10 most difficult musical in­stru­ments riddles

Antonio Stradivari continued to work until his death, in 1737, at the age of 93. He made over 1,000 instruments, of which around 650 still exist, including around 500 violins.

Sarangi is a short-necked fiddle used throughout South Asia, particularly in folk and classical Hindustani music. It has a roughly rectangular body and broad fretless neck, generally carved from a single piece of wood. It has three main melody strings made of gut, and up to 37 sympathetically vibrating metal strings.

Imzad is a single-string bowed instrument used by the Tuareg people in Africa. The imzad is only played by the women for example to accompany songs, often during an evening ceremony called takket. However, there are modern attempts to promote the instrument as inherent to Tuareg culture.

The oldest documented violin to have four strings, like the modern violin, is supposed to have been constructed in 1555 by Andrea Amati. Earlier instruments only had three strings and were called violetta. The violin immediately became very popular, both among street musicians and the nobility.

The instrument was created by the Weigel family about 1720. Since it resembled the horns played by angels in religious images, it was called engellisches Horn, meaning angelic horn. But engellisch also meant English.

The pedal harp is a large and technically modern harp, designed primarily for art music and may be played either solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or in an orchestra. It typically has a range of six and a half octaves (47 strings). The role of the pedals is to alter the pitch of the strings, so that it can easily play works written in any key.

The kabosy is a box-shaped wooden guitar commonly played in music of Madagascar. It has four to six strings and is commonly thought to be a direct descendant of the Arabic oud. The kabosy has staggered frets, many of which do not even cross the entire fretboard, and is generally tuned to an open chord. A kabosy-like instrument with standard frets is known as a mandalina or mandoliny. Notable players of the kabosy include Babata and Jean Emilien.

The erhu is the most popular of traditional bowed string instruments used by various ethnic groups of China. A very versatile instrument, it is used in both traditional and contemporary music arrangements, such as in pop, rock and jazz.

The mbira consists of a wooden board with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs. It is a particularly common musical instrument of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Shona people of Zimbabwe, often played at religious ceremonies, weddings, and other social gatherings.

The name comes from its inventor Robert Moog. It was first presented at the Audio Engineering Society conference in October 1964. Although nowadays the digital ones are mostly in use, the name has stayed in the electronic music community.