String instrument strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a brass instrument such as a trombone on the array of strings. However, these are relatively rarely used special techniques. Other keyed string instruments, small enough for a strolling musician to play, include the plucked autoharp, the bowed nyckelharpa, and the hurdy-gurdy, which is played by cranking a rosined wheel. Steel-stringed instruments (such as the guitar, bass, violin, etc.) can be played using a magnetic field. An E-Bow is a small hand-held battery-powered device that magnetically excites the strings of an electric string instrument to provide a sustained, singing tone reminiscent
Hurdy-gurdy is sometimes more descriptively called a "wheel fiddle" in English, but this term is rarely used among players of the instrument. Another possible derivation is from the Hungarian "hegedűs" (Slovenian variant "hrgadus") meaning a fiddle. In France, the instrument is known as "vielle à roue" (wheel fiddle) or simply "vielle" (even though there is another instrument with this name), while in the French-speaking regions of Belgium it is also known in local dialects as "vièrlerète/vièrlète" or "tiesse di dj'va" ('horse's head'). The Flemings and the Dutch call it a "draailier", which is similar to its German name, "Drehleier". An alternate