The mountain dulcimer, the first instrument Jenne learned to play. It's a four-stringed instrument from Appalachia that sits on the lap. Jenne's Dad once described it as a "string bagpipe" because the instrument has two drone strings. |
 The 22-string folk harp, which needs no introduction! |
The hammered dulcimer, which is found throughout Europe and Asia in various guises. |
 The valiha, a circular zither from Madagascar with steel strings. |
The kantele, sometimes called the Finnish lap harp (even though it's technically a zither). It's shaped like a wing, and usually has five or ten strings. A kantele appears in The Wicker Man and on its soundtrack (although it isn't identified as a kantele). |
 The berimbau, which is from Brazil. It's a bow-shaped percussion instrument. A steel string is hit with a stick to make the sound; it also has a gourd resonator. |
The autoharp, Jenne's most recent acquisition (which she is still learning to play!) Invented in Germany, it's often used in American folk and Appalachian music. |
 The ektara, which is used by the Baul people of Bengal. Its name means "one string" and, indeed, it has one string. It's used as a background drone. |
A related instrument, the gopichand, is a toned one-string drum. |
 The bowed psaltery. Believed to have been invented in Germany as an instrument for children, it was apparently based on images in medieval art of the ukelin. |
The bodhran, a round Irish drum. |
 A doumbek, an hourglass-shaped drum from the Middle East. Jenne admits that she's a rotten drummer. |
The sistrum, which looks like tambourine jingles attacked to a stick. It's from Egypt.
Other percussion, which include deertoes (a rattle made with giant bean shells), tambourines, a frame drum, zils (finger cymbals), bells, windchimes, energy chimes and a small round drum from Ghana. |
Tin whistles and a recorder that Jenne hasn't gotten around to learning how to play. (Her dad plays tinwhistles and recorder quite well, though). |
A singing bowl and singing bell, both from Tibet. |
 Some fun stuff that probably will never make it to an album: a kalimba made with bobby pins, a "doodle bass" made with pie tins and weedwhacker string and a marimbula, a giant kalimba you sit on. And, of course, the boring old keyboard. |