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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