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percussion instrument, any musical instrument belonging to either of two groups, idiophones or membranophones. Idiophones are instruments whose own substance vibrates to produce sound (as opposed to the strings of a guitar or the air column of a flute); examples include bells, clappers, and rattles.
Musical instrument, any device for producing musical sound. The principal types of such instruments, classified by the method of producing sound, are percussion, stringed, keyboard, wind, and electronic. Learn more about the characteristics and classification of musical instruments in this article.
Since the early 17th century the term percussion instruments has referred to two large groups of instruments. Idiophones, such as rattles and bells, are instruments whose bodies vibrate to produce a sound, and membranophones, such as the many kinds of drums, employ a tautly stretched membrane to produce sound.
A different fourfold classification was accepted by Hindus at least as early as the 1st century bc: they recognized stringed instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments of wood or metal, and percussion instruments with skin heads (i.e., drums).
Percussion instruments are musical instruments that generally are used to establish rhythm. Percussion instruments make a sound when they are struck, shaken, scraped, plucked, or rubbed. Some types, such as rattles and xylophones, have moving parts built into them that make a sound. Some have bodies that vibrate to produce a sound.
percussion instrument, A musical instrument that is struck (or sometimes shaken or scraped) to produce sound. This category includes instruments whose own hard substance is made to vibrate (idiophones) and instruments that include a tight membrane that vibrates (membranophones).
Percussion instrument - Europe, Orchestras, Timpani: Europe received most of its percussion instruments either directly or indirectly from the sophisticated cultures of the ancient Middle East or from Egypt, a country regarded by the Greeks and Romans as forming part of Asia rather than Africa (a practice that will be followed in this article ...
stringed instrument, any musical instrument that produces sound by the vibration of stretched strings, which may be made of vegetable fibre, metal, animal gut, silk, or artificial materials such as plastic or nylon.
Percussion instrument - Renaissance, Baroque, Classical: Additional idiophones came into use from the Renaissance on. The xylophone, long widespread throughout Asia and Africa, was illustrated in 1529 by the composer and music theorist Martin Agricola.
piano, a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys.