Traditional Thai instruments

This past weekend I went to visit one of the new volunteers who is living in my province now. We went all over her site and we visited her office. There were a bunch of kids getting music lessons. We were privledged enough to get to stay and watch. Here are just a few of the many traditional Thai instruments. They really love percussion and woodwinds in this culture.







This is called a Ranart-ek. Its similar to a xylophone only the wooden planks dont touch the wood base, and the instrument is arched. The planks are hanging like a suspension bridge.









This is called a Kong-Wong-Yai. I really liked this one as its really interesting to look at. Its kind of a mix between symbols and bells. You hit them with mallots, but the metal symbols are a lot thicker than our symbols, so make sounds inbetween a bell and a gong.