What Are the Two Categories of Percussion Instruments?
Used mostly for rhythmic purposes, percussion instruments are musical instruments that create sound when struck, shaken or scraped. The material struck to produce sound in percussion instruments is generally wood or metal, but can also be a soft, tightly stretched membrane (drums). Percussion instruments are divided into several categories, depending on the tune and pitch of the sound created.
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Tuned
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When a percussion instrument creates a specific note, it belongs to the tuned category. This category includes instruments such as marimba and the xylophone that are struck with mallets to produce musical notes. More specifically, these percussion instruments fall into the tuned idiophone category. When struck, with a mallet for example, tuned idiophone instruments vibrate to produce notes.
Untuned
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Untuned, or indefinite pitch, percussion refers to the category of instruments that vibrate to produce many different notes. When struck, these instruments create various notes simultaneously producing an overlapping, wavy effect. Untuned percussion instruments include crash symbols, the triangle and the gong.
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Drums
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Drums are generally considered to fall into a separate category of percussion instruments, due to their unique structure. A drum consists of a bowl, or resonator, and a tightly stretched membrane. The membrane is commonly made from an animal hide that is struck with a mallet or a hand. Certain drums (timpani and kettledrums) are tuned by increasing or decreasing the tension on the hide over the bowl. Snare drums, kick drums and bongo drums are other examples of percussion instruments in this category.
Other Percussion Instruments
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One of the most common percussion instrument is the piano. The piano is considered to fall into the percussion category because it creates notes using a keyboard. Latin music uses a wide variety of percussion instruments, such as the conga, maracas and scraper, to create sound. Other creative percussion instruments are the wood block, wind machine, rattle, tambourine and sleigh bells.
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References
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