How a Triangle Is Made

Series Summary

The triangle is an idiophone type of percussion music instrument. It consists of a bar of metal, primarily steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape. On the triangle instrument, one of the angles is left open and the ends of the bar don't quite touch. This causes the instrument to have an undetermined pitch. A triangle is either suspended from one of the other corners by a piece of thin wire or gut, leaving it free to vibrate or hooked over the hand. It is usually struck with a metal rod or beater, giving off a high-pitched ringing tone. A triangle is usually a part of a larger drum or percussion set and played as an accent, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. In this free video series, our expert will show you how to play a triangle to get the best and clearest tones possible. Besides learning how a triangle is made, you'll learn how to properly hold a triangle, as well as some alternate techniques. You'll learn how to make sounds, how to roll or trill, how to mute a triangle, and how to play long and short notes. Everything you need to know to incorporate the triangle into your percussion or a musical piece is included in these video lessons. Watch and learn!

Video Transcript

"Im gonna talk to you today about the triangle. Now the triangle is, alot of people dont know this but its named after a very popular geometric shape called the triangle and all this is, is a steel rod that's been bent twice to form that three sided shape we call the triangle and it's always open on one end because in order for the sound to resonate it's got to be open otherwise you'd get a real muted, mufilled sound. And there's basically three parts to the triangle as an instrument theres the triangle itself, there's the holder which what I have is a wooden bead that's been run through with a nylon cord to hold the triangle up. And the third part the hammer or the striker or the beater or the metal stick that you hit it with. Whatever term you want to use for that those are the three parts. Holding the triangle the triangle itself which is gonna produce the tone and the hammer that helps you with that."