Percussion

Percussion Classes

It's helpful to think of percussion instruments in terms of which class they belong to.

• egg shakers, maracas and cabasas all produce a rattling granular sound. Likewise, congas and bongos produce similar-sounding tones
• This doesn't mean that we shouldn't have, say, both maracas and shakers as part of our overall percussion layer. For instance, instead of 2 maracas, we might have a maraca in one hand and a shaker in another. Conversely, we may decide to include both woodblock and claves, if we decide that one is used for accents and the other for grooves.

Here’s a breakdown of different percussion categories based on their sound characteristics:

Shakers & Rattles (Granular, Continuous Sound)

• Shaker (e.g., egg shaker, tube shaker)
• Cabasa
• Maracas
• Shekere
• Caxixi

Wooden Clicks & Blocks (Sharp, Dry Attack)

• Woodblock
• Temple blocks
• Castanets
• Claves

Metallic Sounds (Bright, Ringing)

• Triangle
• Cowbell
• Agogô
• Finger cymbals
• Chimes
• Vibraslap

Membranophones (Drums, Toms, Skins)

• Snare drum
• Bass drum
• Toms (Rack tom, Floor tom, Rototoms, Octobans)
• Bongos
• Congas
• Djembe
• Doumbek

Scraped & Friction Sounds

• Guiro
• Frog guiro (coconut scraper)
• Afuché/cabasa
• Ratchet

Cymbals & Gongs (Sustained, Resonant)

• Crash cymbal
• Ride cymbal
• China cymbal
• Hi-hats
• Tam-tam (large gong)

Pitched Percussion (Melodic)

• Xylophone
• Marimba
• Vibraphone
• Glockenspiel
• Steel drums

Found Sounds & Hybrid Percussion

• Hand claps
• Foot stomps
• Slapstick
• Body percussion