Orchestra - Percussion
Strikers
- Mallets - Used for keyboard instruments
- Sticks - Used for all drums
- Beaters - Used for other instruments, such as the Tam-Tam and Gongs
Types
There are several ways to categorize this large collection of instruments. They are first divided into two groups:
- Instruments of Definite Pitch
- Instruments of Indefinite Pitch
Then we will separate insrtuments in each of these two groups by the way they produce sound:
| Idiophones | Produce their sound by the vibration of their whole body. |
|---|---|
| Membranophones | Produce their sound by the vibration of a skin or membrane tightly stretched and fastened over a resonating shell or tube. |
| Chordophones | Produce their sound through the vibration of their strings. |
| Aerophones | Produce their sound through the vibration of an air column within an enclosed body. |
Idiophone Pitched
Xylophone
The xylophone (from the Ancient Greek words for wood and sound, literally meaning "sound of wood") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use.
The term xylophone may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term xylophone refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused.
Marimba
The marimba is a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars struck with yarn wrapped or rubber mallets to produce musical tones. Resonators or pipes are suspended underneath the bars to amplify the sound of the wooden bars. The bars of a chromatic marimba are arranged like the keys of a piano, with the groups of two and three accidentals raised vertically, overlapping the natural bars to aid the performer both visually and physically. This instrument is a type of idiophone, but with a more resonant and lower-pitched tessitura than the xylophone.
Modern uses of the marimba include solo performances, woodwind and brass ensembles, marimba concertos, jazz ensembles, marching band (front ensembles), drum and bugle corps, indoor percussion ensembles, and orchestral compositions.
Vibraphone
The vibraphone is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is usually played by holding two or four soft mallets and striking the bars.
The vibraphone resembles the marimbaphone and steel marimba, which it superseded. One of the main differences between the vibraphone and other keyboard percussion instruments is that each bar suspends over a resonator tube with a motor-driven butterfly valve at the top. The valves connect together on a common axle, which produces a tremolo or vibrato effect while the motor rotates the axle. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to a piano. With the pedal up, the bars produce a muted sound. With the pedal down, the bars sustain for several seconds, or until muted with the pedal.
The vibraphone is commonly used in jazz music, in which it often plays a featured role and was a defining element of the sound of mid-20th-century "Tiki lounge" exotica, as popularized by Arthur Lyman. It is the second most popular solo keyboard percussion instrument in classical music, after the marimba, and it is part of the standard college-level percussion performance education. It is a standard instrument in the modern percussion section for orchestras, concert bands, and marching bands (as part of the front ensemble).
Glockenspiel
The glockenspiel is a percussion instrument. It consists of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone.
The glockenspiel is played by striking the bars with mallets, often made of a hard material such as metal or plastic. Its clear, high-pitched tone is often heard in orchestras, wind ensembles, marching bands, and in popular music.
In German, a carillon is also called a glockenspiel, while in French, the glockenspiel is often called a carillon. In Italian, the term campanelli is often used to refer to the glockenspiel.
Chimes / Tubular Bells
Chimes also known as Tubular bells are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within an ensemble. Each bell is a metal tube tuned by altering its length. Its standard range is C4 to F5, though many professional instruments reach G5. Tubular bells are often replaced by studio chimes, which are a smaller and usually less expensive instrument. Studio chimes are similar in appearance to tubular bells, but each bell has a smaller diameter than the corresponding bell on tubular bells.
Tubular bells are sometimes struck on the top edge of the tube with a rawhide- or plastic-headed hammer. Often, a sustain pedal will be attached to allow extended ringing of the bells. They can also be bowed at the bottom of the tube to produce a very loud, very high-pitched overtone. The tubes used provide a purer tone than solid cylindrical chimes, such as those on a mark tree. Chimes are often found in orchestral and concert band repertoire. It rarely plays melody, instead being used most often as a color to add to the ensemble sound. It does have solos occasionally, often depicting church bells.
Crotales
Crotales, sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, tuned bronze or brass disks. Each is about 10 cm (4 in) in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base. They are commonly played by being struck with hard mallets. However, they may also be played by striking two disks together in the same manner as finger cymbals, or by bowing. Their sound is rather like a small tuned bell, only with a much brighter sound and a much longer resonance. Similar to tuned finger cymbals, crotales are thicker and larger; they also have slight grooves in them. The name comes from the Greek crotalon, for a castanet or rattle.
Modern crotales are arranged chromatically and have a range of up to two octaves. They are typically available in sets (commonly one octave) but may also be purchased individually. Crotales are treated as transposing instruments; music for crotales is written two octaves lower than the sounding pitch to minimize ledger lines.
Steelpan aka Steel Drums
The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating from Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.
The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums. Drum refers to the steel drum containers from which the pans are made; the steel drum is more correctly called a steel pan or pan as it falls into the idiophone family of instruments, and so is not a drum (which is a membranophone). Some steelpans are made to play in the Pythagorean musical cycle of fourths and fifths.
Pan is played using a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber; the size and type of rubber tip varies according to the class of pan being played. Some musicians use four pansticks, holding two in each hand. This grew out of Trinidad and Tobago's early 20th-century Carnival percussion groups known as tamboo bamboo. Pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago and also appeared as the final logo of their former national airline, BWIA and on the tails of their aircraft.
Membranophone Pitched
Timpani
Timpani or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. Thus timpani are an example of kettle drums, also known as vessel drums and semispherical drums, whose body is similar to a section of a sphere whose cut conforms the head. Most modern timpani are pedal timpani and can be tuned quickly and accurately to specific pitches by skilled players through the use of a movable foot-pedal. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet. Timpani evolved from military drums to become a staple of the classical orchestra by the last third of the 18th century. Today, they are used in many types of ensembles, including concert bands, marching bands, orchestras, and even in some rock bands.
Timpani is an Italian plural, the singular of which is timpano. However, in English the term timpano is only widely in use by practitioners: several are more typically referred to collectively as kettledrums, timpani, temple drums, or timps. They are also often incorrectly termed timpanis.
Roto Toms
The Rototom is a drum developed by Al Payson, Robert Grass, and Michael Colgrass that has no shell and is tuned by rotating. A rototom consists of a single head in a die-cast zinc or aluminum frame. Unlike most other drums, this type has a variable definite pitch. Composers are known to write for them as tuned instruments, demanding specific pitches. Rototoms are often used to extend the tom range of a standard drum kit. They were commercialized by the drumhead company Remo Inc., of North Hollywood, California.
Rototoms can be tuned quickly by rotating the drumhead, which sits in a threaded metal ring. Rotation raises or lowers the tension hoop relative to the rim, which increases or decreases the pitch of the drum by increasing or decreasing the tension of the drumhead.
Sizes
Remo currently markets Rototoms in seven sizes — 6" (15.2 cm), 8" (20.3 cm), 10" (25.4 cm), 12" (30.5 cm), 14" (35.6 cm), 16" (40.6 cm) and 18" (45.7 cm) diameters, each tunable over an octave's range or more, although the company notes that “the practical range for fullness of sound is approximately a sixth interval.” Each size can produce various effects, depending upon the drum head and its tuning.
Chordophone Pitched
Cimbalom
The Cimbalom or Concert Cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a dampening pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in Budapest, based on his modifications to the existing Hammered dulcimer instruments which were already present in Central and Eastern Europe.
Today the instrument is mainly played in Hungary, Slovakia, Moravia, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The cimbalom is typically played by striking two sticks, often with cotton-wound tips, against the strings which are on the top of the instrument. The steel treble strings are arranged in groups of 4 and are tuned in unison. The bass strings which are over-spun with copper, are arranged in groups of 3 and are also tuned in unison.
Aerophone Pitched
Whistles
A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a large multi-piped church organ.
Whistles have been around since early humans first carved out a gourd or branch and found they could make sound with it. In prehistoric Egypt, small shells were used as whistles. Many present day wind instruments are inheritors of these early whistles. With the rise of more mechanical power, other forms of whistles have been developed.
One characteristic of a whistle is that it creates a pure, or nearly pure, tone.
Idiophone Indefinite Pitch
Cymbals
A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a definite note (such as crotales). Cymbals are used in many ensembles ranging from the orchestra, percussion ensembles, jazz bands, heavy metal bands, and marching groups. Drum kits usually incorporate at least a crash, ride, or crash/ride, and a pair of hi-hat cymbals.
Crash or Clash Cymbals
Crash Cymbals in an orchestra are most often hand held cymbals that a musician strikes together to create sound. They can be clashed together forte and then held high over the player’s head. If the stroke is fast, they can be clashed and immediately damped against the player’s chest. One cymbal can be swished across the other to give a hissing effect. A roll can be created by rubbing the plates together with a fast rotary motion.
A crash cymbal is a type of cymbal that produces a loud, sharp "crash" and is used mainly for occasional accents, as opposed to a ride cymbal. It can be mounted on a stand and played with a drum stick, or by hand in pairs. One or two crash cymbals are a standard part of a drum kit. Suspended crash cymbals are also used in bands and orchestras, either played with a drumstick or rolled with a pair of mallets to produce a slower, swelling crash. Sometimes a drummer may hit two different crash cymbals in a kit at the same time to produce a very loud accent, usually in rock music.
Although crash cymbals range in thickness from paper-thin to very heavy, all crash cymbals have a fairly thin edge. They are typically 14 to 18 inches (36 to 46 cm) in diameter, but sizes down to 8 inches (20 cm) and up to 24 inches (61 cm) are manufactured. Custom crash cymbals up to 28 inches (71 cm) in diameter have been used by big bands. Different thicknesses are used for different kinds of music, and the alloy for each manufacturer's models varies. A thick cymbal is likely to be used by a metal or rock band, while thinner cymbals are generally used in lighter rock. Darker crashes are best used for jazz.
The sound of a crash is changed by its luster. A cleaner cymbal creates a crisper sound, whereas a cymbal showing signs of oxidation (called a 'raw' cymbal) creates a duller sound.
Ride Cymbal
The ride cymbal has an edge, a bow and in the center, a bell. Striking these specific areas each create a different sound.
The ride cymbal is a standard cymbal in most drum kits. It maintains a steady rhythmic pattern, sometimes called a ride pattern, rather than the accent of a crash. It is normally placed on the extreme right (or dominant hand) of a drum set, above the floor tom. The ride can fulfill any function or rhythm the hi-hat does, with the exception of an open and closed sound. The ride is played with a drumstick. Hitting the ride cymbal on its edge verses on the bow or bell can create a very different sound.
When struck, a ride cymbal makes a sustained, shimmering sound rather than the shorter, decaying sound of a crash cymbal. The most common diameter for a ride cymbal is about 20 inches (51 cm), but anything from 18 inches (46 cm) to 22 inches (56 cm) is standard. Smaller and thinner cymbals tend to be darker with more shimmer, while larger and thicker cymbals tend to respond better in louder volume situations, and conversely. Rides of up to 26 inches (66 cm) and down to 16 inches (41 cm) are readily available, and down to 8 inches (20 cm) are currently manufactured. The very thickest and loudest tend to be about 22 inches, with larger rides restricted to medium and medium thin thicknesses.
Hi-Hat Cymbals
The hi-hat cymbals consist of two cymbals facing each other, mounted vertically on a metal rod and crashed together by a foot pedal.
A hi-hat is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist of a matching pair of small to medium-sized cymbals mounted on a stand, with the two cymbals facing each other. The bottom cymbal is fixed and the top is mounted on a rod which moves the top cymbal toward the bottom one when the pedal is depressed (a hi-hat that is in this position is said to be "closed" or "closed hi-hats").
The hi-hat evolved from a "sock cymbal", a pair of similar cymbals mounted at ground level on a hinged, spring-loaded foot apparatus. Drummers invented the first sock cymbals to enable one drummer to play multiple percussion instruments at the same time. Over time these became mounted on short stands— also known as "low-boys"—and activated by pedals similar to those used in modern hi-hats. When extended upward roughly 3' (76 cm) they were originally known as "high sock" cymbals, which evolved over time to the familiar "high-hat" term.
The cymbals may be played by closing them together with the pedal, which creates a "chck" sound or striking them with a stick, which may be done with them open, closed, open and then closed after striking to dampen the ring, or closed and then opened to create a shimmering effect at the end of the note. Depending on how hard a hi-hat is struck and whether it is "open" (i.e., pedal not pressed, so the two cymbals are not closed together), a hi-hat can produce a range of dynamics, from very quiet "chck" (or "chick") sounds, done with merely gently pressing the pedal; this is suitable for soft accompaniment during a ballad or the start of a guitar solo, to very loud (e.g. striking fully open hats hard with sticks, a technique used in loud heavy metal music songs).
While the term hi-hat normally refers to the entire setup (two cymbals, stand, pedal, rod mechanism), in some cases, drummers use it to refer exclusively to the two cymbals themselves.
Triangle
The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals such as beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve. While the triangle theoretically has a definite pitch, it is obscured by the overtones that are produced when struck.
Cowbell
The cowbell is an idiophone hand percussion instrument used in various styles of music, such as Latin and rock. It is named after the similar bell used by herdsmen to keep track of the whereabouts of cows.
Tam-Tam & other Gongs
Gongs can be divided into high, medium and low sounding instruments. A gong is a percussion instrument originating in East and Southeast Asia. Gongs are a flat, circular metal disc that is typically struck with a mallet. They can be small or large in size, and tuned or untuned. Gongs broadly fall into one of three types: Suspended gongs are more or less flat, circular discs of metal suspended vertically by means of a cord passed through holes near to the top rim. Bossed or nipple gongs have a raised centre boss, or knob, and are often suspended and played horizontally. Bowl gongs are bowl-shaped and rest on cushions. The latter may be considered a member of the bell category. Gongs are made mainly from bronze or brass but there are many other alloys in use.
Wind Chimes
Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells, or other objects that are often made of metal or wood.
Chimes produce inharmonic (as opposed to harmonic) spectra, although if they are hung at about 2/9 of their length (22.4%), some of the higher partials are damped and the fundamental rings the loudest. This is common practice in high-quality wind chimes, which are also usually hung so the centre ball strikes the centre of the wind chime's length, also resulting in the loudest sounding fundamental. Frequency is determined by the length, width, thickness, and material. There are formulas that help predict the proper length to achieve a particular note, though a bit of fine tuning is often needed.
Most chimes employ pentatonic or tetratonic scales as the basis for the pitches of their individual chimes as opposed to the traditional western heptatonic scale. This is largely due to the fact that these scales inherently contain fewer dissonant intervals, and therefore sound more pleasant to the average listener when notes are struck at random.
There are three kinds of wind chimes.
- Bamboo Wind Chimes
- Glass Wind Chimes
- Metal Wind Chimes
Wood Blocks
A wood block (also spelled as a single word, woodblock) is a small slit drum made from a single piece of wood. The term generally signifies the Western orchestral instrument, though it is descended from the Chinese woodblock. Alternative names sometimes used in ragtime and jazz are clog box and tap box. In orchestral music scores, wood blocks may be indicated by the French bloc de bois or tambour de bois, German Holzblock or Holzblocktrommel, or Italian cassa di legno.
The orchestral wood block of the West is generally made from teak or another hardwood. The dimensions of this instrument vary, although it is either a rectangular or cylindrical block of wood with one or sometimes two longitudinal cavities. It is played by striking it with a stick, which produces a sharp crack. Alternatively, a rounder mallet, soft or hard, may be used, which produces a deeper-pitched and fuller "knocking" sound.
On a drum kit, a wood block is traditionally mounted on a clamp fixed to the top of the rear rim of the bass drum.
Claves
Claves are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters long and about 2.5 centimeters in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebony or grenadilla) many modern manufacturers offer claves made of fiberglass or plastic.
When struck, claves produce a bright, penetrating clicking noise. This makes them useful when playing in large dance bands. Claves are sometimes hollow and carved in the middle to amplify the sound.
The basic principle when playing claves is to allow at least one of them to resonate. The usual technique is to hold one lightly with the thumb and fingertips of the non-dominant hand, with the palm up. This forms the hand into a resonating chamber for the clave. Holding the clave on top of fingernails makes the sound clearer. The other is held by the dominant hand at one end with a firmer grip, much like how one normally holds a drumstick. With the end of this clave, the player strikes the resting clave in the center.
A roll can be achieved on the claves by holding one clave between the thumb and first two fingers, and then alternating pressure between the two fingers to move the clave back and forth. This clave is then placed against the resonating clave to produce a roll.
Castanets
Castanets, also known as clackers or palillos, are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a similar instrument called crotalum. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string. They are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or a ripping or rattling sound consisting of a rapid series of clicks. They are traditionally made of hardwood although fibreglass is becoming increasingly popular.
In practice, a player usually uses two pairs of castanets. One pair is held in each hand, with the string hooked over the thumb and the castanets resting on the palm with the fingers bent over to support the other side. Each pair will make a sound of a slightly different pitch.
Maracas
A maraca, sometimes called rumba shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Modern maraca balls are also made of leather, wood or plastic.
Shakers
The word shaker describes various percussive musical instruments used for creating rhythm in music.
They are called shakers because the method of creating the sound involves shaking them, moving them back and forth in the air rather than striking them. Most may also be struck for a greater accent on certain beats. Shakers are often used in rock and other popular styles to provide the ride pattern along with or substituting for the ride cymbal.
Types Of Shaker
A shaker may comprise a container, partially full of small loose objects such as beans, which create the percussive sounds as they collide with each other, the inside surface, or other fixed objects inside the container - as in a rainstick, caxixi or egg shaker.
Vibraslap
The vibraslap is a percussion instrument consisting of a piece of stiff wire (bent into a U-shape) connecting a wooden ball to a hollow box of wood with metal "teeth" inside. The percussionist holds the metal wire in one hand and strikes the ball (usually against the palm of their other hand). The box acts as a resonating body for a metal mechanism placed inside with a number of loosely fastened pins or rivets that vibrate and rattle against the box. The instrument is a modern version of the jawbone.
Güiro
The güiro is a Latin American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet sound.
The güiro is commonly used in Puerto Rican, Cuban and other forms of Latin American music, and plays a key role in the typical rhythm section of important genres like son, trova and salsa. Playing the güiro usually requires both long and short sounds, made by scraping up and down in long or short strokes.
The güiro, like the maracas, is often played by a singer. It is closely related to the Cuban guayo, Dominican güira, and Haitian graj which are made of metal. Other instruments similar to the güiro are the Colombian guacharaca, the Brazilian reco-reco, the quijada (cow jawbone) and the frottoir (French) or fwotwa (French Creole) (washboard).
Cabasa
The cabasa, similar to the shekere, is a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wide cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, narrow wooden or plastic handle.
The metal cabasa was created by Martin Cohen, founder of Latin Percussion. This company has built a more durable cabasa that they call an afuche-cabasa (pictured). It provides a metallic, rattling sound when shaken or twisted, similar to the sound of a rattlesnake. It is often used in Latin jazz, especially in bossa nova pieces. Precise rhythmic effects can be gained by the advanced player. The player places his non-dominant hand on the metal chain, to provide pressure, while holding the wooden handle with the other hand and twisting the instrument back and forth depending on the rhythmic pattern desired. In addition to Latin music, many band and orchestra pieces call for the cabasa.
The African original version of the cabasa is called agbe, and is constructed from dried oval or pear shaped gourds with beads strung on the outer surface. There are many versions of this instrument, particularly in Latin music. Cabaça is used in Latin American dance. The cabaça is a natural or synthetic round or pear-shaped gourd covered with a network of beads and finishing in a single handle. This is compared to the metal version used in Latin jazz. Modern adaptations of this instrument include Meinl Percussion foot pedal.
Membranophone Indefinite Pitch
Snare Drum
The snare drum or side drum is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, parades, drumlines, drum corps, and more. It is one of the central pieces in a drum set, a collection of percussion instruments designed to be played by a seated drummer and used in many genres of music.
Snare drums are usually played with drum sticks, but other beaters such as the brush or the rute can be used to achieve different tones. The snare drum is a versatile and expressive percussion instrument due to its sensitivity and responsiveness. The sensitivity of the snare drum allows it to respond audibly to the softest strokes, even with a wire brush; as well, it can be used for complex rhythmic patterns and engaging solos at moderate volumes. Its high dynamic range allows the player to produce powerful accents with vigorous strokes and a thundering crack when rimshot strokes are used.
The snare drum originates from the tabor, a drum first used to accompany the flute. The tabor evolved into more modern versions, such as the kit snare, marching snare, tarol snare, and piccolo snare. Each type presents a different style of percussion and size. The snare drum that one might see in a popular music concert is usually used in a backbeat style to create rhythm. In marching bands, it can do the same but is used mostly for a front beat.[citation needed] In comparison with the marching snare, the kit snare is generally smaller in length, while the piccolo is the smallest of the three. The snare drum is easily recognizable by its loud cracking sound when struck firmly with a drumstick or mallet. The depth of the sound varies from snare to snare because of the different techniques and construction qualities of the drum. Some of these qualities are head material and tension, dimensions, and rim and drum shell materials and construction.
The snare drum is constructed of two heads—both usually made of Mylar plastic in modern drums but historically made from calf or goat skin—along with a rattle of metal, plastic, nylon, or gut wires on the bottom head called the snares. The wires can also be placed on the top, as in the tarol snare, or both heads as in the case of the Highland snare drum. The top head is typically called the batter head because that is where the drummer strikes it, while the bottom head is called the snare head because that is where the snares are located. The tension of each head is held constant by tension rods or ropes. Tension rod adjustment allows the pitch and tonal character of the drum to be customized by the player. The strainer is a lever that engages or disengages contact between the snares and the head, and allows snare tension adjustment. If the strainer is disengaged, the sound of the drum resembles a tom because the snares are inactive. The rim is the metal or wooden ring around the batter head that holds the head onto the drum and provides tension to the head, which can be used for a variety of things, although it is notably used to sound a piercing rimshot with the drumstick when the head and rim are struck together with a single stick.
Tenor Drum
The Tenor Drum is found most frequently in both bands and orchestras. It has a deep, resonant sound. It shares the same basic techniques as the snare drum, although it has no snares. Wooden sticks serve as beaters, though Timpani mallets and Marimba mallets can also be used effectively. Many of these drums have a head on the bottom as well as the top.
Bass Drum
The bass drum, or kick drum, is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The heads may be made of calfskin or plastic and there is normally a means of adjusting the tension either by threaded taps or by strings. Bass drums are built in a variety of sizes, but size does not dictate the volume produced by the drum. The pitch and the sound can vary much with different sizes, but the size is also chosen based on convenience and aesthetics. Bass drums are percussion instruments and vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished.
The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum. It is the largest drum of the orchestra.
The kick drum, a term for a bass drum associated with a drum kit, which is much smaller than the above mentioned bass drum. It is struck with a beater attached to a pedal, usually seen on drum kits.
The pitched bass drum, generally used in marching bands and drum corps, is tuned to a specific pitch and is usually played in a set of three to six drums.
In many forms of music, the bass drum is used to mark or keep time. The bass drum makes a low, boom sound when the mallet hits the drumhead. In marches, it is used to project tempo (marching bands historically march to the beat of the bass). A basic beat for rock and roll has the bass drum played on the first and third beats of bars in common time, with the snare drum on the second and fourth beats, called backbeats. In jazz, the bass drum can vary from almost entirely being a timekeeping medium to being a melodic voice in conjunction with the other parts of the set.
Tom-Toms
A tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snares, named from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala language. It was added to the drum kit in the early part of the 20th century. Most toms range in size between 6 and 20 inches in diameter, though floor toms can go as large as 24 inches. It is not to be confused with a tam tam, a gong. The Tom is popular and used by players worldwide.
Timbales
Timbales or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size. They were developed as an alternative to classical timpani in Cuba in the early 20th century and later spread across Latin America and the United States.
Timbales are struck with wooden sticks on the heads and shells, although bare hands are sometimes used. The player (called a timbalero) uses a variety of stick strokes, rim shots, and rolls to produce a wide range of percussive expression during solos and at transitional sections of music, and usually plays the shells (or auxiliary percussion such as a cowbell or cymbal) to keep time in other parts of the song. The shells and the typical pattern played on them are referred to as cáscara. Common stroke patterns include abanico, baqueteo (from danzón), mambo and chachachá.
Timbales have average diameters of 13 inches (macho drum) and 14 inches (hembra drum). Originally made of calfskin, the heads are most commonly made of plastic for increased volume and durability and mounted on a steel rim. The shells are usually made of metal, although wooden shells are also available. In general, the drums are mounted on a stand and played while standing. Smaller timbales called timbalitos are often incorporated into larger drum kits.
Bongos
Bongos are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands, most commonly in an eight-stroke pattern called martillo (hammer). They are mainly employed in the rhythm section of son cubano and salsa ensembles, often alongside other drums such as the larger congas and the stick-struck timbales.
Bongo drummers (bongoseros) emerged as the only drummers of son cubano ensembles in eastern Cuba toward the end of the 19th century. The instrument remained important as son groups evolved into larger conjuntos and orchestras in Havana in the 1940s, at which point they began to share the stage with congas. Bongos later reached the United States, where they are commonly played in salsa, Afro-Cuban jazz, Latin rock and other genres.
Bongo drums are about 8 inches high and have diameters of approximately 8 inches and 10 inches (the smaller drum is called macho, male, and the larger drum, hembra, female). They are the smallest drums in Latin percussion, some models being only 6 inches in diameter. The shells of the drums and the bridge (the small block that joins them) are usually made of wood, although fiberglass is also common. The heads are typically made of calfskin and attached to the shells via steel hardware that enables their tuning. Originally, metal tacks were used, so tuning had to be done by heating the skins.
Conga
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). Congas were originally used in Afro-Cuban music genres such as conga (hence their name) and rumba, where each drummer would play a single drum. Following numerous innovations in conga drumming and construction during the mid-20th century, as well as its internationalization, it became increasingly common for drummers to play two or three drums. Congas have become a popular instrument in many forms of Latin music such as son (when played by conjuntos), descarga, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, songo, merengue and Latin rock.
Although the exact origins of the conga drum are unknown, researchers agree that it was developed by Cuban people of African descent during the late 19th century or early 20th century. Its direct ancestors are thought to be the yuka and makuta (of Bantu origin) and the bembé drums (of Yoruba origin). In Cuba and Latin America, congas are primarily played as hand drums. In Trinidadian calypso and soca, congas are sometimes struck with mallets, while in the Congos, they are often struck with one hand and one mallet.
Tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head. Tambourines are often used with regular percussion sets. They can be mounted, for example on a stand as part of a drum kit (and played with drum sticks), or they can be held in the hand and played by tapping or hitting the instrument.
Tambourines come in many shapes with the most common being circular. It is found in many forms of music: Turkish folk music, Greek folk music, Italian folk music, French folk music, classical music, Persian music, samba, gospel music, pop music, country music, and rock music.
Quica
The cuíca is a Brazilian friction drum with a large pitch range, produced by changing tension on the head of the drum. Cuíca is Portuguese for the gray four-eyed opossum (Philander opossum) which is known for its high-pitched cry. It is frequently used in carnivals, as well as often in samba music. The tone it produces has a high-pitched squeaky timbre. It has been called a 'laughing gourd' due to this sound. Many also liken its sound to that of a monkey.