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An idiophone is any musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
 which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself, without the use of strings or membranes. It is one of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs
Hornbostel-Sachs

Hornbostel-Sachs is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift f?r Ethnologie in 1914....
 scheme of musical instrument classification
Musical instrument classification

At various times, and in various different cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used.The most commonly used system in use in the west today divides instruments into string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments....
. Idiophones are probably the oldest type of musical instrument (not counting the human voice
Human voice

The human voice consists of sound Voice production by a human being using the vocal folds for Speech communication, singing, Laughter, crying, screaming, etc....
). In the early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon
Victor-Charles Mahillon

Victor-Charles Mahillon was a Belgian musician and writer on musical topics. He built, collected, and described more than 1500 musical instruments....
, this group of instruments was called autophones.

Most percussion instrument
Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....
s which are not drum
Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion instrument group, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound....
s are idiophones.






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Encyclopedia


An idiophone is any musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
 which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself, without the use of strings or membranes. It is one of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs
Hornbostel-Sachs

Hornbostel-Sachs is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift f?r Ethnologie in 1914....
 scheme of musical instrument classification
Musical instrument classification

At various times, and in various different cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used.The most commonly used system in use in the west today divides instruments into string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments....
. Idiophones are probably the oldest type of musical instrument (not counting the human voice
Human voice

The human voice consists of sound Voice production by a human being using the vocal folds for Speech communication, singing, Laughter, crying, screaming, etc....
). In the early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon
Victor-Charles Mahillon

Victor-Charles Mahillon was a Belgian musician and writer on musical topics. He built, collected, and described more than 1500 musical instruments....
, this group of instruments was called autophones.

Most percussion instrument
Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....
s which are not drum
Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion instrument group, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound....
s are idiophones. Hornbostel-Sachs divides idiophones into four main sub-categories. The first division is the struck idiophones (sometimes called concussion idiophones). This includes most of the non-drum percussion instruments familiar in the west. They include all idiophones which are made to vibrate by being hit, either directly with a stick or hand (like the wood block
Wood block

A wood block is essentially a small piece of slit drums made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
, singing bowl
Singing bowl

Singing bowls are a type of bell , specifically classified as a standing bell. Rather than hanging inverted or attached to a handle, standing bells sit with the bottom surface resting....
, triangle
Triangle (instrument)

The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the Percussion instrument family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape....
 or marimba
Marimba

The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family. Keys or bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys to aid the performer both visually and physically....
), or indirectly, by way of a scraping or shaking motion (like maraca
Maraca

Maracas is a native instrument of Puerto Rico. They are simple percussion instruments , usually played in pairs, consisting of a dried calabash or gourd shell or coconut shell filled with seeds or dried beans....
s or flexatone
Flexatone

The flexatone is a modern percussion instrument consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle....
). Various types of bell
Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck....
s fall into both categories.

The other three sub-divisions are rarer. They are plucked idiophones, such as the jew's harp
Jew's harp

The Jew's harp, jaw harp, mouth harp, Ozark harp, marranzano pancake, or Omaha Flapjack is thought to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world ; a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 3rd century BC ....
, amplified cactus
Amplified cactus

An amplified cactus is a cactus plant used as a musical instrument. The amplified cactus is a medium rarely written for, even in the contemporary music genre....
, music box or mbira
Mbira

In Music of Zimbabwe, the mbira is a musical instrument consisting of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a deze that functions as a resonator....
 (lamellophone / thumb piano); blown idiophones, of which there are a very small number of examples, the Aeolsklavier
Aeolsklavier

An aeolsklavier is a musical instrument, in which objectsvibrate when air is blown onto them....
 being one; and friction idiophones, such as the singing bowl
Singing bowl

Singing bowls are a type of bell , specifically classified as a standing bell. Rather than hanging inverted or attached to a handle, standing bells sit with the bottom surface resting....
, glass harmonica
Glass harmonica

The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, hydrocrystalophone, or simply armonica , is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical pitch s by means of friction ....
, glass harp
Glass Harp

Glass Harp is a Youngstown, Ohio based power trio consisting of guitarist Phil Keaggy, drummer John Sferra and bassist Daniel Pecchio....
, turntable
Phonograph

The record player, phonograph or gramophone was the most common device for playing Sound recording and reproduction sound from the 1870s through the 1980s....
, verrophone
Verrophone

A verrophone is a musical instrument, invented in 1983, by Reckert, in which open-ended glass tubes are arranged in various sizes . The sound is made by rubbing one end of one or more of the glass tubes, or also by striking them or rubbing them with a special mallet....
, daxophone
Daxophone

The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is a custom made instrument of the friction idiophone category. It consists of a thin wooden blade fixed in a wooden block , which holds one or more contact microphones....
, styrophone
Styrophone

A styrophone is an acoustic device made from expanded polystyrene foam . There are at least two varieties:* an acoustic musical instrument* a type of loudspeaker...
, musical saw
Musical saw

A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical instrument. The sound created is an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin, or a woman's clear voice....
, or nail violin
Nail violin

The nail violin is a musical instrument which was invented by German violinist Johann Wilde in 1740. Wilde was inspired to create the instrument when he accidentally drew his bow across a metal peg, which produced a musical sound....
 (a number of pieces of metal or wood rubbed with a bow). Other classifications use six main sub-categories, Concussion, Percussion, Rattle, Scraper, Plucked and Friction Idophones.

A number of idiophones that are normally struck, such as vibraphone
Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the mallet subfamily of the percussion instrument family....
 bars and cymbals
Cymbal

Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various cymbal alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture....
, can also be bowed.

Mallet-struck tuned percussion

A number of instruments fall into a sub-class within this group, and relate directly to the classification, tuned percussion. They are struck with mallets
Drum stick

A mallet or drum stick is an object used to strike drums and other percussion_instrument to produce sound. Some specialized mallets are called beaters, drumsticks, or brushes....
 or with sticks.

They include:
  • kalimba
    Kalimba

    The kalimba is an musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a modernized version of the African mbira. It is a sound box with metal keys attached to the top to give the different notes....
    s
  • xylophone
    Xylophone

    The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family which probably originated in Slovakia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber drum stick#Malletss....
    s
  • vibraphone
    Vibraphone

    The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the mallet subfamily of the percussion instrument family....
    s
  • glockenspiel
    Glockenspiel

    File:Glockenspiel-malletech.jpgFile:GlockenspielSousaphone.jpgThe glockenspiel is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family....
  • balafon
    Balafon

    The balafon is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of Percussion instrument that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone....
    s
  • steelpan
    Steelpan

    Steelpans is a musical instrument and a form of music originating from Trinidad. Steelpan musicians are called pannists....
  • celesta
    Celesta

    The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard instrument. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box ....
    , a keyboard-operated idiophone
  • hank drum
    Hank drum

    The Hank drum is a steel slit drum made from an empty twenty lb propane tank. It was invented by Dennis Havlena in 2007. Dennis was inspired by the Swiss Hang to create the Hank Drum, an instrument that is easy to build and tune with the right tools....

See also

  • Tuned percussion