The Percussion Family

The percussion family is the largest family of the orchestra.  Percussion instruments all have to be hit in some way. They are made of all different things, metal, wood, animal skin, seeds or even plastic. Below are only some of the percussion family instruments.

shaken.The bass drum is a large unpitched drum that is hit with a mallet.

The snare drum is hit with sticks.  It gets it's name and it's funny sound from the strings of metal on its bottom side.

The tympani are also called the kettle drums beacuse they look like large cooking pots.  They are pitched and are played with mallets.

The cymbols come in various sizes.  These are large and are called crash cymbols.  they are hit together and make a very loud sound.  Finger cymbols are very small but still make a loud sound.

The tamborine is a small drum like instrument with jingles around it's side.  It can be hit or shaken.

The xylophone is a pitched percussion instrument.  It can play high and low notes.  You hit the instrument with hard mallets.