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Musical Instruments

Eddie Van Halen recently donated his custom-made guitar named Frankenstein 2 to the National Museum of American History.

Q and A with Eddie Van Halen

The rock guitarist talks about his custom-made Frankenstein 2 that is now in the collections of the American History museum

Gene Krupa "stole Benny [Goodman]'s thunder," says Kennith Kimery, executive producer of the SMithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. "In the end that cost him his job."

Gene Krupa: a Drummer with Star Power

Rising to fame with the Benny Goodman band, Gene Krupa was the first superstar drummer

Alvino Rey may not be a household name today, but Rey's genre-busting fretwork in electric music's nascent years helped set the stage for modern rock.

Alvino Rey’s Musical Legacy

As the father of the electric guitar and grandfather of two members of Arcade Fire, Rey was a major influence on rock for decades

Anthropologist Bruno Frohlich with a 1920 Czech viola at the National Museum of Natural History.

Scanning a Stradivarius

Medical 3-D imaging makes it possible to study the world’s greatest stringed instruments – and uncover the secrets of its makers

Lester Young electrified the jazz world with his dexterity and imagination.

Lester Young Turns 100

Billie Holiday’s favorite musician, jazz great Lester “Prez” Young brought a hip, freewheeling sensibility to his saxophone playing

Goodman played the clarinet even "during the commercial breaks of the World Series," according to one of his daughters.

Benny Goodman’s Clarinet

Late in his career, jazz musician Benny Goodman favored a Parisian “licorice stick” as his instrument of choice

Cesar Lopez and cellist Sandra Parra perform in Bogota with his “escopetarra” at the launch of Colombia’s 2008 peace week

Colombia Dispatch 7: Turning Guns into Guitars

Musician Cesar Lopez invented a new type of guitar, made from the shell of an automatic weapon

Students perform together at the vallenato music academy

Colombia Dispatch 6: Accordion Rock Stars in Valledupar

Andres ‘Turco’ Gil’s accordion academy trains young children in the music of vallenato, the folk music popular across Latin America

Colombian singer Carlos Vives (left, with Egidio Cuadrado at the 2007 festival) is bringing worldwide fame to the genre.

Squeeze Play

A new Smithsonian Networks Film brings alive the upbeat music of Colombia’s cowboy country

Irving Berlin's piano

Ivory Merchant

Composer Irving Berlin wrote scores of hits on his custom-built instrument

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Last Page: Strings Attached

“You want the greatest guitar ever?” Dad asked

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Harp Hero

Endangered instruments tug one musician’s heartstrings

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The Piano Wars

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The Talking Drums

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Paderewski’s Piano

When Polish pianist Ignace Paderewski toured America, he became a celebrity—and boosted Steinway

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Sharing the Gift of Music

An endowment accompanying rare instruments lets them be heard in performances and on recordings

Blue, Blue, Blue Guitars

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Pipe Dreams

The royal instrument is the most complex and powerful yet devised by the human mind

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Plugged In, and Playing With Power

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Sure the Piano-Violin Can Do Two Things At Once—But Can It Do Them Well?

Sure the piano-violin can do two things at once—but can it do them well?

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