It commonly has the shape of a teardrop and has F-holes or one round sound hole. History In 15,000 BC to 8,000 BC, cave paintings and murals included single-stringed instruments. The different stringed instrument families evolved from this. In the centuries that passed, mandolins were developed to have frets and strings doubled to courses and a smaller lute called mandora emerged in the 4th century. It was very popular until the 1850 s and was played in compositions by a bandmaster of West Point s the United States Military Academy Band, Richard Willis. Uses of the bugle Bugles are used for bugle calls which indicate the start of camp daily routines. These were also for assembling leaders and for announcing marching commands in camp. The tensions screws were developed to securely and more firmly hold the snares which gives a brighter and more solid sound. The stand is optional. You may mount the snare drum on the stand or carry it with a strap. The stand has an effect on the sound so don t attach the stand basket compactly against the drums hoops. The harpsichord family There are various members of the large harpsichord family archicembalo, virginals, ottavino, clavicytherium, spinet, folding harpsichord, and the regular harpsichord. The archicembalo had a unique keyboard design and was for the tuning systems of the 16th century. The virginals is a simpler and smaller harpsichord with only a string for every note while the ottavino are similar to virginals but are at four foot pitch. The origin of its name could be traced back to the English instrument hautbois or hoboy before 1770. Haut means loud or high and bois means wood. The oboe player called oboist controls the air pressure and embouchure to meticulously present the proper dynamics and timbre. The range of the modern oboe is from the B-flat under middle C up to the A which is around 3 octaves higher. As stated by Grove, octavin is listed as a synonym of ottavina by Venetian builders which date back from 1790. What does it look like? The odd shape of the octavin singles it out from the others. Like a bassoon it is somewhat folded and has two parallel straight bores attached at the underside. This structure is fitted for a bassoon because it becomes very long when straightened out but it is actually very peculiar for an instrument that is soprano-sized.