Idiophone - online puzzles

An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the instrument as a whole vibrating—without the use of strings or membranes. It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel–Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification (see List of idiophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number ). The early classification of Victor- Charles Mahillon called this group of instruments autophones. The most common are struck idiophones, or concussion idiophones, which are made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand ( like the wood block, singing bowl, steel tongue drum, triangle or marimba) or indirectly, by way of a scraping or shaking motion ( like maracas or flexatone). Various types of bells fall into both categories. A common plucked idiophone is the Jew's harp.

The word is from Ancient Greek, a combination of idio- meaning own, personal, or distinct, and -phone, meaning voice or sound.