Fractured Musical Instruments Quiz Challenge - How Much Do You Know? | Music Word Play

Answer: Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument that looks very much like a modern piano. Seldom seen now in the 21st century, it was once a common sight in the drawing rooms and entertainment centres of the Renaissance and Baroque periods in history.

Answer: Harmonica

An harmonica, commonly called a mouth organ, is a small wind instrument that is played by a musician's lips and tongue to produce its haunting varieties of rather lovely sound. Invented in the early part of the 19th century, this instrument has endured the test of time and today can be seen in different genres of music, such as blues bands, folk music, good old jazz, country and western groups, and even occasionally rock and roll. Opera and other forms of classical music are still to be conquered. One imagines they're quite safe. Oddly enough, though, the purpose behind their original manufacture was that they could be used in just that form of entertainment.

Answer: Xylophone

A xylophone has a similar appearance to a keyboard, but is played by mallets instead of fingers. That's an excellent idea for people who have musical ability and knowledge and desire to play an instrument, but may lack the fine motor skills required of pianists.

Not that playing the xylophone is simple by any means, but it is easier to grasp a mallet than perform the finger acrobatics that is required on a piano. This instrument originated in the south of Asia and gradually spread outwards from there.

Answer: Triangle

A triangle is a metal instrument shaped, surprise surprise, like that open geometric figure. It is usually dangled from a cord of some sort and struck by the player with another metal rod. The triangle is not quite closed on one corner. The reason for this is to allow different pitches to be played, depending on how and where the instrument is struck.

A good player can produce impressive sounds on this piece of equipment.

Answer: Trumpet

Trumpets have been around since approximately 1,500 BC. A member of the brass family, a trumpet is one of the oldest musical instruments to be found. Playing a trumpet well requires a great deal of skill, and breath and lip control, and not everyone has that ability by any means.

It is a very difficult instrument to master, and, unless you do master that breath control, you'll almost pass out with dizziness. A fine trumpeter can make a person cry with the haunting beauty of the sounds that can be produced, or get the feet tapping in happy rhythm.

A bad trumpeter, on the other hand, oh dear, can make the instrument sound like someone with chronic diarrhoea.

Answer: Accordion

Accordions, otherwise known as squeezeboxes by the unappreciative, are also difficult to master. They operate on the same principle as bellows. A tune is played on the keyboard attached to the side, as the player squeezes the box in and out at the same time - whilst holding the instrument strapped across his or her shoulders.

It's jolly hard work I can promise you! All this has to be done, if facing an audience, with the appearance of enjoyment on one's face. I've tried many instruments. The accordion was one of the hardest.

Answer: Viola

A viola, which is somewhat larger than a violin, has the same design and shape. Exquisite music can be produced on both these instruments, but it literally takes years of training to reach that stage. Until then, students, particularly in the early learning stages, can make the instrument sound like a yowling feline. Oh, but when you do reach the stage of competency on these beautiful creations, the most beautiful melodies ever created can be played. Breathtakingly lovely in fact.

Answer: Piccolo

A piccolo is another of the woodwind instruments. I dislike them all, as playing them makes me extremely lightheaded. In fact, I'd rather blow up balloons. This instrument uses basically the same fingering as most of the other woodwind ones, but the sound it produces is much higher. Though the piccolo will show up now and then in classical music pieces, it is, more often than not, more comfortable and at home in traditional marching bands.

Answer: Ukulele

A member of the guitar family, ukuleles are great fun to play! Indeed, they're meant for fun. How could you take an instrument that always puts a smile on your face, seriously? Even the sound they produce is comical. I love them. The ukulele originated in Hawaii, that land of beautiful harmonies, dance and rhythm, and spread to the rest of the world from there.

Answer: Bagpipes

Oh but the bagpipes, when played by an expert, are hauntingly lovely. Otherwise, duck for cover. They're one of the most magical pieces of musical equipment ever invented. In the hands of a skilled player, it's hardly surprising that men have followed their lure and their exciting sound into battle, or rallied round their call to prepare for same, for centuries. Today however they're mostly seen in marching or military bands or on more formal occasions. Seldom used as a straight entertainment item in a local hall, there is a good reason for this. Bagpipes played in a small to medium hall, enclosed by walls and a roof, can just about shatter your eardrums, as they're extremely, extremely loud.

They're most definitely meant to be played in the open air. Traces of this instrument have been found as far back as 1,000 BC, and they have appeared in very many countries in one form or another, ever since.

They are believed to have originated in the Middle East.