What does a double bass or a sitar sound like? What's the difference between bongos and congas? Which instrument has only one note? Which one takes just 30 seconds to learn? What do these instruments really sound like?

This book engagingly presents 50 common and uncommon musical instruments with practical and curious facts that will spark interest in music of all kinds. Each instrument features a piece of music composed by an award-winning musician, accessed via QR code.

With instruments presented outside conventional categories, the book is open to all ways of listening and learning. Aspects of history, music theory and culture are lightly mixed with information about how instruments are made and played. Instruments of all sorts include the voice and computer, unusual instruments such as the theremin and vuvuzela, alongside those that are well known.

QR codes on each page link to 52 individual instruments and a code on the cover takes you to a full band joyously bringing all the instruments in the book together.