Boom! Bong! Bam!
Tap a pencil against a box. It doesn’t play a tune, but it does make a sound. One family of instruments makes sounds in the same way – you use something to hit or strike them. The instruments in this family are called percussion instruments. The word percussion means “striking”.
Drums, gongs, cymbals, and bells are percussion instruments. Musicians hit gongs with sticks that look like small hammers. Musicians hit two cymbals together or strike one with a mallet. And they shake bells so that the clappers hit the insides of the bells.
Most drums, such as the Irish bodhran and African long drums make only one sound. They are used to set the beat in a song. Each has a thin piece of animal skin or plastic called the drumhead, stretched over a hollow body. When you strike the drumhead, the air inside the drum bounces around, or vibrates. This makes the sound stronger. So instead of a light tapping, you hear a loud rat-tat-tat or even a boom-boom-boom.
Some drums, such as timpani, or kettle drums, can make several different sounds. The drumheads are tightened to make high sounds and loosened to make lower sounds. Timpani are played in orchestras.
Other percussion instruments that play tunes are the xylophone and marimba. Each has bars of different lengths that make different sounds when you hit them. The short bars vibrate faster and make higher sounds than the long bars.
Picture Credit : Google
