Tuned percussion instruments

Answer 1

There are 'tuned' percussion instruments, 'tunable' percussion instruments, and 'pitched' percussion instruments.

'Pitched' percussion instruments are instruments sounded by striking (generally) which produce a specific pitch or set of pitches. In this category fall a large number of percussion instruments with more than one resonator: xylophones, marimbas, orchestra bells, the piano and celeste (both of which have keyboards which actuate internal hammers) and the like are chromatic, meaning they have a range of notes and can produce 13 pitches to the octave. They are usually arranged to resemble the piano keyboard for easy operation. There are also wood blocks and cow bells, which represent nearly- or mostly- pitched percussion. They have individual resonators, sometimes ganged together to make a unit, and with enough resonators, can be used to play a melody (like the percolator melody in the Maxwell House Coffee commercials of the 1960's). Other varieties of pitched percussion include the membranophones, which are equipped with tension-adjustments (timtoms, tympani, multiple tomtoms, etc.) They are more loosely defined as pitched as they go down in size and up in pitch.

Tunable percussion are instruments that are struck to play, but which have the ability to change pitch while playing. The king of this class is the pedal-tympani, which can be changed to different pitches by rocking your foot on the pedal. The musical saw qualifies as well, when struck with a leather hammer rather than bowed.

Tuned percussion instruments would be any of the above, once their pitch has been set. It is not a terribly useful term, except when trying to explain to someone why their percussion makes bad sounds.

Answer 2

Pitched percussion instruments include:

-Glockenspiel: instrument with metal bars that when stuck sound like bells

-Xylophone: made with bars of wood or of a synthetic material

-Metallophone: made with metal bars

-Celesta: has a keyboard, in which the hammers strike metal plates

-Vibraphone: made of metal bars and resonating tubes

-Chimes (or tubular bells): suspended tubes that are struck with a mallet

-Marimba: an instrument of African origin made of wooden bars and resonating tubes

-Balafon: an African instrument similar to a xylophone

-Gender: a type of Indonesian metallophone

-Bonang: an Indonesian instrument made up of little gongs on a wooden frame

Source: Musicontact 2 by Dorvalino de Melo

Answer 3

"Tuned" percussion are those that produce distinct pitches--that is, you could listen to the note and match it on another instrument or by singing--as opposed to the untuned percussion (such as snare drum or bass drum) that produce notes without a distinct pitch. There are also sets of drums (such as the "toms" on a rock musician's drum kit) that are tuned to the extent that they produce different high and low sounds, but can't quite be isolated to single fundamental pitches; I'm leaving these out (no offense).

Some of the better-known tuned percussion used in classical music are the timpani, chimes (or "tubular bells"), xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, and glockenspiel (or "orchestra bells"). The piano may sometimes be used as a member of the percussion section as well.

The timpani is by far the most common of these in the orchestra; this was adopted in the 18th century and is pretty standard, where the others were not common until the later 19th century and the 20th century. There still isn't really a standard instrumentation for these in the orchestra; different pieces use different combinations, sometimes none at all.

There are many, many other tuned percussion instruments around the world (such as gongs); occasionally these are used in orchestral pieces too.

Answer 4

Some tuned percussion instruments are xylophones, bells and pianos.

Answer 5

Triangle, cymbals, woodblock, and tambourine.

Answer 6

.snare drum

.timpani

.bongo drums

Answer 7

marimba, glockenspiel, xylophone, timpani