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Percussion Instruments Reference Cheat Sheet
A printable reference covering percussion families, struck and shaken instruments, pitch types, notation basics, and playing techniques for grades 5-12.
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Percussion instruments make sound when they are struck, shaken, scraped, or rubbed. This cheat sheet helps students identify common percussion instruments and understand how they are grouped in band, orchestra, and world music. It is useful for reading ensemble parts, choosing the correct mallets or sticks, and describing instrument sounds accurately. The main percussion groups are membranophones, idiophones, and auxiliary percussion, with instruments also described as pitched or unpitched. Pitched percussion, such as xylophone and timpani, can play specific notes, while unpitched percussion, such as snare drum and cymbals, usually creates rhythm and color. Important skills include reading rhythms, following dynamics, using correct sticking, and matching playing technique to the instrument.
Key Facts
- Percussion instruments produce sound when they are struck, shaken, scraped, or rubbed.
- Pitched percussion instruments, such as xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, chimes, and timpani, can play definite musical notes.
- Unpitched percussion instruments, such as snare drum, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, and cymbals, usually play rhythms without a specific pitch.
- Membranophones make sound from a stretched membrane, such as a drumhead on a snare drum, bass drum, tom-tom, or timpani.
- Idiophones make sound from the vibration of the instrument body itself, such as a triangle, cymbal, woodblock, maracas, or xylophone bar.
- A roll is a rapid repeated sound that sustains a note, such as a snare drum roll or timpani roll.
- Dynamics tell percussionists how loud or soft to play, such as p for soft, mf for medium loud, and f for loud.
- Sticking patterns use R and L to show which hand plays each note, such as R L R L for alternating strokes.
Vocabulary
- Percussion
- A family of instruments that produce sound by being struck, shaken, scraped, or rubbed.
- Pitched percussion
- Percussion instruments that can play definite notes and melodies, such as marimba, xylophone, and timpani.
- Unpitched percussion
- Percussion instruments that create rhythm or sound color without a clear exact pitch, such as snare drum or crash cymbals.
- Membranophone
- An instrument that makes sound when a stretched membrane, or drumhead, vibrates.
- Idiophone
- An instrument that makes sound when its solid body vibrates.
- Mallet
- A stick with a shaped head used to strike instruments such as timpani, marimba, xylophone, or bells.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Calling every percussion instrument a drum is wrong because many percussion instruments, such as triangle, marimba, cymbals, and tambourine, do not have drumheads.
- Confusing pitched and unpitched percussion is wrong because instruments like timpani and xylophone play specific notes, while snare drum and cymbals mainly provide rhythm and color.
- Ignoring dynamics is a problem because percussion sounds can easily overpower an ensemble when played too loudly.
- Using the wrong mallets can damage an instrument or create the wrong tone, such as using hard mallets on a delicate marimba passage.
- Playing rolls as uneven single hits is incorrect because a roll should create a smooth, sustained sound with steady speed and control.
Practice Questions
- 1 Name two pitched percussion instruments and two unpitched percussion instruments.
- 2 A percussion part has the sticking pattern R L R L for 16 notes. How many notes are played with the right hand?
- 3 A measure in 4/4 contains four quarter notes on snare drum. How many beats does the measure last?
- 4 Why might a composer choose a triangle instead of a bass drum for a soft orchestral passage?