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All About Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds
In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument. It is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument
The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture
Early musical instruments may have been used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt, or a drum in a religious ceremony
Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment
Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications
The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is disputed
The oldest object that some scholars refer to as a musical instrument, a simple flute, dates back as far as 67,000 years
Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago
However, most historians believe that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible due to the subjectivity of the definition and the relative instability of materials used to make them
Many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials.
Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world
However, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin
By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in Maritime Southeast Asia, and Europeans played instruments from North Africa
Development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments
By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in many areas and was dominated by the Occident.
Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, and many systems of classification have been used over the years
Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc
However, the most common academic method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound
The academic study of musical instruments is called organology.