# Musical instrument

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Musical instruments are tools that can be applied to produce music, causing some sort of effect. Instruments in NetHack fall into two categories: tonal instruments, which can play tunes (including the passtune), and atonal instruments, which cannot.
Some instruments are magical—they have effects beyond what their ordinary equivalent would yield. When they are uncharged, they behave identically to that equivalent. Every non-magical musical instrument except the bugle has at least one magical counterpart. Elven Priests and Wizards start with a non-magical musical instrument, excluding the tin whistle.
If you are stunned, confused, or hallucinating, you cannot play tunes with any instrument; you will always improvise when playing a tonal instrument.[1] Also, if you are stunned or confused, magical instruments (except the magic whistle and Bell of Opening[2]) behave like their non-magical counterparts and do not consume charges when used.[3]

Instrument
Type
Non-magical equivalent

tooled horn

Tonal
(non-magical)

wooden flute

Tonal
(non-magical)

wooden harp

Tonal
(non-magical)

bugle

Tonal
(non-magical)

frost horn

Tonal
tooled horn

fire horn

Tonal
tooled horn

magic flute

Tonal
wooden flute

magic harp

Tonal
wooden harp

bell

Atonal
(non-magical)

leather drum

Atonal
(non-magical)

tin whistle

Atonal
(non-magical)

Bell of Opening

Atonal
bell

drum of earthquake

Atonal
leather drum

magic whistle

Atonal
tin whistle

A horn of plenty is not an instrument at all, even though its unidentified appearance is that of a horn.

Messages
You start playing 

<instrument>.
You improvised with a tonal instrument, or played an atonal instrument. This message is usually followed by other instrument-specific messages or effects.
You radiate an obnoxious droning sound.
As above, but you were stunned.
You feel a monotonous vibration.
As above, but you were both stunned and deaf.
You generate a raucous noise.
As above, but you were confused.
You feel a jarring vibration.
As above, but you were both confused and deaf.
You disseminate a kaleidoscopic display of floating butterflies.
As above, but you were hallucinating. (You get this even if you're deaf.)
What you perform is quite far from music...
As above, but you were some combination of stunned, confused and hallucinating. (You get this even if you're deaf.)
References

↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 700

↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 3681: Bells call use_bell(), not do_play_instrument() like other instruments.

↑ src/music.c in NetHack 3.6.6, line 481

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.

</instrument>