percussion instrument

Introduction
Classification
- Idiophones
- Membranophones
Percussion instruments in Europe
- Antiquity
  - Idiophones
  - Membranophones
- The Middle Ages
  - Idiophones
  - Membranophones
- The Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods
  - Idiophones
  - Membranophones
- Developments after 1800
  - The 19th century
  - The 20th and 21st centuries
Percussion instruments in Asia
- Idiophones
- Membranophones
Percussion instruments in Africa and the African diaspora
- Idiophones
  - North Africa
  - Sub-Saharan Africa
  - The Americas
- Membranophones
  - North Africa
  - Sub-Saharan Africa
  - The Americas
Percussion instruments in the Americas
- Idiophones
- Membranophones
Percussion instruments in the Pacific
- Idiophones
- Membranophones

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

See Tom Teasley playing the frame drum using different drumming styles from various countries

reconstructed Mayan fresco from Bonampak

At a Glance

percussion instrument summary

Quizzes

Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)

Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz

Gong. Closeup of a khong wong gong circle chime. Thai classical musical instrument, part of piphat ensemble. (percussion, music)

Music Quiz

Sheet music from "The Saint Louis Blues" by W.C. Handy, 1914. (St. Louis Blues)

Music in the World (Part Three) Quiz

A woman wearing a hanbok plays the traditional Korean musical instrument kayagum (gayageum).

Another Musical Instruments Quiz

Related Questions

How are drums classified by the shape and construction of their shells?
How are rattles used in African musical traditions?
How can four percussion players perform music written for 25 or 30 instruments?
How did Beethoven use the bass drum in his Ninth Symphony?
How did Igor Stravinsky use a tambourine in Petrushka?
How did Maurice Ravel feature the snare drum in Boléro?
How did Richard Strauss use clappers to create a whip-crack effect in Elektra?
How did Tchaikovsky use cymbal crashes in Romeo and Juliet?
How did bells serve religious and civic purposes in medieval Europe?
How did pedal timpani change the way timpani players could change pitch?
How did percussion ensembles develop during the 20th century?
How did the tabor and three-holed pipe create a one-person dance band?
How do rattle drums make sound?
How do tubular bells imitate the sound of traditional bells?
How does a celesta produce its sound?
How does a frame drum differ from a tubular drum?
How does a marimba differ from a xylophone?
How does a vibraphone create its pulsating sound?
How were drums used in ancient China and Japan for court and ritual music?
How were early drums made during Neolithic times?
How were glockenspiels designed differently for marching bands and orchestras?
What are claves made from and how are they played?
Which Indigenous, African, and European traditions shaped percussion instruments in Latin American music?
Which composer first used a solo triangle in a piano concerto?
Which opera overture includes a snare-drum solo by Gioachino Rossini?
Which percussion instruments can play notes of definite pitch?
Which percussion instruments have indefinite pitch?
Which playing methods besides striking are used for percussion instruments?
Why are drums considered sacred in some Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin American religious traditions?
Why did Hector Berlioz call for 10 cymbals in his Requiem?
Why did percussion instruments become more important in Western music during the 20th century?
Why did the bass drum become popular in Europe during the craze for Janissary music?
Why did the vibraphone become important in jazz music?
Why did timpani become an important instrument in 19th-century orchestras?
Why have drums often been treated as sacred instruments in different cultures?
Why was the glockenspiel changed from a bell chime into a portable metallophone?

Entertainment & Pop Culture Musical Instruments

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External Websites

Oregon Symphony - The Percussion Family
Toronto Metropolitan University Pressbooks - Percussion
IndiaNetzone - Percussion Instruments
International Journal of Humanities Social Science and Management - Percussion Instruments in Ancient Indian Culture: A Study on Insights from Vedic Literature and Classical Texts
Philharmonia Orchestra - Percussion
Physics Libretexts - Percussion
Stanford University - Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics - Percussion Instruments
Iowa State University - Department of Music and Theatre - Percussion

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

percussion instrument - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
percussion instrument - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

percussion instrument

musical instrument

Written by

Edmund Addison Bowles

Instructor in the Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1951–55. Vice President, American Musical Instrument Society, 1984–88. Author of The Timpani: A History in Pictures and...

Edmund Addison BowlesAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

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. Membranophones emit sound by the vibration of a stretched membrane; the prime examples are drums. The term percussion instrument refers to the fact that most idiophones and membranophones are sounded...

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