Percussion Instruments

There are many musical instruments that have been divided in accordance to the kind of role they play when they are being played and the Percussion instruments are those that are sounded by striking or by stroking keys or strings as in a series of chords, shaking or a rapid back and forth movement of an instrument to produce a rattling sound, plucking or causing the strings on an instrument to vibrate by picking on them with your fingers.

This is a common means of playing the guitar and other instruments but the violin is also considered to be an instrument which gets plucked and the harpsichord also comes under this category and scraping. Instruments like drums and bells can be considered to be percussion instruments.

Tuned Instruments

Among the tuned instruments that are called percussion instruments are the antique cymbals which are a set of two small disks of brass and which are stuck together gently to allow them to vibrate. The cymbals need to be played rhythmically in accordance with the music they are accompanying. The cymbals are considered to be pitched instruments.

The bell lyre is an instrument that is normally used in a marching band and it is held upright by a strap around the waist of the performer. This is a beautiful instrument that gives a very unique sound.

The Celeste is an organ with two pipes. This is a French version of the pipe organ and it has a very vibrant sound. This is however a pipe organ that needs to be tuned to create the right vibrations. The chimes are a set of tube shaped bells suspended from a frame, which is giving each and every tube a different pitch and which can be played with a hammer. The bells are arranged like a keyboard and there are many different sounds depending on the quality of the bells and their shapes.

The Glockenspiel is another instrument that you can play with a hammer. It is very much like the chimes, however, this is something that looks more like a piano and the keys are flat on a base. A marimba is another name for a xylophone. This is an instrument that is very common in African and Latin American music instruments and it can have a range of up to seven octaves.

The orchestra bells are also something that is very common as the piano keyboard. It is also stuck by a hammer and however, the sounds that come out of these bells are definitely lower pitched as well. The steel drums are oil drums which were originally developed in Trinidad in the 1940's. You can find these drums to be of many different kinds of sizes and in different kinds of shapes as well.

The timpani is also known as the kettledrums and they are made of hemispherical copper shells fitted with a plastic or calfskin head with is held in place with a metal ring. A mallet is used to play them and a pedal is attached to the timpani to change the tension on the head and to adjust the pitch of the timpani.

A Vibraphone is like a piano keyboard, and it is played with very soft mallets. It looks very similar to the Marimba however, it has tubes that hung under the metal bars and which rotate to open and close the tubes to create a different pattern of vibration to create different pitches. That is perhaps the reason why this instrument is called a vibraphone. A person who knows how to play a Vibraphone is capable of giving it very low vibration or medium vibration or very high vibrations thus crating many sounds out of one instrument.

The xylophone is also very much like a vibraphone, however the bars of the xylophone are made of wood and they are very small in size. This instrument however produces a very different kind of sound vibrations in comparison to other instruments.

Un-tuned Percussion

The instruments that come under this category are mainly the crash cymbals which are a matched pair of circular brass plates that are held by straps and hit together to make a very loud sound. Concert bands and symphony orchestras use these cymbals to provide a loud crash at high points in a composition and softer crashes to have a wider sound effect.

The gong is a Chinese instrument which produces a very loud sound with very rich overtones. It is a round disk of metal with is suspended on a frame and which is hit with a stick. Although a gong produces a pitch, this is considered to be a non pitched instrument.

The tom toms are drums without snares. These instruments are normally played in pairs and they are very common as accompaniments for jazz music and rock music as well. You can also find musical instruments which are easy to handle and easy to play like the Maracas, the Remo Cabasa, the triangle, the agogo bells and the jingle stick as well. All of these instruments do not need to be tuned and they are very simple to play and all you actually need to be able to handle them is for you to have some kind of rhythm to follow and they come to life in no time.

All of these instruments come with their proper accessories as well, which need to be brought separately to be able to use them accordingly. You can find accessories like brackets, racks, Trap Trays and all other kinds of stands to be able to play the instruments properly and you can also find all kinds of bags that come to make sure that you can transport your instruments around.

It is important to note that musical instruments need a great amount of care. They need to be tuned regularly, they need to be played regularly to keep them vibrant and they need to be looked after very carefully and therefore it is important to understand about their care as well.

Article by David Fletcher, online marketing manager at Drum & Strum, Nottingham.