Jew's harp

The Jew's harp is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. Called variously a jaw harp, juice harp, khomuz - Siberia, kubyz, koukin - Japan, kumbing - Philippines, mungiga - Sweden, gewgaw - England, cacciapensieri - Italy, munnharpe - Norway, drumbľa , genggong - Bali, maultrommel - Germany (which means "mouth drum"), doromb - Hungarian, dambrelis - Lithuania, trump, morsing, guimbarde - France, vargan - Russia, temir-komuz, ooz-komuz - Kyrgyzstan, drymba, aura or vasang among other names, it has no particular connection with Jews or Judaism. More than 40 different names are known in different cultures. Its appearance in many cultures of the world, and ancient roots, attest to the magical essence of this simple instrument. It was and is a common instrument in shamanic rituals, because the vibration of jew's harp sound can induce the condition of light trance.

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The instrument is a lamellaphone, which is in the category of plucked idiophones: it consists of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note. The note thus produced is constant in pitch, though by changing the shape of his or her mouth and the amount of air contained in it the performer can cause different overtones to sound and thus create simple melodies.

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There are many theories for the origin of the name Jew's harp (see the external links below), one being that it may derive from its popularity amongst Eurasian steppe-peoples like the Khazars, perhaps being introduced to Europe from that direction. A likely explanation is that it is a corruption of "jaw harp", while a less likely explanation espoused by some is that its name comes from "juice harp" from the amount of saliva produced while being played.

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One example of the Jew's harp in modern music is in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give it Away" on the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

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Musical instrument: A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as a musical instrument; but the expression is reserved generally to items that have that specif...

Siberia: Siberia (, common English transliterations: Sibir?, Sibir; from the Tatar for ?sleeping land?) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. It extends eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hill...

Japan: For other uses, see Japan (disambiguation)....

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