hole cane flute found in the Niger River area of Nigeria.
Limbe – A side-blown flute made of hardwood or bamboo. Players use circular breathing to produce continuous, wide-ranging melodies. Mongolia.
Limbi – A Tuvan side-blown, open-ended flute made of wood or bamboo. Russia.
Limbindi – A bow instrument From the Baka forest people of southeast Cameroon. A strong vine is used as the cord and a strong, elastic branch used as the bow. To change the pitch of the notes the cord is held under the player’s chin which is slid forward and back raising and lowering the pitch.
Linga – Wooden slit-drum. A tree or a solid block of wood is hollowed out to leave a longitudinal opening on the upper side. The edges of this slit are of unequal thickness and produce two sounds of different pitch when struck. They are generally used in groups of three instruments of different size. Each player hammers the edges of the slit with a pair of mallets to produce two different notes. Central African Republic.
Lingbu – Tibetan bamboo transverse flute. Source: Tenzin Choegyal.
Linkwin – Large metal cymbals. Myanmar.
Lirica – Small fiddle with three strings, held on the knee and bowed like cello, from Dalmatia. Croatia.
Litungu – A traditional 8-string harp or lyre played by the Luhya ethnic group. Kenya
Liuqin – A type of lute that looks like a smaller version of the pipa. China.
Lo – A small flat gong, about 20 cm wide (8 inches). China.
Lojki – Wooden spoons used as percussion in traditional music. Russia.
Lokanga – A southern Malagasy three-string fiddle. Madagascar.
Lotar – Pear-shaped lute. Name variations: lothar. Morocco.
Lote – Pygmy notched flute played primarily by elders.
Lumzdelis – Long shepherd’s flute made from aspen or willow. Lithuania.
Lunga – A Dagomba talking drum worn around the shoulder and struck with a curved stick. Ghana.
Lur – Norwegian wooden horn. The history of the wooden horn can be traced back to the Bronze Age. The wooden horn was an important tool at sea in ancient times, used as a means of communication between boats. There are three main categories of wooden horns: those carved out of a solid piece of wood, those carved out of a piece of wood that has been separated and then bound together, and those that are merely lashed together from a strip of birch bark. Through the technique of overblowing on an ordinary wooden horn, it is possible to produce partial notes up to the eighth upper partial of the natural scale, or up to the twelfth partial if the horn is very long. (Source: Folknett Norway)
Lusheng – A mouth organ used by ethnic groups in southwestern China (Yunnan, Guizhou), with pipes of varying lengths.
Lute – A class of string instruments that can be plucked or bowed. They are made out of wood and have a pear shaped body. The European lute was very popular during the Renaissance.
Lyre – A small harp that was used throughout the Classical Antiquity period of Greece. Also known as lyra.
