Party horn

The party horn is a member of the free reeds and interruptive aerophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 412.131). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the party horn makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the party horn belongs to the free reeds and interruptive aerophones: air is periodically interrupted by a vibrating reed or blade – the accordion, harmonica, sheng and bullroarer.

More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

A party horn (also known as a party blower) is a paper noisemaker which unfurls and produces a horn-like noise when a person blows into it. Party horns may be distributed at birthday parties, New Year's Eve, and other celebrations to create festive noise.

English does not have a single, consistent term for this but different places employ neologisms and variants with synonyms of blowing (puffing, blowout etc.) and onomatopoeic names (whistle, squeak etc.). The term for party horn in several other languages translates to "a mother in law's tongue" (e.g. Portuguese língua de sogra).