Henrik Norbeck

The most common instrument in Swedish music is the fiddle (fiol). In fact it is so common that many people translate spelman as fiddle player. Many people also play different kinds of accordeon (dragspel). Quite a few people play the clarinet.
An instrument which is unique to Sweden is the nyckelharpa (key fiddle), which is like a hurdy-gurdy played with a bow instead of a wheel. It has had a great upswing during the last few decades. The The American Nyckelharpa Association has a page about the history of the nyckelharpa. There are also a number of Swedish pages about the nyckelharpa.
Nowadays many people play the recorder (blockflojt), but there is also a traditional type of whistle called spelpipa or spil?pipa. It is not too uncommon to hear someone playing the flute either. Originally, people used to play simple system flutes, but for some reason this tradition died out at the beginning of the century. Nowadays most flute players use Boehm system flutes. A very special kind of flute is the salgflojt (overblown flute). The Swedish bagpipe is a single-reed bagpipe.

Fiddle playing and tunings
The bowing is very important in Swedish fiddle-playing. This is what makes the rhythm come out right. I don't play the fiddle myself, so I can't really explain how it's done.
It's quite common to retune the strings of the fiddle (scordatura). The standard tuning G-D-A-E is very common, and the most common retuning is A-D-A-E, which is called A-bas. In some parts of Sweden (especially in the west) this tuning is so common that it is called standard tuning. Another common tuning is A-E-A-E, which is suitable for tunes in A.
A very special retuning is A-E-A-C#, which is called nackastamning or trollstamning. These tunes are associated with the devil (fan or hin onde) or with fairy-tale creatures such as trolls (a bit like ogres or goblins) and nacken, and often use special effects, such as left-hand pizzicato.

Accordeons
The most common kind of accordeon is probably the five-row button accordeon (femradigt dragspel), which has the same note on push and pull. Piano accordeons (pianodragspel) are also common.
Accordeons (or melodeons) with different notes on push and pull are called durspel. The most common kinds are two-row (tvaradigt) and one-row (enradigt) accordeons.

Nacken
Many fiddlers of old were said to have learnt their music from nacken. Nacken is a water spirit, who lives in streams, and plays the fiddle. Aspiring fiddle players can learn to play from him so that no-one can stop dancing.