Grade 4 – Percussion

Percussion instruments are any type of object whose sound is not produced by strings, a reed or blown. Therefore, anything that is tapped, hit, dropped, rattled, scraped etc. would be a percussion instrument.

The list of percussion instruments is therefore endless, but here are some typical orchestral percussion instruments:

• Timpani (pitched percussion i.e. the timpani can be tuned to specific notes)
• Side drum (unpitched percussion as the drum cannot be tuned to a specific pitch)
• Bass drum (unpitched percussion)
• Cymbals (unpitched percussion)
• Xylophone (pitched percussion)
• Piano (pitched percussion)