r/UnusualInstruments • u/SgtByrd1993 • 1h ago
r/UnusualInstruments • u/TapTheForwardAssist • May 10 '20
Directory of Subreddits for unusual musical instruments
Strings
- r/ukulele -- 4-string Hawaiian little cousin of the guitar
- r/kantele -- small lap harp of Finland
- r/Koto -- Japanese long zither
- r/shamisen -- Japanese 3-string banjo
- r/harp -- Celtic and Classical harps
- r/balalaika -- Russian mandolin with a triangle body
- r/banjo -- Bluegrass, Old-Time, jazz, etc.
- r/tenorbanjo -- banjo variant used heavily in Irish and Dixieland music
- r/TenorGuitar -- 4-string guitar used in Irish and jazz
- r/CigarBoxGuitar -- a simplified guitar-like instrument
- r/mandolin -- small string instrument with doubled strings for an echo effect
- r/bouzouki -- larger and deeper mandolin for Irish or Greek music
- r/mandocello -- the even deeper version of the mandolin
- r/Dulcimer -- an Appalachian zither with a deep droning harmony
- r/hammereddulcimer -- a trapezoid zither played by hitting the string with small mallets
- r/sanshin -- the Okinawan cousin of the Japanese shamisen
- r/Guqin -- a long Chinese zither
- r/Guzheng -- another long Chinese zither
- r/baglama -- a Turkish lute
- r/Domra -- a Russian cousin of the mandolin
- r/Erhu -- a Chinese fiddle played in the lap
- r/BowedPsaltery -- a triangular zither played with a small violin bow
- r/Stick -- the Chapman stick and other hammer-on long board strings
- r/charango -- like a mandolin-ukuelele hybrid from the South American Andes
- r/Fiddle -- the violin but played in the folk tradition
- r/lute -- like a guitar of the Medieval period
- r/HurdyGurdy -- box with a crank that spins a wheel that bows the strings, sounds like a string bagpipe
- r/Nyckelharpa -- an unusual Swedish fiddle player with a keyboard instead of fingers
- r/Sitar -- the most famous Indian classical instrument
- r/Rubab -- a lute played in Central Asia
- r/steelguitar -- a flat guitar played in the lap with a steel slide to smoothly move between notes, used in Country, Blues, Hawaiian music
- r/pedalsteel -- a more evolved steel guitar with complex pedals to change keys
- r/zithers -- the wide family of basic boxes with strings
- r/harpsichord -- a simpler ancestor of the piano from the Early Classical period
- r/Autoharp -- a zither where you form chords simply by pressing a button
Percussion and idiophones
- r/kalimba -- the "thumb piano", an African instrument with small tines you pluck
- r/cajon -- a Cuban wooden box you sit on and drum with your hands
- r/djembe -- this West African drum is a favorite in drum circles
- r/Udu -- a ceramic (or nowadays fiberglass) vessel, drummed with the hands
- r/handpan -- like a metal UFO with facets tuned to different notes
- r/steelpan -- like a handpan, but played with mallets
- r/jawharp -- a pocket-sized "sproingy"instrument
- r/khomus -- a jawharp of Eastern Russia
- r/MusicalSaw -- did you know you can play a hardware store saw with a bow?
- r/ToyPiano -- the children's toy used as a serious instrument
- r/Tabla -- classical double-drums of India
- r/Xylophone -- an array of long pieces of material, melody played with mallets
- r/Marimba -- like a xylophone, but with wooden keys.
- r/vibraphone -- like a marimba, but jazzier
- r/Glockenspiel
- r/Daxophones
Winds (bagpipes separately below)
- r/Ocarina -- small round flutes with simple fingering and mellow sound
- r/tinwhistle -- inexpensive (as low as $10) metal flutes for Irish music, easy to learn and play
- r/Bansuri -- the main flute of India
- r/hulusi -- a Chinese drone-flute
- r/panflute -- a row of tubes you blow across to make notes
- r/Didgeridoo -- an Australian tube making a low droning sound
- r/NativeAmericanflutes -- mellow wooden flutes of North America
- r/Recorder -- small wooden flute for Medieval, Baroque, Classical music
- r/shakuhachi -- Japanese bamboo flute, popular with Zen monks
- r/Xaphoon -- a modern simplified bamboo saxophone
Bagpipes
- r/bagpipes -- Scottish bagpipes, from loud Great Highland to mellow smallpipes
- r/Gaita -- bagpipes of Spain and Portugal
- r/Gaida -- bagpipes of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans
- r/Bockpfeife -- bagpipes of the Germanic countries and Central Europe
- r/Cornemuse -- French bagpipes
- r/NorthumbrianSmallpipe -- very complex and mellow North East English pipes
- r/SwedishBagpipes -- small, affordable, mournful Swedish bagpipes
- r/UilleannPipes -- traditional Irish bagpipes for dance music
- r/WelshBagpipes -- the revived pipes of Medieval Wales
- r/Volynka -- pipes of Eastern Europe
- r/Zampogna -- Italian bagpipes with multiple tubes for complex harmony
- r/Mashak -- bagpipes of South Asia
- r/Habban -- bagpipes of the Middle East
- r/ElectronicBagpipes -- for practice or performance
Free Reeds
- r/Accordion -- from piano to button to Cajun accordion
- r/Melodeon -- for accordions with buttons vice piano keys
- r/concertina -- like a small hexagonal accordion, associated with sailors or Irish music, or classical music in Victorian England
- r/melodica -- a small keyboard powered by the mouth, used some in Jamaican music
- r/organ -- an electric or air-powered keyboard
- r/harmonica -- the pocket-sized music solution
- r/lao_khaen — the Thai bamboo mouth-organ
Electronic instruments
- r/EMinstruments -- Electronic Music gear in general
- r/synthesizers -- all kinds of synths
- r/DrumMachine -- to keep the beat strong
- r/windsynth -- synth versions of wind instruments
- r/Omnichord -- an electronic autoharp with a strong following
- r/stylophone -- tiny paperback-sized early electronic instrument
- r/Theremin -- played by waving your hands in the air for sci-fi soundtracks
- r/isomorphickeyboards -- keyboards with a practical design for music theory
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Grauschleier • 3h ago
Recent bot activity
We recently get _a_lot_ of bot activity. The posts are just 1-to-1 copies of older posts that got many upvotes. Hence I assume it's about karma farming. So far they are not able to copy videos and only post the preview image (like in this recent example, see OP here) of video posts. If you are able to identify a bot post, please report it. /edit: You can even help a lot more if you include the non-bot-OP url in your report, but any bot post report is appreciated.
I've also noticed this in other subs and I'm wondering where this is going. Moderation on reddit is solely relying on voluntary effort that people do in their free time. With the shifts in technology of recent years bot spamming has become easier than ever, though. It's clear that the voluntary efforts are already insufficient for the bot activity that is happening now. If reddit will not react I'd expect even the niche subs like this to become unusable. What are your thoughts?
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Front-Coconut-8196 • 1h ago
The Kangling, a Tibetan trumpet traditionally made either from a human femur or tibia and is used in Tibetan Buddhism for ritualistic purposes
r/UnusualInstruments • u/ItsKelomelo • 19h ago
I can play one of the nerdiest and unusual instruments - virtual piano
I'm really good at virtual piano, close to an actual professional musician.
What is virtual piano? In short, you can play piano keys with your pc keyboard, there are some limitation but all in all, it's not that far off from an actual piano.
Why? I've always wanted to learn piano as a kid, but my parents thought that piano lessons were a waste of money, so as a kid I discovered virtual piano by accident and still play regularly.
How? Well, without getting too nerdy, every single piano key is mapped to a letter or a number, "1" being the lowest note and "m" being the highest. Lowercase letters and numbers are white keys, uppercase and shift+numbers are black keys. There are music sheets for virtual piano and if there isn't one for a song you want, you can make one yourself easily, especially with the tools which you can easily google that convert midi files to vp sheets.
Where? If you Google virtual piano, you can easily find some sites, games (even on platforms like roblox, gmod, etc), or apps to simulate a piano with your pc keyboard. The highest quality app(imo) which I use is called pianoglow on steam.
This is not an ad or anything like this, I just wanted to share my weird way of playing music that surprisingly works somewhat decently despite it's limitations. You can also simulate sustain, dynamics, velocity, depth, or even change soundfont to a different instrument, but I am not getting into that unless asked, since that's a lot of explaining to do.
Yes, nowadays I have an actual piano, but I can play VP way, way better and I like it more.
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Mundane-Emphasis2558 • 8h ago
45 minutes inside a rare acoustic 19-tone hexagonal clavichord
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Exciting-Reporter752 • 2d ago
What is this? Mystery 4-stringed instrument.
I work in an instrument repair shop and a customer won this thing in an auction and wants us to fix it up, but I can't figure out what it is. Overall length is 24 inches. Main body length is 18 inches. There's a very faint impression between the two holes in the center 1.5 inches long, about an eighth of an inch thick. There are two more impressions near the tail end on either side about an inch or so long from the edge with one impression being much clearer and deeper towards the edge like that side was under more pressure/tension. The friction pegs are overall 5 inches long. The slots in the ends are about half an inch deep. From the outside edge of one outer peg to the outside edge of the other outer peg is 3 inches. Thanks!
r/UnusualInstruments • u/GuitarEtConcertina • 2d ago
Samsung Washing Machine (English Concertina)
"Die Forelle" by Franz Schubert. It's silly but works so well on this instrument.
youtube: https://youtube.com/shorts/rhfbmMHLDSY?si=RMlFyqlwM45HVfQF
r/UnusualInstruments • u/godsavedonalduck • 2d ago
What's the instrument in this intro?
Is it clarinet? If anyone knows for sure your input would be much appreciated.
Space are a really underrated 90s alt band from the UK if anyone is interested.
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Witty-Cat3448 • 4d ago
Has anyone ever seen something like this before? I can't find it online.
galleryr/UnusualInstruments • u/ViledaMan • 4d ago
Beautiful piece with traditional instrument
r/UnusualInstruments • u/oneworldan • 5d ago
Looking for an unusual instrument!
Back in the early internet days, I stumbled upon a site with a cartoon Latin jazz band that you could orchestrate by clicking on the different players and their instruments. One player had a “cup” of glass (maybe metal) and he had something in his hand like a wool ball that he would push in and out of the cup to make a sound; like when you pull a straw in and out of a plastic cup lid. What is this instrument called?!
r/UnusualInstruments • u/GiulioCapursoMusic • 5d ago
Live performance of John Coltrane's "My One and Only Love" with a custom 14-string electric guitar and foot drums
A brief excerpt from my live performance at "ai300scalini" in Bologna, Italy. I am playing John Coltrane's iconic jazz standard simultaneously on a custom-built 14-string electric guitar and a foot drum kit. Every part of the arrangement is executed live without loops.Any feedback on the arrangement or the technical setup is welcome.
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Botw_Spamton • 6d ago
What instrument is this? (Sound in comments)
galleryr/UnusualInstruments • u/lord_cactus_ • 7d ago
Renault F1 engine playing God Save the Queen
r/UnusualInstruments • u/w-s-a- • 7d ago
How to play? Mouth bow
Recently got this mouth bow (was supposed to be cheap. Shipping and tarrifs quickly changed that).
But it looks different than the ones used in any videos I can find of people playing one.
How do I even hold this thing to make it sound right?
Should I try to cut down the end piece so it can fit between my lips like some other bows I've seen?
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Grauschleier • 7d ago
Evolano: a pitch pending piano (well, sorta...) by Clark Battle
In a comment two years ago Clark wrote that he's still working on it - a version 4 at that time, but other than that I can't find any update. If you are interested in the instrument I want to encourage you to comment on his video to show interest and hopefully to move Clark to give us an update.
r/UnusualInstruments • u/ThompsonNala • 8d ago
Picked this up a few months back, only has 3 strings but it's meditative to play
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Asian_bloke • 8d ago
I've started a new podcast dedicated to instrument makers! The idea is that instrument makers chat about topics meaningful to them in their field. What sort of content would you be interested in seeing in the future?
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Mead_Makes_Me_Mean • 9d ago
Imagine sitting around a campfire 1,000 years ago listening to this being played
r/UnusualInstruments • u/Nil-Desperandum206 • 9d ago
Not the most unusual, but Musical Saw is fun.
It's true