Tuned Percussion Instruments

Tuned Percussion Instruments

Tuned Percussion Instruments

are percussion instruments that make sounds of definite pitch. These instruments that are not as plentiful as the untuned variety, are found mainly in the orchestra.

Glockenspeil

instrument with metal bars laid out like a keyboard and struck with hard wooden or rubber mallets (sometimes called orchestral bells)

Xylophone

similar to the glockenspiel but with wooden bars

Did you know...

xylo means 'wood' and phone means 'voice', therefore; xylophone translates to

Wood Voice

Vibraphone

instrument like a large mellow glockenspiel with suspended resonating tubes under the bars that are constantly opened and closed electronically to give a vibrating effect

Tubular Bells

suspended steel tubes of different lengths struck with a hard or soft mallet to produce church-bell sounds (also called Chimes)

Celeste

small piano-shaped instrument whose sounds are made by metal hammers striking metal bars

Timpani

large copper-bodied drums struck with padded mallets whose pitch can be changed by foot pedals (also called Kettle Drums)