I am writing a fan fiction, and one of the characters is a wannabe musician. My only stumbling block is I have no clue what sort of musical instruments they have in Tamriel. I imagine the drum is present, as it is a very common and popular instrument (I suspect because it is such a powerful shamanic tool, but that is beside the point). I have no idea about anything else however, and a poke through the wiki did not uncover anything either.

Does anyone know what they use? Or for that matter, what sort of music styles they might have? (i.e. do they favor a single musician or bands/orchestras?) Or do I have to come up with it on my own?

Some logical conclusions that quickly come to mind based on the level of technology I see in Tamriel are the drum as noted above, the flute, cymbals, gongs, lyres, lutes, and harp.

I know in MW there are hand drums, lutes, and the fat lute. But that's about it..There are bards too, but you don't see them that often in these game (except for DF I think)

Well, there's this from http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/mixedunittactics.shtml:

And the Guar skin drums in morrowind. they let you loot the whole Corpisarium un-attacked at a certain spot in the main quest.

From Myths of Sheogorath:

Sheogorath Invents Music;
Sheogorath took hold of the petulant woman and ripped her asunder. From her tendons he made lutes. From her skull and arm bones he made a drum. From her bones he made flutes. He presented these gifts to the mortals, and thus Music was born.;

Reminds me of a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbira.

There are also a couple of bards in Oblivion, iirc, but none of them sing. And there's one in Thirsk who actually sings to you after you restore the mead hall. The Real Barenziah also mentions singers a couple times, so it seems that vocals are rather popular.

wow. I'd never thought I'd see a thread in somewhat my specialty.
since all Scifi is based on what we know of our real world let's discuss what we know of our EARTHLY music.

The furthest we can travel is probably the Greek era. In it we know chants existed. we have an idea of the tone used
in those chants. Later in the medeival era, chants revolved around the liturgy and secular texts. the notation of some of these
works, like Geswaldo (sp?) rivals many 20th century writings in terms of complexity.

But let's be frank. We all saw in classic Star trek the use of harps and lutes. we know in our own ancient times such instruments
were used in music. we have the frets they used. We have drawings. Yet, as largely a knowledge passed on by ear, much of what we know
is extrapolation. And I am talking 500 B.C.E. Clearly, the 14th century A.D. presents enough problems.

Simply put, don't assume that what you have been exposed to, like in reinassance festivals, is the truth. we simply don't know, but the common
assumptions become accustomed acceptance. we have enough trouble interpretting heighrogliphics, much less musical notation.

I submit simply this, in the Elder scrolls realm, when magic is a part of everday life, why would it not be a part of music?? should music be bound
merely by the unhindered contractions and rarifications of sound?? Not with powers like alteration around.

It was said that certain keys had the power by their nature alone to bring the listener to tears. I submit that the music of the Elderscrolls
be equally as powerful,

I was always assuming it's the backgroundmusic from the TES games.

*pictures Dunmer ladies in exquisite clothing playing "Call of Magic" on Dark Elf recorders*

Thanks all. This gives me a good idea of how to proceed.

Daggerfall has recorders(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/Jormungandr83/DFIMG/36-0.gif,http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/Jormungandr83/DFIMG/38-0.gif), http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/Jormungandr83/DFIMG/50-0.gif, http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/Jormungandr83/DFIMG/52-0.gif, and http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/Jormungandr83/DFIMG/51-0.gif.

I also distinctly remember seeing a piano/organ type instrument in Daggerfall - an upright casing with keys and pedals (maybe pipes, too, although my memory's a little hazy). They usually turned up in palaces.

Then there's everyone's favorite bells found in all the sixth house bases.

Harspicords maybe? A Mechanical harp played with keys like a piano. Generally would be found in upper class houses. For a traveling bard, the storyteller archetype would be best. relying on Vocals, and maybe a small instrument like a flute/recorder/pipe.
A somewhat Higher class bard might use a lute or a fat lute, or even a drum, but if you adventure, it would be more a liability than anything else. If you just travel from town to town. great. Otherwise. Get a horse. Leave your lute there.

The first picture looks more like a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shehnai to me. Those are the recorder-like instruments that snake charmers typically use and it looks to me like that's a snake charmer.

Yes, I've always imagined that the music of the game was of Tamriel.

There are always orchestras rehearsing in Tamriel, they just move on to the next location before the player character can actually see them.

An NPC in Oblivion mentions having been commissioned to compose a symphony for Uriel Septim (Salomon Geonette, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Salomon_Geonette ).