An instrumental, instrumental music, or sometimes "instrumental song" is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word "song" may refer to instrumentals. The music is primarily or exclusively produced using musical instruments. An instrumental can exist in music notation, after it is written by a composer; in the mind of one or more composers in question (especially in cases where they will perform the piece, as in the case of a blues solo guitarist or a folk music fiddle player); as a piece that is performed live by a single instrumentalist or a musical ensemble, which could range in components from a duo or trio to a large big band, concert band or orchestra.
In a song that is otherwise sung, a section that is not sung but which is played by instruments can be called an instrumental interlude, or, if it occurs at the beginning of the song, before the singer starts to sing, an instrumental introduction. If the instrumental section highlights the skill, musicality, and often the virtuosity of one or more particular performers, the section may be called a "solo" (e.g., the guitar solo that is a key section of heavy metal music and hard rock songs). If the instruments are percussion ones, the interlude can be called a percussion interlude or "percussion break". These interludes are a form of break in the song.
In popular music
thumb|"Theme Q" by Steve Combs & Delta Is: an instrumental piece played on bass, drum, guitar, keyboard (4 min 53 s)
In commercial popular music, instrumental tracks are sometimes renderings, remixes of a corresponding release that features vocals, but they may also be compositions originally conceived without vocals. One example of a genre in which both vocal/instrumental and solely instrumental songs are produced is blues. A blues band often uses mostly songs that have lyrics that are sung, but during the band's show, they may also perform instrumental songs which only include electric guitar, harmonica, upright bass/electric bass and drum kit. Instrumental versions of songs can also be used to create remixes and mashups or used in DJ sets. If an instrumental version of a track is not released, it can be created through stem separation/vocal removal.
Number-one instrumentals
{| class="sortable wikitable"
! Title
! Artist
! Country
! Reached number-one
|-
|"Frenesi"
|Artie Shaw
|US
|1940
|-
|"Song of the Volga Boatmen"
|Glenn Miller
|US
|1941
|-
|Piano Concerto in B Flat
|Freddy Martin
|US
|1941
|-
|"A String of Pearls"
|Glenn Miller
|US
|1942
|-
|"Moonlight Cocktail"
|Glenn Miller
|US
|1942
|-
|"Heartaches"
|Ted Weems
|US
|1947
|-
|"Twelfth Street Rag"
|Pee Wee Hunt
|US
|1948
|-
|"Blue Tango"
|Leroy Anderson
|US
|1952
|-
|"The Song from Moulin Rouge"
|Mantovani
|UK
|1953
|-
|""
|Eddie Calvert
|UK
|1954
|-
|"Let's Have Another Party"
|Winifred Atwell
|UK
|1954
|-
|"Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)"
|Pérez Prado
|US
|1955
|-
|"Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)"
|The Champs
|US
|1958
|-
|"Patricia"
|Lord Rockingham's XI
|UK
|1958
|-
|"Side Saddle"
|Russ Conway
|UK
|1959
|-
|"The Happy Organ"
|Percy Faith
|US
|1960
|-
|"Apache"
|The Shadows
|UK
|1960
|-
|"Wonderland by Night"
|Floyd Cramer
|UK
|1961
|-
|"Kon-Tiki"
|The Shadows
|UK
|1961
|-
|"Mexico"
|Bob Moore
|Germany
|1962
|-
|"Wonderful Land"
|B. Bumble and the Stingers
|UK
|1962
|-
|"Stranger on the Shore"
|Acker Bilk
|US/UK<br>
|1962
|-
|"The Stripper"
|The Tornados
|US
|1962
|-
|"Dance On!"
|The Shadows
|UK
|1963
|-
|"Diamonds"
|Jet Harris and Tony Meehan
|UK
|1963
|-
|"Telstar"
|The Tornados
|France
|1963
|-
|"Foot Tapper"
|Paul Mauriat
|US
|1968
|-
|"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"
|Hugo Montenegro, his Orchestra and Chorus
|UK
|1968
|-
|"Albatross"
|The Love Unlimited Orchestra
|US
|1974
|-
|"TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)"
|MFSB featuring The Three Degrees
|US
|1974
|-
|"Pick Up the Pieces"
|Silver Convention
|US
|1975
|-
|"Theme from S.W.A.T."
|Bill Conti
|US
|1977
|-
|"Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band"
|Madness
|France
|1980
|-
|"Chariots of Fire"
|Doop
|UK
|1994
|-
|"Guaglione"
|Perez Prado
|Republic of Ireland
|1994
|-
|"The X-Files"
|Mark Snow
|France
|1996
|-
|"Flat Beat"
|Mr. Oizo
|UK
|1999
|-
|"Bromance"
|Tim Berg (Avicii)
|Belgium (Flanders)
|2010
|-
|"Harlem Shake"
|Baauer
|Australia/New Zealand
|2013
|-
|"Harlem Shake"
|Baauer
|US
|2013
|-
|"Animals"
|Martin Garrix
|Belgium (Flanders)
|2013
|-
|"Animals"
|Martin Garrix
|Belgium (Wallonia)
|2013
|-
|"Animals"
|Martin Garrix
|Scotland/UK
|2013
|}
Borderline cases
Some recordings which include brief or non-musical use of the human voice are typically considered instrumentals. Examples include songs with the following:
- Short verbal interjections (as in "Tequila", "Topsy", "Wipe Out", "The Hustle", or "Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out")
- Repetitive nonsense words (e.g., "la la..." (as in "Calcutta") or "Woo Hoo")
- Non-musical spoken passages in the background of the track (e.g., "To Live Is to Die" by Metallica or "Wasteland" by Chelsea Grin)
- Wordless vocal effects, such as drones (e.g., "Rockit" or "Flying")
- Vocal percussion, such as beatbox B-sides on rap singles
- Yelling (e.g. "Cry for a Shadow")
- Yodeling (e.g., "Hocus Pocus")
- Whistling (e.g., "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" or "Colonel Bogey March")
- Spoken statements at the end of the track (e.g., "God Bless the Children of the Beast" by Mötley Crüe or "For the Love of God" by Steve Vai)
- Non-musical vocal recordings taken from other media (e.g., "Vampires" by Godsmack)
- Field recordings which may or may not contain non-lyrical words (e.g., many songs by Godspeed You! Black Emperor and other post-rock bands)
Songs including actual musical—rhythmic, melodic, and lyrical—vocals might still be categorized as instrumentals if the vocals appear only as a short part of an extended piece (e.g., "Unchained Melody" (Les Baxter), "Batman Theme", "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)", "Pick Up the Pieces", "The Hustle", "Fly, Robin, Fly", "Get Up and Boogie", "Do It Any Way You Wanna", and "Gonna Fly Now"), though this definition is loose and subjective.
Falling just outside of that definition is "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes.
"Better Off Alone", which began as an instrumental by DJ Jurgen, had vocals by Judith Pronk, who would become a seminal part of Alice Deejay, added in later releases of the track.
See also
- A cappella, vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment
- Backing track, a pre-recorded music that singers sing along to or a karaoke without vocals
- Beautiful music
- Easy listening
- Instrumental hip hop
- Instrumental rock
- Medley
- List of rock instrumentals
- Post-rock
- Smooth jazz