Mindanao Instruments (Music)

• Kudyapi - is a guitar with two strings. It is about 1 1/2 m long and made of wood. It has a stick to support in its lower end and is played in the same position as cello.
• Kudlung – two stringed lute made of wood, one string for melody, one for the drone. Eight frets are glued on the neck of the lute. The body of the instrument is carved with geometric patterns. The neck and the head are adorned with horsehair; the tail has two pieces of carabao skin, the strap is adorned with bead work.
• Saluroy - is a bamboo polychordal tube zither of Bagobo. It is called as kolitong in Cordillera region.
• Aduwag-ay - one-stringed fiddle instrument of Bilaans also called Kugot (AgusanManobo) and Duwagey (T'boli)
• Sahunay - is a bamboo flute, leaving six holes for the fingers and trumpet made of coconut leaf. It is about 50 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. This is a bamboo flute of the Tausugs in Sulu.
• Palendag - A lip-valley flute, it is considered the toughest of the three bamboo flutes (the others being the tumpong and the suling) to use because of the way one must shape one's lips against its tip to make a sound. The construction of the mouthpiece is such that the lower end is cut diagonally to accommodate the lower lip and the second diagonal cut is make for the blowing edge. Is a type of Philippine bamboo flute, the largest one used by the Maguindanaon, a smaller type of this instrument is called the Hulakteb (Bukidnon).
• Suling - ring flute of Bilaan and Tiruray, Maguindanao, Samal, Tausug and Yakan - is the smallest bamboo flute of the Maguindanaon and the only one classified as a ring-flute (the other two bamboo flutes of the Maguindanaon, the tumpong and the palendag are both lip-valley flutes)
• Kulintang - plays the melody of the piece. It is usually composed of 8 small embossed graduated gongs laid into a wooden frame. The gongs are made of brass and the beaters are made of lightweight wood for ease of playing fast and complicated pieces.
• Dabakan - is a goblet shaped drum. It is carved from a single trunk of wood. This intricately - designed drum is the only non-gong instrument of the Kulintang ensemble. Thin and long rattan sticks are used as beaters to play the steady beat of the piece. Usually its drum head is made of goatskin
• Agung - is the biggest gong in the ensemble.
• Gandingan - also called “talking gongs” because traditionally they are used to tell messages. It is composed of four hanging slim bossed gongs arranged from low to high pitch starting from the player’s left hand. Each pair of gongs are hanged facing each other.
• Babandil - this gong is the time keeper or the ensemble. It acts as the conductor of the music.