A jam block is a modern, hard plastic version of the more fragile wood block

Wood block

A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....

, and is sometimes referred to as a "clave block", "gock block" or "tempo block". It is sturdy, designed for hard hitting and is becoming more and more popular with modern drummers and percussionists, due to its durability and sound.

Jam blocks are usually attached to timbales

Timbales

Timbales are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing, invented in Cuba. They are shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned...

 and drum kits or are used as stand alone orchestra instruments. These blocks are often used in Salsa, Cuban, and Latin American music

Latin American music

Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...

, although some modern drummers have made use of them in rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 songs.
Jam Blocks are often used in the marching percussion idiom as well.

There are several manufacturers of jam blocks, though they sell them under different names. The main manufacturers include LP

Latin Percussion

Latin Percussion, also known as LP, is a brand of percussion instruments, specializing in ethnic instruments engineered and manufactured to withstand the rigors of use in a drum kit, orchestral percussion section, and similar applications...

, Pearl

Pearl Drums

Founded in 1952, the is a multinational corporation based in Japan with a wide range of products, predominately percussion instruments.-History:Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa, who began manufacturing music stands in Sumida, Tokyo on April 2, 1946...

, Meinl

Meinl Percussion

Roland Meinl Percussion is a leading manufacturer of cymbals and other percussion instruments, based in Gutenstetten, Germany. Their main brand is Meinl.Founded in 1951 by Roland Meinl...

 and Toca.

There are various colours of block, these colours usually represent the pitch and are different for each manufacturer. Many cheaper manufacturers use LP's Blue-Red classification system. Larger jam blocks have a lower pitch than smaller ones. Other variations of this instrument include the stealth jam block and the guiro jam block, a combination of the guiro

Güiro

The güiro is a Latin-American percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches to produce a ratchet-like sound. The güiro is commonly used in Latin-American music, and plays a key role...

 and low pitch jam block, blast blocks, sambango bells and granite blocks.

See also

• Wood block
  Wood block
  A woodblock is essentially a small piece of slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. It is struck with a stick, making a characteristically percussive sound....
  
  
• Slit drum
  Slit drum
  A slit drum is a hollow percussion instrument, usually a log drum of bamboo or wood, that is made with one or more slits in it. Most slit drums have three slits, cut into the shape of an "H". If, as is usual, the resultant tongues are different lengths or thicknesses, the drum will produce two...
  
  
• Log drum
  Log drum
  A log drum is a type of unpitched percussion instrument.*see drum for the history of log drum and information on the log drum as a means of communication in ancient cultures* see also:**Tongue drum**Slit drum**Bosalabos**Wood block...
  
  
• Cowbell