Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The Hornbostel Sachs system groups them as strings, winds, percussion and electronic. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Instruments are classified by how they vibrate

The Hornbostel Sachs system groups them as strings, winds, percussion and electronic It sorts instruments by the vibrating element, such as air column, string, membrane or the body of the instrument itself. The scheme dates from 1914 and is still used for cataloguing collections. It avoids terms that only make sense in one culture. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: classification, instruments, museums

Instruments are classified by how they vibrate: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The Hornbostel Sachs system groups them as strings, winds, percussion and electronic. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.