The skrabalai is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n folk tuned percussion instrument consisting of wooden bells.

Trapezoid In geometry, a trapezoid () in North American English, or trapezium () in British English, is a quadrilateral that has at least one pair of parallel sides. The parallel sides are called the ''bases'' of the trapezoid. The other two sides are ...

-shaped wooden troughs of various sizes in several vertical rows with one or two wooden or metal small clappers hanging inside them. It is played with two wooden sticks. When the skrabalai is moved a clapper knocks at the wall of the trough. The pitch of the sound depends on the size of the wooden trough. The skrabalai is gouged from a piece of hard wood – oak or ash. The size of the troughs varies from small ones (7–12 cm. long, 5– cm. wide, 6–7 cm. high), to larger ones. The walls are 2–3 cm. thick. The skrabalai was used by shepherds from ancient times. They used to tie a wooden bell of this kind on a cow's neck, thus making it easier to find the animals in a forest if they strayed from the herd.

External links

Skrabalai audio examples
{{Percussion Lithuanian musical instruments Struck idiophones Bells (percussion) Pitched percussion instruments