I wonder, has barbie even played any wacky / unusual / ethnic instruments? i've seen the pianos in one of ur posts, and i'm sure she's had guitars and probably drums at some point. probably also violin. but has barbie ever played like... the double bass? the organ? the balalaika? the didgeridoo? if not, what's the most interesting instrument she's played?
(i mean dolls though, esp those that include the instrument as a physical prop. not any instruments she might've played in a movies or series)
This is a super interesting question, and Barbie has had a bunch of different musical instruments. I feel like the term "ethnic" is not the most appropriate here: here's an article that summarizes better than I can why.
There are no examples of didgeridoo, and I think it's highly unlikely that there would be. If you look, there's different takes on the subject of women playing didgeridoo; some sources will tell you that it is forbidden for women to play, while others indicate that there is no prohibition on women playing informally but only men play in ceremonial contexts. I'm not Aboriginal Australian and I'm not from Arnhem Land, where the didgeridoo originates, so I won't speculate on what the most correct take is; but I think Mattel would steer clear of showing Barbie as a white woman with a didgeridoo.
But that doesn't mean there aren't a variety of musical instruments in Barbie's repertoire: in addition to pianos, keyboards, drums, guitars and (as you correctly noted) violin, Barbie has had (for example) several doll releases with a harp.
Harpist Angel and Legends of Ireland: The Bard both feature this instrument, for example.
And on the subject of angels, Angelic Harmony has some kind of brass instrument - a horn or trumpet. (It's actually kind of hard to see in the picture, though, because it blends in with the accents on her dress. Or is that just me?)
One of the Barbie Rewind dolls (Dolls Night Out) features Barbie with a pretty cool looking keytar.
And one of the Doll of the World Scotland dolls features Barbie with a set of bagpipes.
There's probably more that are just escaping me right now, and I might do another post on this subject as I start to think up more.
