linguistic:voice_change, structural:reformatting
Musical instruments

Conch shells can be used as wind instruments. They are prepared by cutting a hole in the spire of the shell near the apex and then blowing into the shell as if it were a trumpet, as a blowing horn. Sometimes a mouthpiece is used, but some shell trumpets are blown without one. Pitch is adjusted by moving one's hand in and out of the aperture; the deeper the hand, the lower the note.

Various species of large marine gastropod shells can be turned into blowing shells, but some of the best-known species used are the sacred chank or shankha Turbinella pyrum, the Triton's trumpet Charonia tritonis, and the queen conch Strombus gigas.

One of the most famous musical instruments was found in the Marsoulas cave in the Pyrenees Mountains, in France, in 1932. CT scans showed how ancient humans adapted the Concho to make it a musical instrument, such as creating a mouthpiece that was held together by an organic matter like clay or wax. Researchers from the Sorbonne, together with a professional horn player, were able to use it again as a musical instrument and play it.

Examples of this practice in the Americas can be seen in the form of historical artifacts at the Museo Larco in Lima, Peru, and Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, Mexico.