Classification of Musical Instruments

[lpetrich]

An enormous variety of them have been invented, and various people have invented various systems for classifying them.  Musical instrument classification has various systems, including one that strikes me as rather absurd, the five-elements system. Most of them use what makes the sound, and that strikes me as the most sensible approach.

• Vibrating air columns: wind instruments. By method of excitation:
  • Blown air: flute, pipe organ
  • Vibrating reed: oboe and similar instruments, clarinet, saxophone
  • Lips: trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba/sousaphone
• Vibrating strings. By method of excitation:
  • Plucking: harp, guitar, harpsichord
  • Hammering: piano, clavichord/Clavinet
  • Bowing: violin family
• Vibrating reeds or strips: music box, harmonica, reed organ
• Vibrating membranes: drum
• Rotating disks or cylinders: mechanical siren ( Siren (alarm))
• Anything else vibrating: in the Hornbostel–Sachs scheme, these are "idiophones", an "anything else" category. It includes bells, chimes, glockenspiel, etc. that make sound by vibrating when struck.

Electronic musical instruments cover a lot of territory.

• Electromechanical:
  • Vibrating strings: electric guitar, electric bass, some electric pianos
  • Vibrating reeds: some electric pianos
  • Rotating wheels: tonewheel organs like the Hammond Organ
• Purely electronic:
  • Analog synthesizer
  • Digital synthesizer (FM, physical modeling, sample-based, ...)
• Sample playing:
  • Analog: tape-sample player: Mellotron
  • Digital sampler