Illustrated Musical Instruments Vocabulary

Twenty common words used to describe musical instruments. Below the image are example sentences for each word. You can download this image as an A4/A3 wall poster from our free ESL posters page.

Vocabulary in context

• accordion: The man was standing on the pavement, playing his accordion.
• acoustic guitar: Tom enjoys playing the acoustic guitar in his spare time.
• banjo: I would love to learn how to play the banjo.
• bugle: The musician put the bugle to his mouth and started to play.
• cello: The cello is the largest of all stringed instruments.
• clarinet: Anna plays the clarinet very well.
• drum kit: I could hear him playing on his drum kit from the other side of the building.
• electric bass: The sound of the electric bass was loud, deep, and clear.
• electric guitar: Fred plugged his electric guitar into the wall and got ready to start playing.
• electric keyboard: Mary stood at the electric keyboard, playing a tune.
• flute: The sound of Alice’s flute was delicate and sweet.
• French horn: She has been playing the French horn since she was a child.
• harp: The musician was sitting at her harp, playing a beautiful melody.
• melodion: Sid put the melodion on the table and started to play.
• piano: There was a man playing the piano in the corner of the bar.
• saxophone: Gary plays the saxophone in a popular jazz band.
• trombone: I listened to the musician playing his trombone.
• trumpet: We were woken by the sound of our neighbour practising his trumpet.
• tuba: The tuba is the largest of all brass instruments.
• violin: I put the violin to my chin and started to play.