Guide to Percussion Instruments

People all over the world are very unclear about the percussion section of a band or orchestra.  The fact is, that the percussion section is wide reaching, and encompasses so much more than many would ever imagine.  There is so much more to playing in the percussion section than just the striking of a drum head or the crash of cymbals. Many of the greatest musicians in the world consider the percussion section to be the cornerstone of the entire group.

Only drums?

One of the most common misconceptions about percussion instruments is that they are only drums.  This is simply not true as the percussion section covers a wide range of instruments. Since the range of the percussion section is so vast, many of the top performers in the world are drawn to learn one or more of the instruments that fall into this category. 

In order for an instrument to qualify as a percussion piece it must take some manner of striking or shaking to create a musical tone.  For this reason, the piano is a percussion instrument that is often forgotten about. The way a piano works is that of a series of hammers strike long strings inside of the piano when one of the keys is pressed. This is how the sound is created.

The bells, gong and other mallet driven instruments are also percussion based even though they can produce a melodic tone when played.  For this reason, the percussionists of the world are often times required to learn how to read musical notes.The other instruments, like the pipes and such, are also melodic producers and require the reading of music to hit the right pipe for the right note.

Drums are the true cornerstone of the percussion section.  Ranging in size from the snare drum that produces the raspy beat and sound, to the bass drum which produces the low tuba like sound for the largest part of the marching and moving beat.  There is a wide range of tones, such as low thuds to high pitched, that can be produced from a set of drums
You can see now that the percussion section is far reaching in scope and vast in it's application.

In our modern society our general thoughts when one speaks of percussion is the modern drum set. Drums like these have been mainstays for modern music every since the large jazz orchestras came into being. As music became more suited to dancing and eventually amplified, the position of drums in modern music was solidified. Many drummers have taken the jazz or rock style drums to new heights and raised the bar, as it were for all of the drummers to follow. Hal Roach, Gene Krupa or Max Roach in the jazz world comes immediately to mind. In the modern rock era the drummers are far too numerous to mention lest we leave someone out.

If you watch and listen closely, you will find percussion in almost every style and genre of music. Listen to the beat, it goes on and on.