A chordophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... Hornbostel-Sachs (or Sachs-Hornbostel) is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Musik in 1914. ... At various times, and in various different cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used. ...

What most westerners would call string instruments are classified as chordophones, violins, guitars, lyres, harps, for example. However, the word also embraces instruments that many westerners would hesitate to call string instruments, such as the musical bow and the piano (which, although sometimes called a string instrument, is also called a keyboard instrument and a percussion instrument). A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. ... For the device drawn across the strings of string instruments such as the violin to make them sound, see bow (music). ... A grand piano, with the lid up. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... A percussion instrument can be any object which produces a sound by being struck with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. ...

Hornbostel-Sachs divides chordophones into two main groups: instruments without a resonator which is an integral part of the instrument (which have the classification number 31); and instruments with such a resonator (which have the classification number 32). Most western instruments fall into the second group, but the piano and harpsichord fall into the first. Hornbostel and Sachs' criterion for determining which sub-group an instrument falls into is that if the resonator can be removed without destroying the instrument, then it is classified as 31. The idea that the piano's casing, which acts as a resonator, could be removed without destroying the instrument, may seem odd, but if the action and strings of the piano were taken out of its box, it could still be played. This is not true of the violin, because the string passes over a bridge located on the resonator box, so removing the resonator would mean the strings had no tension. Harpsichord in the Flemish style A harpsichord is any of a family of European keyboard instruments, including the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, but also the smaller virginals, the muselar virginals and the spinet. ...

Electric stringinstruments most of the time have an electromagnetic pickup with which the sound can be amplified. The Electric guitar is the most famous example, but there are new instrumtens like the overtone koto who make use of the new possibilities the pickupaddition offers. In 2006 luthier Yuri Landman built the Moodswinger, a 12 string overtone guitar for Aaron Hemphill of the noiseband Liars The 3rd bridge guitar is an electric prepared guitar with an additional 3rd bridge. ...

How Chordophones Work

Chordophones make their sound when a stretched string vibrates. There is usually something that makes the sound reverberate such as the body of a guitar or violin. The strings are set into motion by either plucking (like a harp), strumming (like a guitar) or by rubbing with a bow (like a violin or cello). Some common chordophones are the banjo, the dulcimer, the fiddle, the guitar, the harp, the lute, the piano, the ukulele, the viol and the violin.