German Musical Instruments

Mention Beethoven, Mozart and Sebastian Bach and you will be transported to the world of classic music. And they created this kind of soulful music by syncing the lyrics and tunes perfectly in the musical instruments they mastered at playing. The origin of German musical instruments can be traced back to the year 1400, wherein "irregular" instruments such as hunters' horns, cow bells and bone flutes were used for organ building and organ playing. It was only during the renaissance period that many new forms of musical instruments like lute, trombone, clarinet, flutes, etc came into existence. In the 18th century German music had spread its wings throughout the globe and music was composed with modified versions of stringed, wind, keyboard, and percussion instruments. Till date, these musical instruments are used to create different genres of modern as well as traditional music, which has gained immense popularity throughout the world. If you are an avid music lover, then I'm sure the information provided in following content will not only interest you but also upgrade your knowledge on musical instruments of Germany.

Wind Instruments
Wind instruments were carved explicitly from wood, and therefore, they were also connoted as woodwind instruments. Such instruments have a tube with a resonator and when the air column inside the tube is set into vibration, sound is produced. The length of the air column is adjusted to produce different tunes. Wind instruments were also made of metals. Some popular wind instruments were piccolo, flute, reed, English horn, oboe, clarinet, basson, and saxophone.
Stringed Instruments
Sound is produced by plucking the strings which then vibrate with a melody. The strings can be vibrated with fingers, sticks and plectrums. Stringed instruments used by German musicians were violin, guitar, banjo, viola, harp, lute, etc. Scheitholt or scheitholz, coming in the category of drone zithers, was a traditional musical instrument used widely during the renaissance period and also during and after 17th century. The mechanism for playing a scheitholt is similar to that of a guitar.
Keyboard Instruments
Tunes having different range of pitch and scales are set on the keyboard and such musical instruments include piano, organ, celesta, harpsichord, clavichord, and continuo. Accordion or a piano accordion is a vintage German musical instrument that has a keyboard and bellow. Also known as the "squeezebox", an accordion is played by pressing the keys while expanding and compressing the bellows. It's actually a combination of a keyboard and wind instrument. Melody adjustment is done manually.
Accordion	Bagpipe	Concertina
Banjo	Piano	Clarinet
Percussion Instruments
As the name suggests, a percussion instrument is hit, struck, rubbed or shaken to produce sound. However, this technique is applied with musical intent, in order to generate a rhythm, tune and melody. They are played either with hands or with percussion beaters and sticks. Percussion instruments used in Germany include bass drum, cowbells, rattle, glockenspiel, cymbals, castanets, marimba, tambourine, timpani, tubular bells, snare drum, tenor drum, and xylophone.
Bass Instruments
Either the wind inside the air column is blown or the strings are played to generate a low-pitched sound (bass). Most commonly used bass instruments of Germany were horn, natural horn, tuba, euphonium, baritone, cornet, trumpet, bass trombone, and trombone. Double bass instrument like fiddle and violin were the quintessence of German classical music. The method of playing is similar to that of stringed instruments wherein a bow is used or the strings are plucked.
Brass Instruments
Brass was extensively used in Germany for the purpose of manufacturing musical instruments. Since brass is capable of producing different pitches it's used to carve wind instruments. Flute, saxophone, trumpet, horn, cornet, etc mostly have brass body. There are valves to adjust the tunes and slides for changing the length of the tubing. Traditional and natural brass instruments had a bulge that noted the harmonic series of the instrument.
Scheitholt	Snare Drum	Fiddle
Trumpet	Dulcimer	Lute

Such a versatile collection of musical instruments very distinctly depicts the country's rich taste for music. In the recent times, musical instruments are mostly synthesized with electronic devices for controlling pitch, frequency, length, sound, and quality of the music. Instrumental ensembles like bands and orchestras are opting for electronic instruments as a convenient and of course better option for creating music. Despite modification of these traditional musical instruments to electronic versions, they will always remain precious in the history of Germany's folk music.