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 Home > Learning Center > Percussion Instruments

Percussion Instruments

Click here to see our selection of Percussion Instruments.

Percussion instruments are a large category of instruments that include anything that is hit, struck, or otherwise knocked about in order to create sound. Everyone knows that drums are a percussion instrument, but there are many more that are less well known. More surprisingly, there are many percussion instruments that are well known… but not associated with the term.

Sure there are things like xylophones that people know are struck with mallets, but how many people are jumping up and down saying “bells!” right now? Yes, bells are struck with a clapper within the bell in order to produce their tone. Other bells can be struck with a mallet, like a gong. They differ from a simple drum set in that bells make musical tones and can be used to play a melody, whereas drums are more an indication of beat than a melody or harmonizing force in a song.

And that doesn’t even touch on the elephant in the room. Stop and think, what’s the most famous percussion instrument in the history of music? Give yourself a gold star if you answered piano. That’s right; the instrument found in everything from Beethoven to Billy Joel is a percussion instrument. It is also one of the few percussion instruments that qualifies as a stringed instrument.

You see, a piano is made up from a set of strings. The strings are of different lengths and girths, and each string corresponds to one note. Each string must be individually tuned to stay on key, as it were. The term on key comes from the piano vernacular, because the piano is played via a keyboard. When you press a key on the piano, it mechanically translates into a small felted hammer striking the corresponding string. As long as you hold the key down, the string is allowed to vibrate freely. Once you lift your finger, the string is silenced.

A modern piano has 88 keys. This means that there are at least 88 strings inside every piano, and each string is held under tension for the life of the instrument. That leads to quite a bit of stress being placed on the backer board. People are probably familiar with the image of a rock band guitarist smashing his guitar on stage. Where does the guitar break in your mental image? It should break at the neck, because that’s where the pressure of the tensioned strings lies. A guitar neck is built strong to counter those forces, and even then it won’t last forever. A piano must counter even greater tension. That is why piano’s backer boards are made of solid metal. Only metal has the structural integrity to withstand the tension placed on the backer board.

So when you think about percussion instruments, remember, there’s more to it than just beating a drum with a stick. They are the most notorious percussion instrument, but people have written beautiful music for percussion instruments, and the range of melody available to them is unmatched by any other instrument group.

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