How to Add Instruments

so this is a draft. finished page will majorly differ. halp reosarevok!

To ensure that the coverage of instruments in MusicBrainz remains reasonable and avoid a huge surge in the amount of instruments, the following rules are (proposed to be) in place:

Not to be added as instruments

1. One use generic household items like cans, bowls, pans etc
   • Rationale: almost any generic thing can be used to make sound, whether as a percussion instrument (bashing one thing with another), a string instrument (a hollow body affixed with strings) or a wind instrument (any kind of tube or container with various holes, blown into)
   • Exceptions: if the musical use of a generic household item becomes popular enough that it starts to be produced (usually with slight modifications) specifically as a musical instrument, it can qualify for inclusion (such as musical saw and musical spoons)
2. Novelty/experimental instruments developed and used only by one person (or a small, related group of people), such as the Falcon guitar and most (if not all) instruments invented by Blue Man Group
   • Rationale: there's little benefit in adding a separate entry for every instrument conceived by any artist but not made available for more general use, since it risks filling the database with instruments that won't ever be selected again and will just confuse users.
   • Exceptions: should the novelty or custom creation start being produced and sold to others (even if in very limited numbers) as a legitimate instrument, it might qualify for addition. Wider adoption can definitely move an instrument from "novelty not to be added" to "perfectly acceptable addition" (such as gravikords and handpans)
3. Instruments about which we have virtually no information, especially if they are very similar to other instruments, and even more if they also have very similar or the same names
   • Rationale: it's often impossible for us to know if these are really different instruments and, even when they are, we will have nothing that allows users to distinguish them well enough, so they will be used incorrectly by confused users.
   • Exceptions: if enough data is found to clearly differentiate the instrument, it can be added.
4. Modified instruments like "backwards guitar", "two flutes glued together" or piano smasher
   • Rationale: any single instrument can be modified in too many ways for MusicBrainz to keep track of all of them, and instrument credits can generally be used.
   • Exceptions: if a specific modification becomes common enough, it might qualify for inclusion.
   1. N-string instruments
      • Rationale: as above, these are often just modified instruments, and can be specified with instrument credits.
      • Exceptions: if the instrument is actually altered in other ways specifically to adapt to the new number of strings, it might qualify for inclusion, but only if it's either widely produced and sold or the specific modification technique becomes widely adopted.
5. Something that isn't an instrument and isn't used as an instrument but is credited next to other instrument credits, such as speakers, sampler(s), computers, microphones.
   • Rationale: these aren't instruments! They can be used to produce sound, but they are not *played* to make sound.
   • Exceptions: none currently. If a "gear" section of instruments is ever added, these will probably be allowed there.
6. Something that is simply a brand name of a generic instrument already in MusicBrainz (if the instrument is not in MusicBrainz, the generic version should be requested instead).
   • Rationale: It would cause a large growth in the number of instruments for little use. Generally, these should be requested as "brand name" type aliases for the appropriate instruments instead.
   • Exceptions: a brand name instrument might be added if the brand has become generic, or if the specific brand name instrument is quite different from any generic ones. This will be rare, and mostly applicable to modern instruments where other similar instruments can't be developed because of patents or other limitations. Even then, it is always preferable to have a generic name (such as "handpan" rather than "hang").

To be added as instruments

1. Rare, historical or unusual instruments not in use today (even more so if they were once quite popular, were invented by the same inventor as other more common instruments or eventually evolved into more common current instruments).
   • Exceptions: won't be added if not enough information is available to determine what the instrument is like and how it is different from others.
2. Native people's instruments (even more so if they are still in use or if they are thought to be very distant ancestors of current popular instruments).
   • Exceptions: won't be added if there is little or no information about them, especially if that makes them hard to differentiate from similar instruments from a different, but geographically close group of native peoples.
3. Instruments with a Wikidata page, especially if there are also Wikipedia pages in several languages and/or Wikimedia Commons categories with images.
   • Exceptions: too generic instruments that exist as a blanket term in Wikipedia or pages for names that apply to more than one unrelated instrument.
4. Established ensemble groupings consisting of a specific, mostly consistent set of instruments.
   • Exceptions: ensemble groupings that exist, but are quite rare in practice are unlikely to be added to avoid a huge growth in ensemble numbers.

Q & a

Q: This is all too hard and complicated! I just want to know if I can add a ticket for this thing or not! a: If you're still not sure if it's a valid instrument or not, then just come online and ask :)

Q: what to do with a instrument credit that is on a release but the instrument doesn't qualify for a new instrument? a: find the closest nearest equivalent and use an instrument credit (pots and pans; [percussion] as "pots and pans") alternatively: use "other" with an instrument credit (this is best for "non instruments" () and absurd type wrecking novelties (eg, the idea of a trumpet with strings over the horn opening part)

Remember: These are all guidelines and are not set in stone. Of course, if you can make a good argument for why something *Should* be an instrument after all, feel free to create a ticket!

How to

das how to:(inline template maybe so it can just be fetched from its page and also edited once there, instead of copy pasta and possibilities of it becoming out of sync.)

do's:

• Only add one instrument per ticket, one ticket per instrument.

(instrument fix-ups like adding alias or linking to other ones, etc, can naturally have just one ticket. but for each instrument that needs fixing, add one ticket please.)

• describe as much as possible (link to good practice)
• link to other relevant tickets

esp now that we have ensemble / family: when creating an ensemble request. set this as task and create subtasks for every instrument in the ensemble this is important! if any of these instruments are already in the database, it will still very likely need updating, so create the subtask ticket and set that to have an "modify existing instrument" component

• take pictures of instruments on the (link to the tag for needs image) list or the (needs better image) list and upload these to wikimedia commons!

• when creating "modify instrument" tickets link the mb-instrument in question! also link any related instruments (such as hybrids, parents, family, derivations, etc)

if those don't exist in the database create tickets for them and link those to the "modify" ticket!

don'ts:

• add requests that already exist
• be vague, unclear or say "I don't know, but"

(if you don't know then how are you sure it isn't already in the database under a different name/ isn't an instrument/etc?)

• upload images in the ticket, these cannot be used, they much be on wikimedia commons for to be usable for us (however you can happily link to an *image on the web for description and disambiguation-ease, in-fact that's a great idea!)
• write the ticket in any other language than english

(look, not trying to be mean here but I can't *read* any other languages than english or norwegian, and, unless you are fluent in the latter, we're gonne be better off in english. If english is very difficult for you, you can try spanish, but it will take some longer time as I will need to have reosarevok translate for me.)

• Spam Tickets

*add more than one ticket adding the same instrument
*add yourself as "assignee" (unless you're going to add that instrument to the database.) also please don't completely overwrite old ticket-descriptions, if you have so much information add it instead and keep the old text under a "was previously" section.
 

if all you have is a "I just need it for this instrument credit/played on this track:" I'm not magical, I don't know any more about it than you do (less infact!) if there is no info on Wikipedia or online, don't just add a link to the offending MusicBrainz release/recording, try to figure more about it; what does the album's infobooklet say? what does it sound like? unless you can tell me that I can not add the instrument, and the chances of eventually it being closed as "wontfix" or "can't do" increases exponentially

Editing

Adding instrument rels to recordings and releases: please try very hard not to use any "family" type instruments, for example : guitar example el gamba example (viol) violin example

However, if you see any artists, releases or recordings with links to "(anything)-family" you will do a great help if you can move those to a better place! (should I insert "only in very rare circumstances should there be links to these."?)