User Manual
72 A User’s Guide to Garritan World Instruments
Organization of Instruments
It is no easy task to classify many hundreds of instruments from all corners of the globe. Classication of
musical instruments has been studied by many ethnomusicologists and there are dierent classication
systems. Instruments have a wide variety of origins, performance contexts, and physical characteristics.
e Sachs-Hornbostel system is the one preferred by most ethnomusicologists. is system classies
musical instruments as follows:
1. Idiophones—sound is primarily produced by the actual body of the instrument vibrating,
rather than a string, membrane, or column of air. is group includes most percussion instru-
ments except for drums.
2. Membranophones—sound is primarily produced by the vibration of a tightly stretched mem-
brane. is group includes most drums and kazoos.
3. Chordophones—a class of instruments comprising strings stretched between xed points.
Sound is primarily produced by the vibration of a string or strings. is group contains most
stringed instruments (zithers, lutes, violins, guitars), harps, and stringed keyboard instruments,
such as pianos and harpsichords.
4. Aerophones—this class of instruments produce sound when a player blows into the instru-
ment causing air to vibrate. Flutes and trumpets are part of this group..
e Sachs-Hornbostel system has never gained general popularity since it often goes against people’s
intuitive perception of how instruments relate to each other. e most intuitive way is to classify by
geographical location and then sub-categorize by instrument family type. We’ve used a more simple
method. Instruments are associated with a family type. Within each family type are the geographical
regions. We have used common family names rather than the ethnomusicology names to make it
easier to navigate.
Family Geographic Region
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| Winds | | Asia |
| Percussion | ---------> | Africa | ---------> Instrument
| Strings | | Europe |
| Other Instruments | | etc |
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