Ondes Martenot: History and Key Facts
The ondes Martenot ( OHND mar-tə-NOH; French: [ɔ̃d maʁtəno], lit.
Musical Instruments archive — Page 4
Oldest entries first, in a fixed order. Newly added articles appear at the end. Explore a shuffled selection →
Persephone (instrument): History and Key Facts
The Persephone is an analog fingerboard synthesizer from the year 2004 in the tradition of the first ribbon controlled instruments from the 1920s.
Pollard Syndrum: History and Key Facts
The Pollard Syndrum is the first commercially available electronic drum, invented by Joe Pollard and Mark Barton in 1976.
Radiodrum: History and Key Facts
The Radiodrum or radio-baton is a musical instrument played in three-dimensional space using two mallets (snare drum sticks with wires).
Guitar: Stringing the Guitar: An Open Learning Guide
Aside from the physical shape of the guitar body, strings are the most important thing for determining the sound of a guitar. New strings sound bright and full, while old strings tend to sou
Guitar: Structure of the CAGED scale shapes: An Open Learning Guide
Hopefully you have read the previous introduction to the major scales, where the upcoming lessons were already outlined. This course is about improvising melodically over simple songs set in
Guitar: Tablature and Standard Notation: An Open Learning Guide
Tablature and standard notation are two ways that musical information is shared. Sight-reading of standard notation is a requisite skill for teaching careers, session work, and the theater o
Guitar: Tapping: An Open Learning Guide
Tapping is the short name of fretboard tapping or finger tapping, a technique where the fingers hammer down (tap) against the strings in order to produce sounds rather than striking or pluck
Guitar: The Basics: An Open Learning Guide
The guitar is, and has always been, a social instrument. In all its forms, it has always been a portable, multi-stringed instrument made for public hearing. Even today, there's nothing bette
Guitar: The four quarters strumming patterns: An Open Learning Guide
You'll learn a handful of strumming patterns here in the Campfire Diploma. Play these exactly as they are written. Later in the folk diploma you will learn how to vary the rhythms a little.
Guitar: The major cadence - The great triumvirate: An Open Learning Guide
You have now learned three chords: D, A and G major. Believe it or not, you can accompany hundreds of songs with just these three chords. Many songs are played with just three major chords.
Guitar: Tone and Volume: An Open Learning Guide
The starting point for dialing-in various electric Rock guitar tone is not a crystal-clean full-range amplifier and speaker, but rather, a tube power amp pushing a guitar speaker that has li
Guitar: Tremolo Picking: An Open Learning Guide
Tremolo means a modulation in volume; in the context of stringed instruments, usually refers to repeatedly striking or bowing a single string in a steady rhythm, especially the fastest rhyth
Guitar: Tuning the Guitar: An Open Learning Guide
Advances in manufacturing have solved many of the tuning problems associated with the budget guitars of yesteryear. Entry level guitars are available from major manufacturers such as Yamaha
Guitar: Tuning Your Ear: An Open Learning Guide
Almost as important as learning how to tune your guitar is learning how to tune your ear. Most people do not have "perfect pitch", which is an umbrella term for anyone who is really accurate
Guitar: Understanding the Strings: An Open Learning Guide
To properly understand the strings, the guitar must be in tune. The strings should be tuned to EADGBE. That is, the thickest string should be a low E, the next an A, and so on. This is calle
Guitar: Vibrato Bar Techniques: An Open Learning Guide
The tremolo bar was originally only found on Fender guitars, but now they are on many types of electric guitar. Unfortunately, it has an inappropriate name, because "tremolo" means a fast su
Guitar: Writing Songs: An Open Learning Guide
Now that you've got some skill and control over the guitar, you want to start writing and performing your own songs. But all your famous artists have such amazing, complicated songs, it's ha
Piano: Accidentals: An Open Learning Guide
An accidental, in music theory, is a musical notation that is used to raise or lower the pitch of a note. There are a handful of accidentals - sharps, flats, naturals, double sharps, and dou
Piano: Alternative Notation: Klavar: An Open Learning Guide
By far the easiest music notation to work with is Klavar (full name Klavarskribo). Klavar is easy to learn and easy to play particularly with keyboard instruments such as piano, organ or syn
Piano: Chords (and pop examples): An Open Learning Guide
In elementary piano, the left hand (lower notes) typically plays chords, while the right hand plays the melody. If you're playing pop or rock and singing, you might want to play the chords w
Piano: Climatization: An Open Learning Guide
A climatized piano is a piano that has been modified in a way that gives the piano resistance and durability in wet or rapidly changing climates or weather conditions, with the added benefit
Ring modulation: History and Key Facts
In electronics, ring modulation is a signal processing function, an implementation of frequency mixing, in which two signals are combined to yield an output signal.
Rompler: History and Key Facts
A rompler is an electronic musical instrument that plays pre-fabricated sounds based on audio samples.
Sampler (musical instrument): History and Key Facts
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument that records and plays back samples (portions of sound recordings).
Semantic system: History and Key Facts
The semantic system is based on a microtonal musical scale tuned in just intonation, developed by Alain Daniélou.
Simmons SDSV: History and Key Facts
The Simmons SDSV or SDS5 was the first viable electronic replacement for acoustic drums.
Singing Tesla coil: History and Key Facts
The singing Tesla coil, sometimes called a zeusaphone, thoramin or musical lightning, is a form of plasma speaker.
Stage piano: History and Key Facts
A stage piano is an electronic musical instrument designed for use in live performances on stage or in a studio, as well as for music recording in Jazz and popular music.
Technics SL-1200: History and Key Facts
The Technics SL-1200 is a series of direct-drive turntables introduced in October 1972 by Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic Corporation) under the brand name Technics.
Piano: Intervals: An Open Learning Guide
As we mentioned before, the piano illustrates the basis for musical theory. This chapter discusses intervals in theory and shows the relationships between them. It also will give you a bette
Piano: Key Signature: An Open Learning Guide
The key signature is something that is in music showing what black key(or sometimes white key, for example, E# or Cb) you need to play and that is sharps or flats .It is listed after the Cle
Piano: Notes of the Staves: An Open Learning Guide
In written music, every line and space represents a note on the staff. The notes on the piano are named using the first seven letters of the alphabet (A through G). You must memorize each le
Piano: Pedals: An Open Learning Guide
The piano pedals are additions to the piano instrument that enhance a performance in various ways. There are three pedals, each with a separate and distinct function. These are attached to a
Piano: Piano Practice: An Open Learning Guide
Piano practice is an important aspect of piano playing. Piano pedagogues have several theories on the best way to implement and encourage students to practice. Resources are available for st
Piano: Playing by Ear: An Open Learning Guide
Playing by ear is when you "pick" up notes from something you listen to. For example if you're listening to a catchy song and you want to play it but don't have the notes or score you have t
Piano: Reading Music: An Open Learning Guide
Music originated a long time ago. The first notations were random dots on a page. We cannot tell the pitch of them. Slowly, it developed into one line, then the grand staff we see today. Lea
Piano: Rhythm: An Open Learning Guide
There are two essential pieces to music: rhythm and pitch. Pitch refers to how high or low a note is in tone, whereas rhythm refers to the arrangement of those tones. Since pitch can get fai
Piano: Scales: An Open Learning Guide
There are many different scales in music, from pentatonic scales ("oriental" sounding scales) to major scales which are more common in Western music. Learning the scales is like learning the
Piano: The Basics: An Open Learning Guide
The best way to learn to play the piano is, like most other things, practicing it daily or at least regularly. It is good to initially practice scales and chord cadences. You should memorize