It’s not going to be much of a surprised to learn that the size of an instrument has a lot to do with whether it makes low or high sounds, is it?

Here’s the smallest complete musical instrument we can find – a new(ish) instrument that you can play from the palm of your hand, with a whole world of sound to make music with:

Here’s the smallest orchestral instrument we can find (and a piece that fully demonstrates the versatility of this little instrument and the talent of the musician):

Here’s the largest music instrument (on a human scale), and can actually be played by a human with no additional help:

Though by watching, you’ll see that all manner of levers are needed along the tubes as they’re spread far too far apart for the player to use his fingers.

Here’s a competitor, the Octobass:

Look at the Octobass player – again he can’t use his fingers to change notes, he’s using a lever system that’s mounted on the back of the neck of the instrument. But at least you can move those around!

Here’s a ‘cave organ’:

And here’s Liverpool Cathedral Grand Organ – the biggest in the UK. You can see it being fired up at the beginning of the video, and it sounds like a jet engine. Pipe organs need a huge amount of air to work. Hundreds of years ago, there were people using their hands and feet to work giant bellows to do the job now done by electricity.