Idiophone

/ˈɪdɪˌɒfə‌ʊn/

/ˈɪdɪˌɑːfoʊn/

Idiophone

a musical instrument that produces sound primarily through its own body or material, without the need for strings, membranes, or other external elements

Examples

1. these were any instrument that made sound through the use of solid objects, including the idiophones, the chordophones, and the membranophones.

2. for instance, in the Hornbostel-Sachs system the piano is considered a chordophone because the actual sound is made by vibrating strings, but it's played by striking rigid keys, like an idiophone.

3. And it's been estimated that human beings have been playing concussion idiophones, struck percussion instruments, for a lot longer than that, perhaps 100,000 years or more.

4. there's idiophones, like wood blocks, which work through the vibration of a hard, rigid body, there's membranophones, like hand drums, which have a thin membrane, chordophones, which use strings like a guitar, and aerophones, which generate sound directly through a vibrating column of air, like a flute.