A list of musical onomatopoeias…
Bagpipes – Skirl
Banjo – Twang or
Plunk or
Plink plink plink
Bass – Zoomba zoom
Bass Guitar – Thumm
Bells – Jingle, jingle, jingle or
Ding, ding, ding
Clarinet – Doodle doodle doodle det
Cymbals – Cling or
Clang or
Zing zing
Drum (Big) – Bang! or
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Drum (Little, Snare) – Rat-a-tat tat or
Rataplan rataplan or
Pa rum pum pum pum or
Chut, chut, chut or
Pata-pata-pan or
Ta ra ra ra boom
Electric Guitar – Wah wah wah or
Nyow nyow, nyow nyow (also for the air guitar) or
Bow-chicka-wow-wow
Fiddle – fiddle fiddle dee fiddle dee
Fife – Tootle, tootle, toot
Flute – Tu-re-lu-re-lu or
Toot toot toot or
Toodle-oodle-oo or
Tootle ootle ootle, tootle ti toot.
Gong – Gong!
Guitar – Strum, strum, strum or
Ting, tong, tang or
Drin, drin, drin, drin or
Twang
Harp – Twingle twangle
Kick Drum – Ticka ticka
Piano – Plink or
Plink-a-plink-a-plink-a-plink
Piccolo – Deedle-ee dee dee or
Tweedle deedle deedle dee
Tambourine – Chicka, chicka, chicka
Trombone – Wah, wah, wah
Trumpet- Ta-tada-ta-ta or
Pah-pa-ra!
Tuba – Oompah, oompah oompah (also spelled umpa) or
Waa waa
Ukulele – Warble
Viola – Pling, pling, pling
Violin – Pling pling-a-pling or
Zing, zing, zing
Woodblocks – Clonk
Any string instrument:
Plucking a string – Plunk or Zing
Badly played – Squeak, squeak, squeak
Please share any musical onomatopoeias that you know in the comments below!
-Mama Lisa
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” -Martin Mull
Other sources:
Music Onomatopoeia (from literature & songs)
The sounds instruments make (on Language Log)
This article was posted on Friday, August 30th, 2019 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Mama Lisa, Music, Onomatopoeia, USA, Words & Phrases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
September 2nd, 2019 at 4:02 pm
There’s a German song called Die Geige, die singt about the sounds instruments make. It was written and composed by Willy Geissler (1886 – 1952). There’s an English version called The Orchestra Song.
November 30th, 2019 at 7:37 pm
I really enjoyed saying the onomatopoeia really fast it was beautiful.Thank you for making children lives matter