Eleuke
M. Gerarda
Waikiki
Click here for Waikiki Ukuleles
This page is a resource for sales staff working in the Musical Instruments Retail sector - it is not intended to be an encyclopaedia entry. Beware, this and many other pages may contain jokes and wry comments (like this one).
PITCHED PERCUSSION: TYMPANI, MALLET PERCUSSION (GLOCKENSPIEL, MARIMBA, TUBULAR BELLS, VIBRAPHONE, XYLOPHONE).
UNPITCHED PERCUSSION: CONCERT DRUMS, MARCHING DRUMS, HAND DRUMS, BELLS, SHAKERS, SCRAPERS.
Forge Sticks, Hot Rods, Mallets etc
American Drum mallets and sticks for Orff Percussion
It is possible to play melodies or recognisable pitches on these instruments.
Though a snare drum or tom-tom can be said to be tuned to a particular note, the spectrum of the sound produced when struck is so broad that the pitch is not the most dominant feature of the tone, and therefore these drums are not known as a pitched instruments.
A large bowl-shaped drum with a single head, and often pedals for tuning the drum to different notes automatically during the performance. They have a deep and rich tone and a definite note. Often played in sets of two, three or four, depending on the piece being played and the budget of the player (they're not cheap!!).
The usual sizes are 32" diameter (the deepest notes), 29", 26" and 23" (the highest pitch, and consequently the least often used).
The bowls are made of various materials (usually copper or fibreglass) and are usually parabolic or hemispheric in cross-section, though some have combined shapes. The range of a particular drum is usually about a fifth or occasionally a sixth for the larger drums.
Vancore Tympani
Both have wooden bars, usually made of rosewood or padouk and sometimes of synthetic or hybrid materials which include wood pulp. Both instruments usually have resonators suspended beneath the bars to enhance the sound, though the "table" xylophone does not.
If an instrument has metal bars, it is a glockenspiel, metallophone or possibly a vibraphone.
The main differences between them are range (they xylophone sounds an octave higher than the written note) and tone.
The marimba is usually played using softer woven-head mallets which, combined with its lower range, give a more mellow or "warm" tone, though this can lack projection.
The xylophone is played with hard rubber or even wooden headed mallets and has a bright and penetrating tone.
There are many African and Asian instruments of similar construction upon which the modern orchestral instruments are based.
Vancore Marimba
These instruments have metal tone bars. The bars on the glockenspiel are generally smaller and thinner than those on the metallophone and vibraphone, giving a lighter and brighter sound. Glockenspiels are also available in small sizes for children and for school programs.
The vibraphone has small, motorised "butterfly valves" (they look like tiny electric fans) which rotate at the top of the resonators, giving a vibrato effect. It also has a sustain pedal which releases the bars from the damping material they normally rest on, thereby allowing longer notes to sound.
Essentially a bunch of metal tubes hung on a frame and hit with a small hammer. Often equipped with a sustain pedal.
*Apparently also the name of an extended piece by Mike Oldfield on Virgin Records and used as the soundtrack for the film "The Exorcist", but I'm waaay too young to remember that....
Vancore tubular bells
Instruments that don't produce a single precise pitch when struck.
Large drums with two heads or skins. Usually mounted on a stand for performances.
The modern drum kit evolved from military side (snare) drums and bass drums combined with a variety of cymbals and tom-toms. Concert bass drums are generally much larger than marching bass drums, both in diameter and depth.
Vancore concert snare and bass drums.
Lighter and often smaller than concert drums, they are designed to be carried by marching bands. They are often attached by means of hooks to a harness or "vest" worn by the player.
Marching drums in action.
I didn't believe it either........click photo for more marching percussionists on bicycles at Vancore website!!
These include tambours, tambourines, frame drums, bodhrans, bongos, djembes etc etc which are struck by the player's hands rather than with a stick or mallet.
Ususally consist of a single skin or head on a cylindrical body, open at both ends. Some incorporate jingles (which look like tiny pairs of cymbals as on tambourine). Some hand drums have conical or parabolic sections, e.g. djembe.
Sonor Latino Series hand drums: tunable frame drums.
Left: Sonor Tambourine with tunable head
and 10 pairs of jingles. Right: Sonor headless tambourine.
Hand-carved example of a djembe drum.
Set of bongos.
Though most bells do have a specific note pitch, they are usually not used as melodic instruments. They are often grouped together, as in sleigh bells, wrist bells etc. Most have an internal clapper which makes them sound when moved or shaken, others are externally struck with a hammer, drum stick or mallet (e.g. cowbell). Some groups of bells sound by hitting each other when shaken.
Triangles and Tubular Bells are examples of instruments related to the bell-family that do not have the characteristic cup-like shape.
Left: Sonor Sleigh bells. Right: Sonor wrist bells.
These instruments are usually constructed from a hollow container and some beads, seeds or other particles.
Maracas, egg-shakes, gourds, caxixis etc have internal beads which sound when they collide with the walls of the container and each other to make a sound.
Other types of shakers have beads or chains attached to the outside of the container to sound when twisted or shaken, e.g. afuche-cabasa, shekere, cabasa, etc.
Left: Sonor Cabasa-Afuche. Right: an example of a hand carved shekere.
The sound is produced by running a stick or similar object across the grooved surface of the instrument, e.g. the guiro (made from a gourd), the yu (a Chinese instrument made of wood), the Charrasca (made from animal horn), etc. Other traditional scrapers are made from shells, and there are some modern guiros made from synthetic materials or wood.
Sonor Guiro
