Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is a type of musical instrument, which is played by striking, hitting, shaking, and so on.
Description
Percussion instruments are sounded:
- By being struck or scraped by a beater (including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles)
- Struck, scraped or rubbed by hand
- Struck against another similar instrument
The percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, following the human voice.
Orchestra
The percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle and tambourine.
However, the section can also contain non-percussive instruments, such as whistles and sirens, or a blown conch shell.
On the other hand, keyboard instruments, such as the celesta, are not normally part of the percussion section, but keyboard percussion instruments such as the glockenspiel and xylophone (which do not have piano keyboards) are included.
Pitched and unpitched
Percussion instruments are most commonly divided into two classes:
- Pitched percussion instruments, which produce notes with an identifiable pitch
- Unpitched percussion instruments, which produce notes or sounds without an identifiable pitch.
See also
External links
- Percussion instrument @ Wikipedia
