How instruments connect cultures. The ektara, a one-stringed instrument commonly used in Baul and Bhakti traditions, closely ...

Name: Ki-Lin Reece Job: Luthier at KR Strings and Executive Director of The Kealakai Center for Pacific Strings Origins: “My family was musical, and we grew up playing country and bluegrass and folk ...

When Karl and Jackie Dieterichs first opened their folk music shop in 1966, it wasn’t exactly easy to find a banjo in Bucks County. But the Dieterichs’ vision changed that. The Bucks County Folk Music ...

Although based on the traditional three or four stringed version, Bophavan’s has a useful feature, which he believes renders it more flexible than the original. Like most takhe, the instrument is made ...

The larger 25-string instrument was developed in the 1980s with more strings and a wider range of ways to play music.Lily has always had an interest in learning about traditional Korean music.“I ...

The second most widely used Korean string instrument is the haegeum, a 2-string fiddle that was introduced to Korea from China in the Koryo dynasty (918-1392). It is the equivalent of the “erhu” ...

Obokano, the eight-stringed traditional guitar of Abagusii people has had its distinct space as the only male musical instrument. The lyre has distinguished itself as a man-musical tool over the ...

It also has a long history in Chinese musical instruments – so much so that the Mandarin term sizhu, which translates as “ silk and bamboo”, refers to string and wind musical instruments.

Often accompanying the guqin, a zither-like seven-stringed traditional musical instrument, the xiao, a traditional vertical bamboo flute with a relatively light sound, was often viewed as a foil.

It was not until college that she learned to play the koto, a 21-stringed traditional Japanese instrument. Today, she plays professionally as a solo artist, as well as in ensembles.