Percussion

When we talk about musical instruments, we often talk about them as being part of a family. That's because, just like in human families, the instruments in a particular family are related to each other. They are often made of the same types of materials, usually look similar to one another, and produce sound in comparable ways. Some are larger and some are smaller, just as parents are bigger than children. [|Percussion instrument]s include any instrument that makes a sound when it is hit, shaken, or scraped In the percussion family, we have different ways of organizing instruments. One way is to divide them into groups that play specific notes (__pitched percussion__). These instruments are tuned and can sound different notes, like the xylophone, timpani or piano. Some percussion instruments are untuned (__non-pitched percussion__) with no definite pitch like the bass drum, cymbals or castanets. Percussion instruments keep the rhythm, make special sounds and add excitement and color. Unlike most of the other players in the orchestra or band, a percussionist will usually play many different instruments in one piece of music.

[|Check out this link to see and hear some percussion instruments]. Can you tell which are pitched and which are non-pitched?

There are many different kinds of percussion ensembles. Below you will find a few videos to introduce you to some ways that percussions instruments can be used.

Video 1: A pitched percussion ensemble

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Video 2: An unusual percussion ensemble using kitchen instruments.

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