This article is about the whole family of side-blown, end-blown, vessel, and duct instruments.

For the
flute commonly used in orchestras, chamber music, wind ensembles/concert bands, military bands,
and marching bands, see Western concert flute. For a list of notable flute performers, see List of
flautists. For the wine glass, see Champagne flute. For other uses, see Flute (disambiguation).
The flute is a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments
with reeds, a flute is an aerophone orreedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow
of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification ofHornbostelSachs, flutes are
categorized as edge-blown aerophones.[1][no

A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to makemusical sounds. In principle, any

object that produces sound can be a musical instrumentit is through purpose that the object
becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human
culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal
success on the hunt, or adrum in a religious ceremony. Cultures eventually developed composition
and performance of melodies for entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing.

Baroque
Beginning in the seventeenth century, composers began creating works of a more emotional style.
They felt that a monophonic style better suited the emotional music and wrote musical parts for
instruments that would complement the singing human voice. [88] As a result, many instruments that
were incapable of larger ranges and dynamics, and therefore were seen as unemotional, fell out of
favor. One such instrument was the shawm.[95] Bowed instruments such as the violin, viola, baryton,
and various lutes dominated popular music.[96] Beginning in around 1750, however, the lute
disappeared from musical compositions in favor of the rising popularity of the guitar.[97] As the
prevalence of string orchestras rose, wind instruments such as the flute, oboe, and bassoon were
readmitted to counteract the monotony of hearing only strings. [98]

A gong (from Javanese, Indonesian, Malay: gong; Chinese: ; pinyin:

lu;Thai: Khong; Vietnamese: cng ching) is an African, East and South East
Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat, circular metal disc which is hit with
a mallet. It originated in China[citation needed] and later spread to Southeast Asia, and it can also be used in
the percussion section of Western symphony orchestra.

Gongs are broadly of three types. Suspended gongs are more or less flat, circular discs of metal
suspended vertically by means of a cord passed through holes near to the top
rim. Bossed or nipple gongs have a raised centre boss and are often suspended and played
horizontally. Bowl gongs are bowl-shaped, and rest on cushions and belong more to bells than
gongs. Gongs are made mainly from bronze or brass but there are many other alloys in use.

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It
is played using a keyboard,[1] which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down
or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.
Invented in about 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), the piano is widely employed
inclassical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensembleperformances, accompaniment,
and for composing, songwriting and rehearsals. Although the piano is very heavy and thus not
portable and is expensive (in comparison with other widely used accompaniment instruments, such
as the acoustic guitar), its musical versatility (i.e., its wide pitch range, ability to play chords with up
to 10 notes, louder or softer notes and two or more independent musical lines at the same time), the
large number of musicians and amateurs trained in playing it and its wide availability in performance
venues, schools and rehearsal spaces have made it one of the Western world's most familiar
musical instruments.