Sound and Vibration

The PERCUSSION Family

Sound and Vibration

Sound is made by air vibrating. The same is true for sounds made by musical instruments.

The difference between NOISE and MUSIC is that musical sounds are organized into patterns that have pitch and rhythm.

Noise is just random, disorganized sounds.

Sounds are made and travel in the same way, whether they are musical sounds or noise.

A musical sound is called a tone or pitch, and is produced by air vibrating a certain number of times per second. These vibrations are called waves.

These sound waves must be contained in some way so that the performer can control the loudness, quality of the tone, and how long it plays.

The number of times that a sound wave vibrates in a second is called its frequency.

Scientists even have a name for how they measure the frequency of sounds. They measure it in cycles and call it hertz.

High notes have a higher frequency than lower notes and this changes their shape.

Different types of sound waves have different shapes. Look at these images to see what sound waves "look" like.

Notice that even if pitch and volume change, the shape of the sound wave stays the same.

Instruments that produce sounds from vibrating strings (violin, guitar, harp, piano, etc.) create a pitch and that pitch depends on:

Length of string Tension of string Thickness of string

For the Brass family (trumpet, French horn, tuba, etc.) or Woodwind family (flute, oboe, clarinet, English horn, etc.) the pitch (whether it is high or low) depends on:

  Length of the tubing Size of the tubing

The Percussion family (bass drum, xylophone, snare drum, triangle, maracas, etc.) produce sounds in a variety of ways, but the pitch or sound (whether high or low) depend on:

the material (Wood vs. Metal) the size (triangle vs. Bass drum) the tubing (bells vs. Marimba) how the instrument is played (hit or shaken)

and what is used to create the sound (sticks, hands, mallets, etc.)

Finally, the connection between the size of the instrument and the sound or pitch it produces is very important in all instrument families.

There are many different percussion instruments used in the concert band, marching band, orchestra and jazz band and a good percussionist should be able to play them all.

THE PERCUSSION FAMILY

Percussion instruments are shaken or hit to produce a sound. A percussionist may use a stick, mallet or their hand to hit the instrument.

Some percussion instruments can play melodies. These are called tuned percussion.

Some tuned percussion examples are…

Xylophone

Timpani

Glockenspiel

Marimba

Piano

There are many kinds of drums in the percussion family.

The snare drum, bass drum, drum set and *timpani (kettle drum) are all drums of different sizes, therefore producing different sounds.

*The Timpani is still considered a tuned percussion instrument even though it is also a “drum”

Un-tuned percussion instruments are listed and explained below and in the following slides.

There are also many percussion instruments used for special effects, or colour during a performance.

Some of these are the triangle, gong, castanets, rattle, cowbell, woodblock, tambourine, maracas, claves and whistles.

You need to have a good sense of rhythm to become a good percussionist. Several years of piano lessons are a big help when you are learning to play the tuned percussion (glockenspiel, xylophone, etc.).

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