28 Unusual Instruments That Can Make Beautiful Music

How many musical instruments do you know exist in the world? You can probably count 20-30 at best, maybe. The real question is, did you count in your thoughts any of these 28 unusual instruments? We kinda bet you didn’t right? Because most people don’t even know half of these instruments, we sure didn’t before writing this article.

We maybe knew about 1o of these, and that’s also a stretch, everyday you learn a new thing right? And this time we learned about music tools such as the octobass violin and the pikasso guitar which is really freaking cool btw.

Let’s see how many you can recognize and if you can say how they work

1. The octobass violin

It looks like a giant contrabass

2. The Kalimba “Thumb Piano”

Not sure what to make out of this unusual instrument

3. The Serpent Tuba

It seems like you need powerful lungs for this one

4. The Pikasso Guitar

You need some 6 hands and 5 brains for this instrument, or so it seems

5. The Sharpsichord

It looks like an evil machinery. What does it do?  It is actually powered by the sun. It contains a cylinder with 11,520 holes into which a musician puts pins to create musical notes.

6. 12-Neck Guitar

Did I have a few too many drinks?

7. The Auditorium Organ

This looks badass!

8. Worlds Biggest Bass Drum

What sort of studies do you need to play this one?

9. The Chapman Stick

So, it’s some sort of guitar that got some budget cuts

10. The Subcontrabass Saxophone

It looks like it demands a lot of skills

11. The Mondo Accordion

The musical instrument of friendship and bonding or at least so it seems

12. The Piccolo Trombone

What does that little guy do?

13. Contrabass Balalaika

This one is a Russian folk instrument that dates back to the late 17th century. Apart from other stringed instruments, this one has a triangular body that makes it quite difficult to play it

14. Stylophone

Introduced in 1967, this is an analog synthesizer that is operated by a stylus. Definitely one of the most unusual musical instruments on this list.

15. Glass Harmonica

This is an instrument composed of several glass bowls or goblets that are placed in a gradual order in order to create a range of musical tones through friction

16. Crwth

As ancient as the 11th century, this instrument is believed to have been played in Wales many centuries ago

18. Jew’s Harp

It is part of the group of instruments known as plucked idiophones. It’s got a bamboo tongue that you can attach to a frame. The performer places the bamboo tongue in his mouth and touches it with his finger to make a note

19. Hardingfele

Originated from Norway, this instrument has twice as many strings as a normal violin

20. Singing Ringing Tree

Just some steel pipes of various lengths and orientations that produce a distinctive sound

21. A Real Holophonor

Well, to be honest, it looks like a little toy. It actually was, until someone turned it into reality: a musical instrument and hologram projector in one. It is, actually, an old clarinet turned into a futuristic musical instrument that not many know how to play

22. Hydraulophone

An organ powered by water,this musical instrument produces sounds as the performer covers one or more water jets

23. Cajon

It came from the hands of African slaves in Peru. It consists of a wooden box with a sound hole and one side made of thin plywood.

24. Lur

Of Viking origins, the Lur is a wind instrument that dates back to the middle ages

25. Friction Harp

The Friction Harp can be played by rubbing it with a pair of rosined gloves

26. Branching Corrugahorn

Made from the the flexible corrugated pipes that you find in the pulmonary care ward of a hospital. This might be a little too weird for me

27. Zeusaphone

It is quite a shocking instrument as it produces sounds thanks to some Tesla coils

28. Didgeridoo

Probably the oldest aerophone in the world, dating back some 40,000 years, from the aboriginal people of Norther Australia

Now that you’ve read all of them, be honest, how many of these weird musical instruments did you actually know?