It is claimed that 13 ancient crystal skulls have been found with mysterious properties.
The pedal steel guitar gives country music its signature sliding, crying sound.
Prince played 27 instruments on his debut album.
The theremin, invented in 1920, is played without being touched.
The theremin was invented in 1920 by Russian physicist Léon Theremin while he was researching sensors that detect motion.
A theremin has two antennas. Moving one hand near the vertical antenna changes the pitch, and moving the other near the loop antenna changes the volume.
Bernard Herrmann's score for the 1951 sci-fi movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" famously used the theremin to create an otherworldly sound.
Miklós Rózsa's Oscar-winning score for Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 film "Spellbound" featured the theremin.
The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" is often said to feature a theremin, but it actually used the Electro-Theremin, a different instrument played with a slider.
Clara Rockmore was a classical violinist who became the most famous theremin virtuoso.
Léon Theremin later invented "The Thing," a hidden listening device that the Soviets placed inside a wooden Great Seal given to the US ambassador in Moscow.
Robert Moog built theremins as a teenager before inventing the Moog synthesizer.
A matryomin is a theremin built inside a Russian nesting doll, created in Japan.
A theremin responds to the electrical properties of the player's body, so even small movements can change the sound.
The Hang was invented in 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer of PANArt in Bern, Switzerland.
"Hang" means "hand" in the Bernese German dialect.
The Hang was inspired by the Caribbean steelpan and other percussion instruments.
PANArt stopped making the Hang in 2013.
"Handpan" is the general name for instruments similar to the Hang that are made by other builders.
The Hang is made of two steel shells joined together, giving it a UFO-like shape.
The Hang is played with the hands, usually resting on the player's lap.
The center note of a Hang is called the "ding."
People who wanted to buy a Hang once had to write a letter to PANArt.
The hole on the bottom of a Hang, called the "Gu," creates a deep bass tone.
The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia, and rock art suggests it's been played for at least 1,500 years.
Traditional didgeridoos are made from eucalyptus branches that have been naturally hollowed out by termites.
Didgeridoo players use circular breathing, inhaling through the nose while pushing air out of the mouth, to play a continuous sound without stopping.
"Didgeridoo" is probably not an Aboriginal word. One Aboriginal name for the instrument is "yidaki."
A 2006 study found that playing the didgeridoo can help reduce snoring and sleep apnea.
In some Aboriginal communities, cultural protocols say only men play the didgeridoo.
A didgeridoo mainly plays a single drone note.
Traditional didgeridoo mouthpieces are made of beeswax.
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument.
Didgeridoo players can imitate animal sounds.
Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica in 1761.
A glass armonica has spinning glass bowls on a rod, which the player touches with wet fingers to make sound.
Mozart wrote music for the glass armonica.
Rumors claimed the glass armonica caused madness, and some German towns banned it.
Marianne Kirchgessner was a blind glass armonica virtuoso.
Benjamin Franklin called the glass armonica his favorite invention.
Benjamin Franklin's own glass armonica is at The Franklin Institute.
Donizetti originally wrote the mad scene in "Lucia di Lammermoor" for the glass armonica.
The name "armonica" comes from the Italian word for harmony.
Franz Mesmer used the glass armonica in his sessions.
A hurdy-gurdy makes sound when the player turns a crank that spins a rosined wheel against the strings, working like a violin bow.
A hurdy-gurdy player changes notes by pressing keys that touch the strings.
A hurdy-gurdy has drone strings that play a constant note.
The hurdy-gurdy's ancestor, the organistrum, was played by two people.
A hurdy-gurdy has a buzzing bridge called the "dog."
The hurdy-gurdy was fashionable at the French royal court in the 1700s.
The hurdy-gurdy was linked to beggars and street musicians.
Schubert's song "Der Leiermann" is about a hurdy-gurdy player.
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" was a hit song by Donovan.
Some folk metal bands, like Eluveitie, use the hurdy-gurdy.
Richard Waters invented the waterphone in the 1960s and patented it in 1975.
A waterphone is made of a stainless steel bowl with bronze rods around the edge and water inside.
A waterphone can be played with a bow or struck.
The waterphone is often used in horror and sci-fi film soundtracks.
The waterphone was inspired by a Tibetan water drum.
The waterphone has been used in attempts to communicate with whales.
The water inside a waterphone shifts as the player moves it, which makes the sound wobble.
The waterphone's name is a pun on its inventor's last name, Waters.
Waterphones are handmade in limited numbers.
Players tilt a waterphone while playing to move the water inside.
A musical saw is a handsaw bent into an S-curve and played with a bow.
Musical saw players usually sit and hold the saw's handle between their knees.
A musical saw has an eerie sound, similar to a human voice.
Marlene Dietrich played the musical saw, including while entertaining troops during WWII.
The NYC Musical Saw Festival set a Guinness record for the largest musical saw ensemble.
Musical saw players change pitch by bending the saw.
The musical saw was popular in vaudeville in the 1920s.
Some saws made for music don't have teeth.
The musical saw has been used in film scores, including the French film "Delicatessen."
A musical saw can also be played by striking it with a mallet.
The jaw harp is one of the world's oldest instruments, and bone jaw harps about 4,000 years old have been found in China.
A jaw harp player changes notes by reshaping the mouth, which acts as the instrument's resonating chamber.
The jaw harp, sometimes called a "Jew's harp," has no known connection to Jewish people, and the name's origin is unclear.
The khomus, a type of jaw harp, is a national instrument of Yakutia in Russia.
The jaw harp was used in Ennio Morricone's Western film scores.
Austrian jaw harp making was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
The Vietnamese jaw harp is called the "đàn môi."
A jaw harp is played by plucking a thin metal or bamboo tongue.
The kubing is a bamboo jaw harp from the Philippines.
In parts of Asia, the jaw harp was traditionally used for courtship.
The Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia, built in 2005 by architect Nikola Bašić, is played by ocean waves.
The Sea Organ has 35 pipes under marble steps, and waves push air through them.
The Sea Organ never plays the same song twice.
The Sea Organ won the European Prize for Urban Public Space in 2006.
Next to the Sea Organ is the "Greeting to the Sun," a solar-powered light installation.
Blackpool, England, has a wave organ called the High Tide Organ.
San Francisco has a Wave Organ, built in 1986.
The Sea Organ is free to visit at any time.
The Sea Organ was designed by Croatian architect Nikola Bašić.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ in Luray Caverns, Virginia, makes music by tapping ancient stalactites, and Leland Sprinkle spent three years building it.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ is the world's largest musical instrument.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ uses rubber mallets to tap stalactites.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ covers about 3.5 acres.
Leland Sprinkle tuned the stalactites by sanding them.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ plays automatically during cave tours.
Weddings are held in Luray Caverns.
Luray Caverns were discovered in 1878.
Leland Sprinkle was a mathematician who worked at the Pentagon.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ uses 37 stalactites.
The nyckelharpa is a Swedish keyed fiddle and is considered Sweden's national instrument.
A nyckelharpa appears on a church gate on the Swedish island of Gotland dated to about 1350.
A modern nyckelharpa has 16 strings.
"Nyckel" means "key" in Swedish.
Eric Sahlström helped revive the nyckelharpa.
A nyckelharpa is played with a short bow.
Nyckelharpa players change notes by pressing wooden keys.
An annual nyckelharpa gathering is held in Österbybruk, Sweden.
A nyckelharpa has sympathetic strings that vibrate on their own when other strings are played.
The nyckelharpa is especially associated with the Uppland region of Sweden.
The Otamatone was created by the Japanese art group Maywa Denki.
The Otamatone is shaped like a musical eighth note.
Squeezing the Otamatone's face makes a "wah" sound.
The pitch on an Otamatone is changed by sliding a finger along its stem.
Otamatone cover songs became viral online.
Maywa Denki members perform in blue work suits.
The Otamatone is sold by Cube Works.
The Otamatone comes in deluxe and jumbo versions.
The Otamatone was sold as a toy but is also used in performances.
"Otamatone" comes from the Japanese word for a tadpole-shaped musical note.
Albert Einstein loved playing the violin.
Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments built the first integrated circuit in 1958, and Robert Noyce independently made a silicon version in 1959.
A Pinard horn is a simple instrument for listening to a baby's heartbeat before birth.
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