Instrument technologies, from the earliest bone flutes and log drums to the latest electronic and AI driven tools for making musical sounds, can be explored and discussed from a range of research perspectives. Perhaps the two most important of these are the logistical, economic, cultural and ecological factors that affect the instrumental choices available to practitioners and the ways in which material, physiological and cultural factors and features of those instruments affect what practitioners do with them. This research problem calls upon researchers to propose more specific sub-questions and projects that explore this larger question in more detail.