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• Instruments
• Keyboards

the organ (except the shirt-pocket harmonica). Strictly speaking, however, it has neither keys nor a keyboard. Nor has it a uniform shape. Playing Technique Whereas the standard English concertina is hexagonal, German and American models are square. The basic principle, though, is common to all: tuned metallic reeds are set in motion by currents of air ...

• Instruments
• Keyboards

Like its close relation the concertina, the accordion is a glorified mouth organ, in which the ‘reeds’ (now generally made of tempered steel) are set in vibration by a rectangular bellows. The bellows are operated by the left hand, which also – as in all keyboard instruments – manipulates the so-called bass keyboard, in this case a ...

• Instruments
• Brass
• Electric & Electronic
• Keyboards
• Percussion
• Stringed
• Woodwind

The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...

• Instruments
• Keyboards

Dvořák’s delectable Bagatelles (Op. 47) for two violins, cello and harmonium. Free Reeds The harmonium belongs to the family of ‘free-reed’ instruments that includes not only the accordion and concertina but such ancient instruments as the near-universal jew’s harp and the sheng of China, whose importation to St Petersburg in the eighteenth century is said to have directly inspired ...