kinds of musical instrument

Percussion instrument

percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater; struck, scraped or rubbed by hand; or struck against another similar instrument. The percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, following the human voice.

The percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle and tambourine. However, the section can also contain non-percussive instruments, such as whistles and sirens, or a blown conch shell. On the other hand, keyboard instruments, such as the celesta, are not normally part of the percussion section, but keyboard percussion instruments such as the glockenspiel and xylophone (which do not have piano keyboards) are included.

Percussion instruments are most commonly divided into two classes:

1. Pitched percussion instruments, which produce notes with an identifiable pitch,

2. Unpitched percussion instruments, which produce notes without an identifiable pitch.

Classification
Hornbostel-Sachs has no high-level section for percussion. Most percussion instruments are classified as idiophones and membranophones. However the term percussion is instead used at lower-levels of the Hornbostel-Sachs hierarchy, including to identify instruments struck with either a non-sonorous object (hand, stick, striker) or against a non-sonorous object (human body, the ground) - as opposed to concussion which refers to instruments in which two or more complementary sonorous parts are struck against each other - and for other purposes, for example:

1. Concussion idiophones or clappers, played in pairs and beaten against each other, such as zills and clapsticks.

2. Percussion idiophones, includes many percussion instruments played with the hand or by a percussion mallet, such as the hang, gongs and the xylophone, but not drums and only some cymbals.

3. Struck drums, includes most types of drum, such as the timpani, snare drum, and tom-tom.

4. Percussion reeds, a class of wind instrument unrelated to percussion in the more common sense.

There are many instruments that have some claim to being percussion, but are classified otherwise:

· Keyboard instruments such as the celesta and piano.

· Stringed instruments played with beaters such as the hammered dulcimer.

· Unpitched whistles and similar instruments, such as the pea whistle and Acme siren.

The word "percussion" has evolved from Latin terms: "percussio" which translates as "to beat, strike" in the musical sense, rather than the violent action, and "percussus" (which is a noun meaning "a beating"). As a noun in contemporary English it is described in Wiktionary as "the collision of two bodies to produce a sound". The usage of the term is not unique to music but has application in medicine and weaponry, as in percussion cap, but all known and common uses of the word, "percussion", appear to share a similar lineage beginning with the original Latin: "percussus". In a musical context then, the term "percussion instruments" may have been coined originally to describe a family of musical instruments including drums, rattles, metal plates, or blocks which musicians would beat or strike to produce sound. Percussion beaters and sticks.

History
Anthropologists and historians often speculate that percussion instruments were the first musical devices ever created. The human voice was probably the first musical instrument, but percussion instruments, such as hands, feet, sticks and rocks, were in widespread use long before recorded musical history.

Function
Percussion instruments may play not only rhythm, but also melody and harmony.Percussion is commonly referred to as "the backbone" or "the heartbeat" of a musical ensemble, often working in close collaboration with bass instruments, when present. In jazz and other popular music ensembles, the pianist, bassist, drummer and sometimes the guitarist are referred to as the rhythm section. Most classical pieces written for full orchestra since the time of Haydn and Mozart are orchestrated to place emphasis on the strings, woodwinds, and brass. However, often at least one pair of timpani is included, though they rarely play continuously. Rather, they serve to provide additional accents when needed. In the 18th and 19th centuries, other percussion instruments have been used, again generally sparingly. The use of percussion instruments became more frequent in the 20th century classical music.

In almost every style of music, percussion plays a pivotal role. In military marching bands and pipes and drums, it is the beat of the bass drum that keeps the soldiers in step and at a regular speed, and it is the snare that provides that crisp, decisive air to the tune of a regiment. In classic jazz, one almost immediately thinks of the distinctive rhythm of the hi-hats or the ride cymbal when the word "swing" is spoken. In more recent popular music culture, it is almost impossible to name three or four rock, hip-hop, rap, funk or even soul charts or songs that do not have some sort of percussive beat keeping the tune in time.

Because of the diversity of percussive instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed entirely of percussion. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are all represented in these ensembles.

Percussion notation
Music for pitched percussion instruments can be notate 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 is substituted for rhythm clef.