Talk:Musical instrument classification

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Where does the harp fit? I think it's somewhere in the keyboards/string-percussion, but I don't know enough to add it into the article. thanks! -- Dreamyshade

It depends which classification system you mean. Normally it would just be described as a "string instrument", but the Hornbostel-Sachs system, for instance, calls it a chordophone and (if I remember correctly) puts it alongside various African instruments such as the kora and other instruments where the strings run perpendicular (rather than paralell) to the bridge. I don't think we should talk about individual instruments in this article anyway, which is intended to be more an examination of the various classification systems that have been tried. --Camembert

[edit] Musical instrument classification on Wikipedia

I feel that it would be very helpful to create, or use, a system of classification to help group instrument articles together. Being a novice I don't know a whole lot about it, but I think we wikipedians should come up with an all inclusive system to put to use so we can properly group articles and make them easily accessible to the public.Will 19:58, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

This is what I propose(Categories at left, subcategories indented): Wind

Woodwinds

Brass

String

Plucked

Bow

Keyboard

Percussive

Metal

Wooden

Stone

Idiophone

Struck

Plucked

Blown

Friction

[edit] Last Paragraph Confusion

As a layman, I find the last paragraph of this article confusing. Would the following re-write be correct?: "Instruments can also be classified by common (not necessarily exclusive) usage; for example, signal instruments." Nisada 04:32, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Where do flutes and recorders fit in?

The topic paragraph of the Strings, Percussion, and Wind section says "there is a distinction made between wind instruments with a reed (woodwind instruments) and wind instruments where the air is set in motion directly by the lips (brass instruments)."

This seems problematic in that it leaves no wiggle room for reedless woodwinds such as flutes and recorders. Spventi (talk) 03:41, 3 May 2008 (UTC)