Instruments

Resources in this category:

Accumulated Accordion Annotations
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/phoebe/mosaic/accordion.ht...

Links to all sorts of information about accordions, including general information, and a bibliography of accordion related works. Distilled from the FAQ of an accordion-related mailing list.

Antique Vintage Guitars
http://www.guitarhq.com/

A site dedicated to vintage guitars, created by "a private collector interested in vintage instruments by Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gretsch, Epiphone, National, Dobro, Rickenbacker, D'Angelico, Stromberg, Hofner, Danelectro, Coral, Kay made from 1920 to 1970. This includes both electric and acoustic vintage guitars." The site has sections for each manufacturer, with history, descriptive information about models, and lots of photographs; a bibliography; feature articles; a picture gallery; appraisal information and more.

The Ceolas Celtic Music Archive
http://www.ceolas.org/ceolas.html

Information about Celtic/Irish music, including discographies of Celtic artists and upcoming tour schedules, and information about Celtic instruments.

Computer Music Bibliography
http://archive.cs.uu.nl/pub/MIDI/DOC/bibliography.html

This is a bibliography on synthesizers, midi, computer and electronic music collected from various sources.

Cora Connection: The Manding Music Traditions of West Africa
http://www.coraconnection.com/

Resources for the West African Mandinka kora (cora), a lute like instrument that is played in a style similar to that of a flamenco guitar. The site also includes clips of the balaphone, a marimba-like instrument and ngoni, a plucked lute.

Dancedrummer.com
http://www.dancedrummer.com/

A collection of Anlo-Ewe resources including a virtual instrument museum, a performance gallery, and a section on tradition rhythms. On the Kogiri, a north Ghanain instrument, page you can "virtually" play the instrument.

Didjeridu & Traditional Music of the Top End
http://manikay.com/didjeridu/

A site dedicated to the "promotion and enjoyment of traditional Arnhem land music. The included glossary of musical terms provides definitions for terms from "Aeroplane noises" to "Dja tpangarri" to "Yuta". An additional section includes a map with links to representative audio examples for particular regions.

Electric Fiddler: Home for the electric violin player
http://electricfiddler.com/

A wealth of information for electric violin players. Features an instrument maker directory, an electric violin image directory, electric violin effects section, and details on amplification, recording, fiddle preamps and bows. Interact with other musicians through the blogs and forums.

electric-guitar.co.uk
http://www.electric-guitar.co.uk/

A collection of guitar music and lessons primarily for the electric guitarist.

Gibson Reference Collection
http://www.gibson.com/reference/

Information on how to buy an electric guitar; instrument care, tuning, bridge adjustment, stringing and maintaining; adjusting the truss rod and the bridge. Also includes a section on the history of the Gibson guitar and famous songs played with the guitar.

Kavals and Dzamares: End-blown Flutes of Greece and Macedonia
http://www.research.umbc.edu/eol/4/tammer/index.html

A history of the end-blown flutes of Greece and Macedonia. The making of kavals is depicted in a series of photos and instrument design and tunings are discussed in an appendix.

Making Music Magazine
http://www.makingmusicmag.com/

Making Music Magazine provides a space for adult amateur and recreational musicians with useful resources like a list of music festivals in the USA and tips for playing music.

Mariachi Publishing Company: Education Resources
http://www.sobrino.net/mer/

A collection of resources for mariachi enthusiasts including articles about mariachi styles like the Son Jaliscience, the Jarabe, and the Ranchera. The site also features a brief history of the mariachi tradition, a mariachi trumpet articulation guide, violin & trumpet voicing guide,vihuela chords chart, and tuning/strum charts

MBIRA
http://www.mbira.org/

"MBIRA is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the public regarding traditional Shona music of Zimbabwe." Contains information on musicians, instruments, workshops, lessons and Shona culture.

MHN Instrument Encyclopedia
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/MHN/enclpdia.html

A Yahoo! Pick of the Week (10-26-98), the Instrument Encyclopedia "Begins with more than 140 artifacts from the Sterns Collection at the University of Michigan" and "features musical instruments from around the world." Searchable by name, geographic region, building materials used and the Sachs Hobostel classification scheme, the database provides users with instrument images, textual descriptions and an occasional sound file. Please Note: a frames-capable browser is required.

Piano on the Net – Piano Nanny
http://www.pianonanny.com/

Watch Quicktime movies of piano lessons for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students taught by film composer and jazz musician Clinton S. Clark.

Pianonet.com
http://www.pianonet.com/

"As the official Web site of the National Piano Foundation, PianoNet is your comprehensive guide to everything about pianos‹their history, their manufacture, noted artists, important publications and more."

Pianopedia
http://www.pianopedia.com/

A search engine for the classical piano repertoire. Users can search by composer name and nationality, work duration, date of composition, title, key/mode and instrumentation. The site also has a French version.

rec.music.a-cappella Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ for the Usenet group rec.music.a- cappella, dealing with both performing and listening to unaccompanied music vocals.

The Phonograph Turntable and Performance Practice in Hip Hop Music
http://www.research.umbc.edu/eol/2/white/

This article by Miles White discusses the evolution of the phonographic turntable into an instrument. The site depicts the use of the turntable as an instrument with the use of both audio and video clips.

The Pontic Music Homepage
http://www.scimitarmusic.com/pontos/

Resources relating to the Greeks of Pontos who were settled mostly in Macedonia after the 1922 Treaty of Lausanne. Instruments including the kemenche, a type of lyra, and the tulum, a type of bagpipe, are discussed as well as dance forms including dipat, kochari, and serra.

WholeNote - The On-Line Guitar Community
http://www.wholenote.com/

"WholeNote is an on-line community for guitarists. The main principle behind the development of the site was to provide tools for those that are knowledgeable to create on-line lessons from which other visitors can learn, thereby creating a collective knowledge that all can use to further their own playing, and to allow visitors to access this knowledge in a fast and intuitive manner." In addition to the ability to create and take guitar lessons and create compositions, this site provides users with the following resources: news, recommended resources and reviews, discussion forums, and full databases of chords, scales, and arpeggios.