Musical instruments

Flutes 40,000 years old have been found, carved from vulture bones. Before writing, before farming, humans were already making music. It isn't a luxury: it's one of the oldest things we do together.

Where a sound comes from

A sound is a vibration that moves the air. An instrument always has two parts: something that vibrates and something that amplifies (a body, a tube, a skin).

The pitch of a note depends on the speed of vibration, in vibrations per second (hertz). The tuning A vibrates at 440 Hz. Doubling the frequency gives the same note, an octave higher.

For a string, three things raise the note:

• shortening it (that's what a finger does on a guitar neck);
• tightening it;
• making it lighter (a thin string sounds higher than a thick one).

For a tube, its length sets the note: the shorter, the higher. The holes of a flute shorten the tube.

The five families

Museums sort every instrument in the world into five families, according to what vibrates.

Instruments that made history

• The bone flute, 40,000 years, Germany: the oldest known instrument.
• The lyre and the harp, Mesopotamia, about 4,500 years ago (the lyres of Ur).
• The drum, on every continent, for thousands of years.
• The organ, born in Greece with the hydraulis in the 3rd century BC, king of Europe's churches in the Middle Ages.
• The oud, Middle East, ancestor of the lute and so of the guitar.
• The sitar, India, with strings that ring on their own in sympathy.
• The kora, West Africa, 21 strings, the instrument of the griots.
• The violin, Italy, 16th century; the luthiers of Cremona (Stradivari, Guarneri) fixed it for good.
• The piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florence, around 1700: the first keyboard that plays loud or soft depending on the strength of the finger.
• The accordion and the harmonica, 19th century: metal reeds, a whole instrument in a pocket.
• The saxophone, Adolphe Sax, Belgium, 1846.
• The steel drum, Trinidad, 1930s and 1940s: made from abandoned oil drums.
• The electric guitar, 1930s to 1950s: a magnetic pickup reads the string, an amplifier does the rest.
• The synthesizer, Robert Moog, 1964: sound made entirely by circuits.

Making one with what you have

The steel drum was born from oil drums, the blues from one-string guitars nailed to a board. Almost anything can sound.

• A whistle: a hollowed piece of reed or elder, a bevelled notch, a wooden plug leaving a slit. Each hole you drill adds a note.
• A one-string bass: an upturned tub, a broom handle resting on its edge, a string stretched from the handle to the centre of the tub. Push the handle to tighten the string and change the note.
• A box guitar: a wooden box or a can for the body, a plank for the neck, strings of fishing line, bike brake cable or thin wire.
• Percussion: drums, pans, bottles filled with water to different levels (the more water, the higher when tapped).
• A drum: a skin or an inner tube stretched over a bucket, tightened with a cord.

Musicians' tips

• Tuning without a tuner: one reference note is enough (a whistle, a bottle; in France, the landline dial tone is an A at 440 Hz). The other strings are tuned to each other by ear, comparing two strings that should play the same note: when the sound "beats" (wobbles), they're off; when it becomes smooth, it's right.
• Strings wear and sound duller and duller. Wipe them with a dry cloth after each use; boiling them brings them back a little, an old bass player's trick.
• Wood moves with humidity. A wooden instrument is kept away from a stove and a damp wall. A guitar that cracks is almost always a heater that's too close.
• One instrument per group is enough to sing together. Music makes time pass, calms children, marks celebrations and mourning. See Tenir dans la durée.