Sheng (instrument)
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The sheng is a Chinese mouth-blown polyphonic free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes.
A late 19th-century sheng, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Buddhist art from the Yulin Caves, Tang dynasty showing musicians playing various instruments including a sheng
Sheng – Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw
36-reed soprano sheng
Free reed aerophone
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A free reed aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound as air flows past a vibrating reed in a frame. Air pressure is typically generated by breath or with a bellows. In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, it is number: 412.13. Free reed instruments are contrasted with non-free or enclosed reed instruments, where the timbre is fully or partially dependent on the shape of the instrument body, Hornbostel–Sachs number: 42.
The reeds of an early 20th-century button accordion, with closeup
Sheng with 17 pipes; height is 55 cm (22 inches)
Free reed from a Melodion, 1867