Percussion

Percussion instruments are music instruments played by being struck, shaken, rubbed, or scraped, hence the "percussive" name. They are perhaps the oldest form of musical instruments, rivaled only by vocal. Percussion instruments play not only rhythm, but also melody and harmony. more...

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Music for pitched percussion instruments can be notated on a staff with the same treble and bass clefs used by many non-percussive instruments. Music for percussive instruments without a definite pitch can be notated with a specialist rhythm or percussion-clef; More often a treble clef (or sometimes a bass celf) is substituted for rhythm clef.

Classifications

Most percussion instruments have a distinct tone; even a drum can be tuned. However, a distinction is usually made based on whether the instrument can play a definite pitch or not.

The timpani, xylophone, marimba, balafon , vibraphone, bell, tubular bells (chimes in the U.S.A.), crotales, and glockenspiel all play a definite pitch. (The piano is also often considered a percussion instrument because its sound is created by a hammer striking strings.) The snare drum, bass drum, afuche, various chimes (e.g. mark tree), castanets, claves, cowbell, cymbal, doyra, flexatone, güiro, maracas, mendoza, ratchet, spoons, tambourine, temple blocks, tom-tom, timbales, triangle, vibraslap, washboard, whip, and wood block do not in general. However, some percussionists tune drum heads to specific pitches when recording albums or in preparation for specific composer requirements. Gongs and anvils can be tuned or untuned – the most familiar type of gong in the west, the chau gong (sometimes called a tam-tam), is untuned. Tuned cymbals exist but are rare. Often instruments will come in pairs (such as bongos) or larger groups (such as temple blocks); here, there will be a high-low distinction while still retaining indefinite (or unspecified) pitch.

The two major categories are membranophones, which add timbre to the sound of being struck (such as drums), and idiophones, which sound of themselves (such as the triangle). The tambourine is both membranophone and idiophone, having both a head and jingles.

Percussion can be broken down into more specific sub-categories as well, for a more specific understanding of the uses of the instruments and the styles of music in which those particular instruments are used. These are not formal distinctions, but some useful categories are: Tuned percussion, Untuned percussion, Auxiliary percussion, Latin percussion, and Drum Kit.

Drum kits are usually a combination of several or all categories, as some drum kit players (e.g. Neil Peart) use massive ensembles of snare drums, tom-toms, timpani, electronic xylophones, various pieces of auxiliary and latin percussion (cowbell racks, tambourines etc) along with enormous arrays of cymbals in all shapes, sizes and functions.

Names for percussionists

The general term for a musician who plays percussion instruments is percussionist.

Read more at Wikipedia.org