Musical Instruments

	HARP Harp is an ancient instrument that has always been connected to Celtic music (it's one symbol of Ireland), above all in the most aristocratic environment. Celtic harps are generally smaller and can be played over one's knees. The Scottish Harp is called Clarsach and Welsh one is formed by 3 rows of strings with half tone of difference between the rows in order to obtain a chromatic scale. In these days Nylon strings are more common even if some musicians have began to use again the original stringings that produce a sound similar to the one of bells.
	BAGPIPES & UILLEANN PIPES The basic instrument is usually formed by a bag in which the air is blown through a blowpipe. Pressure of arm on the bag pushes the air through a reed in a pipe. The sound embraces 2 octaves. Scottish Highland Pipes are those that have the most acute sound and are played standing. The pipe has 8 holes. There are two pipes for "tenor" sounds and one for low sounds. Irish Warpipes is much similar but has only one tenor pipe. Much more popular in Ireland are the Uilleann Pipes in which there is a small bellows. The small tube has a sound that extends on 2 octaves, the pipes are 3 or 4 and there are tone controls that are other pipes that can play chords. All these instruments are played without pauses, in a continuous way.
	BANJO Brought in the XIX century from United States now is part of the traditional Irish music instruments. The Irish Banjo has a string less, four, and these are usually heavier and are tuned on notes G-D-A-E.
	BODHRAN It's a wooden percussion instrument with goat skin much common in Irish traditional music. It's usually beaten with the right hand with a small stick called beater and touching or grazing in different points the back of the case with the left hand to vary the depth of the sound, from hollow and deep to acute and sharp. Other percussion instruments used in Ireland are bones and spoons that are beaten to produce a particular sound.
	GUITARS and BOUZOUKIS They are used in the accompaniment and to create a rhythmic background. Guitars are usually simple acoustic guitars with 6 strings. The Irish Bouzouki is quite different from the Greek version. It has 4 strings and a rounded case. The tuning is usually set up on series G-D-A-D or G-D-A-E.
	FIDDLE It's the main element of all the Scottish and Irish traditional music. It's exactly the same as everywhere in the world. The term Fiddle is only used for traditional music.
	ACCORDION The melodion is a simpler version of accordion. The sound is produced by air that is blown inside by the movement of arms and that make vibrate metallic reeds inside. Depending on whether you compress or expand the bellows the note will be different. It has 10 keys that produce a series of 20 diatonic notes usually tuned in C. Accordion has a second row of keys generally a semitone over the first series that gives to this instrument a great chromaticity. The most used pair of tuning is B/C even if C/C#, C#/D and D/D# are also very common. But traditional music is often diatonic and the second series of keys is used mostly to create ornamental sounds. The Concertina is a small accordion of hexagonal shape. In traditional music is generally used the diatonic form tuned in C and G. There are two keyboards each one at one side of the bellows (usually a row of keys on each head).
	FLUTE Flutes of varied kind always has been played in traditional music for hundred years. The types used today are those simplest ones with 6 holes and even 8 keys. Usually they are made with wood. Their construction gives a dark sound and the much softer than the tin whistle.
	TIN WHISTLE It's the most simple and economic of traditional instruments even if not that easy to manage. It's a simple metallic tube with 6 holes and a mouthpiece like the one of the recorder whose sound ranges between 2 octave.