Percussion

Percussion instruments are speculated to be the first musical devices ever created (not counting the human voice, of course). One can hypothesise that the first form of percussion involved using hands and feet, and later rocks and logs to produce repeated sounds. As tools were developed for other things such as hunting and farming our increased love of craftsmanship and better technology allowed gradually better percussive devices to be created until eventually bespoke objects were created for the purpose of playing music. The term "percussion" refers to any object that produces a sound when being hit, shaken, rubbed, scraped, scratched or anything else that makes the instrument vibrate or oscillate. Although it is mostly used to describe rhythmic instruments percussion can also cover various things that do not fit into the other sections of an orchestra. The word percussion comes from the latin "percussio" which means to beat or strike.

The purpose of the percussion instrument is to play rhythm along with melody and harmony, these vital instruments often draw a whole performance together and help everyone keep time. The section always works in close collaboration with the bass section, and in jazz and popular music the bassist and the drummer are usually referred to as the rhythm section. Classical music also requires heavily on percussion with everything from the timpani and kettledrums through to triangle, cymbals, gongs and tubular bells all featuring as percussion instruments in this dedicated section of an orchestra. Because of the diversity of percussive instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed entirely of percussive instruments.