| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thumb Piano |  | Zimbabwe | The African thumb piano is a musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone often classified as a lamellophone, and which is common throughout Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. It consists of a set of tuned metal or bamboo tongues of varying length fitted to a board, box, or calabash resonator, their free ends being twanged by the player's thumbs and fingers. Supplementary buzzing devices are often added, and board-mounted varieties are often played inside a half calabash or bowl to enhance the resonance. They serve mainly for song accompaniment. |
| Tingsha |  | Tibet | Tibetan tingsha (or Ting-Sha) (Tibetan: ཏིང་ཤགས་; Wylie: ting-shags) are small cymbals used in prayer and rituals by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. Two cymbals are joined together by a leather strap or chain. The cymbals are struck together producing a clear and high pitched tone. Typical sizes range from 2.5–4 inches in diameter. Tingsha are very thick and produce a unique long ringing tone. Antique tingsha were made from special bronze alloys that produce harmonic overtones. |
| Triangle |  | Europe | The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel in modern instruments, bent into a triangle shape. On a triangle instrument, one of the angles is left open, with the ends of the bar not quite touching. This causes the instrument to be of indeterminate pitch. It is either suspended from one of the other corners by a piece of thin wire or gut, leaving it free to vibrate, or hooked over the hand. It is usually struck with a metal beater, giving a high-pitched, ringing tone. |
| T'rưng |  | Vietnam | The T'rưng is a suspended bamboo xylophone from Vietnam. It has been used to imitate the sound of water. |
| Tubular Bell |  | Europe | Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Each bell is a metal tube, 30–38 mm (1¼–1½ inches) in diameter, tuned by altering its length. They range from C4 (middle C) to F5. Tubular bells are typically struck on the top edge of the tube with a rawhide- or plastic-headed hammer. Often, a sustain pedal will be attached to allow extended ringing of the bells. The bands of the Indian Army use these bells when playing the Hymn Abide With Me. Tubular bells are used in popular music, as well. Tubular bells have been popularized in western culture by the song Carol of the Bells. |
| Turkish Crescent |  | Turkey | A Turkish crescent, (also Turkish jingle, çevgan, Chinese pavilion, jingling johnny, Schellenbaum, chapeau chinois) is a percussion instrument consisting of a long pole with numerous bells connected to one end, using crescent shaped crosspieces and has been traditionally used for military bands and parades. It was used as a percussion instrument within the Janissary band as a way to keep time with music and marching. It was used on the first beat of every measure. |
| Txalaparta |  | Spain | The txalaparta is a specialized Basque (an autonomous community in the Kingdom of Spain) music device of wood or stone, similar to Romanian toacă. It is classified as an idiophone (a percussion instrument.) In its traditional construction (known as the txalaparta zaharra), the txalaparta is made of a pair of long wooden boards held up horizontally on two ends and then beat vertically with special thick drum sticks held upright in the hands. On the two ends, between the long board and the supports, corn husks are placed for vibration. Music is made using the txalaparta by having one or more performers produce differing rhythms, playing with wood knots and spots of the boards for different tones. |
| Ugly Stick |  | Canada | The ugly stick is a traditional Newfoundland musical instrument fashioned out of household and tool shed items, typically a mop handle with bottle caps, tin cans, small bells and other noise makers. The instrument is played with a drum stick and has a distinctive sound. |
| Uh |  | Korea | The uh is a tiger-shaped wooden percussion instrument used by Korean since the Goryeo period. A bamboo stick, which is split at its end into nine branches, is used to scratch and beat the instrument. At the end of the ritual music, the head of the tiger is beaten three times and scraped on its back once. This process is repeated three times to signal the end of the ritual music. |
| Vest Frottoir |  | United States | A vest frottoir is an instrument used in Zydeco music. It is usually made from pressed, corrugated aluminium and is worn over the shoulders. It is played as a rhythm instrument by stroking either bottle openers or spoons down it. Many of these instruments are home made, but Don Landry of Louisiana is a renowned maker of frottoirs - or rub-boards as they are known, making them for Clifton Chenier's band (see image) and Elvis Fontenot and the Sugar Bees, amongst others. |
| Vibraphone |  | United States | The vibraphone, also known as vibraharp or vibes, is a musical instrument in the mallet subfamily of the percussion family. It is similar in appearance to the xylophone and marimba, although the vibraphone uses aluminum bars instead of the wooden bars of those instruments. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to that used on a piano. When the pedal is up, the bars are all damped and the sound of each bar is quite short; with the pedal down, they will sound for several seconds. The most common uses of the vibraphone are within jazz music, where it often plays a featured role, and in the wind ensemble, as a standard component of the percussion section. |
| Washboard |  | United States | The washboard is a musical instrument. The traditional washboard is usually constructed with a rectangular wooden frame in which are mounted a series of ridges or corrugations for the clothing to be rubbed upon. For 19th century washboards, the ridges were often of wood; by the 20th century, ridges of metal were more common. A "fluted" metal washboard was patented in the US in 1833. Zinc washboards were manufactured in the US from the middle of the 19th century. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, ridges of galvanized steel are most common, but some modern boards are made of glass. Washboards with brass ridges are still made, and some who use washboards as musical instruments prefer the sound of the somewhat more expensive brass boards. |
| Whip |  | Russia | A whip is an instrument played by a percussionist that is used in modern orchestras, bands, and percussion ensembles. There are two types of whips. The first has two planks of wood connected together by a hinge, with a handle on each. The percussionist holds the instrument by the handles and hits the two pieces of wood together, creating a loud whip noise. The other type also has two planks of woods, one longer than the other, with one handle, connected with a spring hinge so it can be played with just one hand, though it cannot produce sounds as loud as a whip requiring both hands. The whip was used by the orchestraions of Maurice Ravel, Vladimir Jurowski and Henk de Vlieger's version for percussion essemble. |
| Wood Block |  | Europe | A wood block 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. The orchestral wood-block instrument of the West is generally made from teak or another hardwood. The dimensions of this instrument vary considerably, although it is always a rectangular block of wood with one or sometimes two longitudinal cavities. The wood block may be the oldest musical instrument known to man, given that it would have been possible to construct and play this idiophonic instrument before the Bronze Age. |
| Wooden Fish |  | China | A wooden fish (Chinese: 木魚; mùyú), (Japanese: mokugyo), (Korean: moktak), is a wooden percussion instrument similar to the Western wood block. The wooden fish is used by monks and laity in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. The wooden fish is mainly used by Buddhist disciples in China, Japan, Korea, and other East Asian countries where the practice of Mahayana, such as the ceremonious reciting of sutras, is prevalent. In Buddhism the fish, which never sleeps, symbolizes wakefulness. Therefore, it is to remind the chanting monks to be concentrate on their sutra. The round wooden fish comes in many sizes, ranging from 6 inches to 4 feet. The image shows a huge 3 foot wide Mokugyu drum at the Chapin Mill Buddhist Retreat center located near Batavia New York. It sounds like a heart beat. |
| Xiaoluo |  | China | The xiaoluo (Chinese: 小鑼) is a small Chinese gong made of high-tin bronze. It is beaten with a stick. The image shows a xiaoluo played by a member of the Nakhi (Naxi) Orchestra, China. |
| Xylophone |  | Indonesia | The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Indonesia. It consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets. Each bar is tuned to a specific pitch of the musical scale. Xylophone can refer to western style concert xylophones or to one of the many wooden mallet percussion instruments found around the world. Many western historians believe xylophones began in Eastern Asia, spreading to Africa. It is likely that the xylophone reached Europe during the Crusades. The xylophone, which had been known in Europe since the Middle Ages, was by the 19th Century associated largely with the folk music of Eastern Europe, notably Poland and Eastern Germany. By 1830, the xylophone had been popularized to some extent by a Russian virtuoso named Michael Josef Gusikov. In 1831 he constructed what he called a wood and straw instrument (see image), essentially a xylophone laid out like a cimbalom on a soundboard made from rolls of straw which allowed a loud resonance. |
| Xylorimba |  | Austria | The xylorimba (also known as xylo-marimba or marimba-xylophone) is a pitched percussion musical instrument which is a xylophone with an extended range. It is not a combination of the xylophone and the marimba, although the name might imply that. Like a marimba or xylophone, the xylorimba consists of a series of wooden bars laid out like a piano keyboard. It combines the large of the marimba with the higher register of the xylophone. It has been used in a number of 20th century classical works. |
| Yu |  | China | The yu (Chinese: 敔) was a wooden percussion instrument carved in the shape of a tiger with a serrated back comprising 27 "teeth," used since ancient times in China for Confucian court ritual music. It was played by striking its head three times with a bamboo whisk, and then scraping it across the serrated back once to mark the end of a piece of music. The yu is mentioned, along with another percussion instrument called zhu (柷), in pre-Qin Dynasty annals, and appears in the Classic of History. The yu was adopted by the Korean court in ancient times, where it was known as uh, and is still used in Confucian ritual music. |
| Yunluo |  | China | Yunluo (云锣; literally "cloud gongs" or "cloud of gongs") is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. The yunluo is a set of usually ten small tuned gongs mounted in a wooden frame, with each gong being about 9-12 cm in diameter, and the height of the frame being about 52 cm. The yunluo's gongs are generally of equal diameter but different thicknesses; the thicker gongs produce a higher pitch. It is often used in wind and percussion ensembles in northern China. The image shows a ten-gong yunluo used by a Nakhi (Naxi) band of China. |
| Zil |  | Turkey | Zils, also zills or finger cymbals, (from Turkish zil, "cymbals") are tiny cymbals used in belly dancing and similar performances. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. Zils commonly have a diameter of about 5 cm (2 in). Accomplished dancers will often have a second - slightly larger - set for use in noisy situations. A set of zils consists of four cymbals, two for each hand. |
| Zimbelstern |  | Germany | The Zimbelstern (Meaning "Cymbal Star" in German, also spelled Cymbelstern or Zymbelstern) is a "toy" organ stop consisting of a metal or wooden star or wheel on which several small bells are mounted. When engaged, the star rotates, producing a continuous tinkling sound. It was common in northern Europe, Germany in particular, throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. After about 1700, the bells were tuned to particular notes. |
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