

Types of stringed instruments full#
It’s almost like you’ve got a full rhythm section when you’re shredding on a Chapman Stick, you can play bass, melody and chords simultaneously. It’s quite reminiscent of a large electric guitar or lap guitar. An interesting fact about the Bouzouki they’re constantly tuned and re-tuned based on the song / what scale someone wanted to play.Ĭreated by musician Emmett Chapman in the 1970s, the Chapman Stick is played with both hands through tapping on the strings. The Bouzouki is a relatively modern instrument, first seen in Greece in the early 1900s. With steel strings, you’ll get a resonant, sharp sound, that sounds a lot like a Mandolin. It’s shaped like a guitar, with a bunch of frets that’ll give you a stack of different and awesome sounds. Much alike the Bouzouki, the Shamisen is constantly tuned based on the genre the musician wants to play.Ī member of the lute family, this peculiar instrument is also played with a pick / your fingers. Like the guitar, the Shamisen is also plucked, and fingers are placed at various spots on the neck to produce different sounds. It’s got an oddly small square body, and the neck and head resembles that of a guitar. The Shamisen is also known as the Japanese lute. There’s a bunch of different members within the Zither Family, including the Concert, Alpine and the more contemporary Autoharp, which you can see played below by Dolly Parton. The first time a Zither – style instrument was seen was way back in 433 BC, with a Chinese distant relative of the Zither Family, called a guqin, found in the tomb of a Chinese Royal. Zithers are most commonly played like a guitar, through strumming / plucking the strings with a pick. Zither (Germany)ĭeriving from the same word as guitar, the ‘Zither’ is one of the oddest, yet coolest instruments to come out of Germany. To shine a light on some of these, we’re taking a trip around the world to discover nine unique stringed instruments and share their stories today.ĭon’t miss out on all the latest music gear announcements from around the world – keep your eyes peeled on our Product News section for all news and updates as they arrive. While it seems that much of the contemporary canon has been shaped by instruments like the guitar and violin, there’s a great many chordophones out there from cultures all around the world that are just as essential to the story of music as we know it today. Words by Benjamin Lamb Exploring the most unique chordophones from around the globe.
