Hand percussion is a

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

that is held in the hand. They can be made from wood, metal or plastic, and are usually shaken, scraped, or tapped with fingers or a stick. It includes all instruments that are not

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s, or any instrument that is a pitched percussion instrument, such as the

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

or the

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...

Types

Shakers

A shaker (percussion) is any instrument that sounds when shaken. Historically, naturally occurring items such as seed pots were the first shakers. A caxixi is a basketwork shaker made from a

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...

. Gourds are used all over the world, covered with a net with shells or seeds to create an instrument such as the ''

shekere The shekere (from Yoruba Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀) is a percussion instrument consisting of a dried gourd with beads or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd. There are multiple ways to produce sounds with the instrument. It can be shaken or ...

''. Modern shakers are often cylinders made from metal, wood, or plastic containing small hard items such as seeds, stones, or plastic - an example is the egg shaker. Another category of shaken instrument uses jingles, discs of metal tap together when shaken.

Tambourines The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

also fall into this category, using several zills to produce their sound.

Scrapers

Scrapers have ridges on the body. Often known as '' Guiro'', rhythms are created by running a thin stick up and down the ridges at different speeds. Gourds or bamboo have traditionally been used as ''Guiros'', as they have a resonant hollow body, and can easily be cut with ridges. A common type from Asia is a carved wooden

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

with ridges cut on its back and its mouth and belly hollowed out.

Cowbells

Cowbells originate from the bells tied around the necks of livestock. They are any type of bell tapped with fingers, or with a beater. They are found all over the world and are used extensively in

Latin percussion {{for, the company, Latin Percussion Latin percussion is a family of percussion, membranophone, lamellophone and idiophone instruments used in Latin music. Instruments Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican styles Folkloric and Santeria * Trap drums * Abaku ...

and often found as part of a standard rock drum kit. The name

cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell (instrument), bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. ...

usually refers to a single bell, the ''

Agogô An agogô ( Yoruba: ''agogo'', meaning bell) is a single or a multiple bell now used throughout the world but with origins in traditional Yoruba and Edo music and also in the samba '' baterias'' (percussion ensembles). The agogô may be the olde ...

'' bell usually refers to a double or triple bell.

Triangles

The

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

is a piece of metal bent in the shape of a triangle that is struck with a metal beater. It is generally suspended by a string to allow it to resonate. The performer's hand can open or close to mute the sound. Triangles are commonly used in South American music to give a persistent high pitched pulse.

Sticks

Tapping two sticks together is the simplest form of hand percussion, and has developed a place in traditional music all over the world.

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

use clapping sticks alongside the

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

, and

claves Claves (; ) are a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short, wooden sticks about 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) long and about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in diameter. Although traditionally made of wood (typically rosewood, ebony ...

are an integral part of South American music.

Small drums

A variety of small hand held drums such as

tamborim A ''tamborim'' ( or ) is a small round Brazilian frame drum, developed from other similar percussive instruments brought by the Portuguese. The frame is 6" in width and may be made of metal, plastic, or wood. The head is typically made of nylo ...

fall into the Hand Percussion category.

Listening

References

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