Definition of Percussion Instruments
Percussion instruments are among the earliest and most primitive forms of musical instruments. The easiest way to define a percussion instrument is that it is any instrument that makes a sound by being struck. Drums are the most obvious members of this instrument category, but it also includes bells, cymbals, xylophones and castanets. The style of percussion instruments varies across cultures although sometimes they are strikingly similar, with the Native American shaman's drum and the Irish bodhran being examples of similar concepts.
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Sound Production
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Striking a percussion instrument produces a sound in different ways. For example, the drums used in jazz, rock and classical music have hollow bodies with a skin stretched tightly across the top. The skin is struck with a drumstick and, because the drum is hollow, the sound of the stick on the skin is amplified. Other percussion instruments work by being shaken, as with maracas, or by being banged together, as with cymbals or castanets. Bells resonate when they are struck.
Drums
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Most styles of drums do'´t play notes as such. The Jamaican steel drums are one exception to this as they can produce tunes although several drums and drummers are needed to do this. Even though other drums don't produce notes, they create different types of sounds; for example, a snare drum and bass drum create quite different effects. Drum sounds can be altered by tightening or loosening a drum skin; the tighter the skin, the higher the sound. Drums also have a pitch; the larger the drum, the lower the pitch, which is why the bass drum is the biggest one in a drum kit.
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Cymbals
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Cymblas are disc-shaped, metal instruments used in a variety of genres, including rock, jazz and classical. In brass bands players have two cymbals, one for each hand, that they crash together to create sound. In drum kits cymbals are mounted on sticks and are either a single cymbal, called a crash or a ride, which are played with a drum stick or brush, or a pair of cymbals, operated by a pedal, called the hi-hat.
Xylophone
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The xylophone originates in Africa and Asia. It is not as widely played as drums or cymbals in Western music, but it is a popular instrument in school music departments, probably due to its compact size and its usefulness for teaching scales and simple tunes. The instrument has wood, or metal, keys suspended over a series of metal tubes called resonators. A hammer is used to strike the keys, and the varying lengths of the keys produce different notes, equivalent to between two to four octaves on a piano.
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References
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