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Unpitched percussion instrument

An unpitched percussion instrument is a percussion instrument played in such a way as to produce sounds of indeterminate pitch, or an instrument normally played in this fashion.

Unpitched percussion is typically used to maintain a rhythm or to provide accents, and its sounds are unrelated to the melody and harmony of the music. Within the orchestra, unpitched percussion is termed auxiliary percussion, and this subsection of the percussion section includes all unpitched instruments of the orchestra however they are played, for example the pea whistle and siren.


A common and typical example of an unpitched instrument is the snare drum, which is perceived as unpitched for three reasons:


The snare drum illustrates the three main ways in which a sound can be perceived as indeterminate in pitch:


In practice, two or all of these mechanisms are frequently in effect in producing the sensation of an instrument being unpitched, but any one can be sufficient.


Many unpitched percussion instruments do, or can, produce a sound with a recognisable fundamental frequency, and so can also be used as pitched percussion. The pitch of a bell is particularly strong however struck. The sound of a floor tom played with normal drumsticks is inharmonic, but the same drum played with the mallets and in the fashion of a timpani can produce a recognisable pitch, without requiring any retuning.


More radically, pitched instruments can be used to produce unpitched sounds, for example a prepared piano, or the golpe technique of flamenco music.

The smaller of a set of two or bongo drums is tuned higher than the larger.

timbales

The smaller in a drum kit are tuned higher than the larger ones. Three or more tom-toms are common, each tuned higher than the larger ones and lower than the smaller ones.

tom-tom drums

The male pair in a set of is lower in pitch than the female.

castanets

Within a set of unpitched percussion instruments, there is commonly a sense of higher and lower pitch, for example:


These pitches however:


If either of these two conditions is not met, then the instrument could be considered pitched.

Nearly all .

cymbals

Most .

drums

All , for example maracas.

rattles

The .

triangle

Many untuned percussion instruments are tuned by the player, for example the , but this tuning does not relate to producing a perceived pitch.

snare drum

Many percussion instruments are used in both pitched and unpitched roles in different styles or pieces of music, for example the , and during the 20th century there was much experimentation in using instruments normally used in one role or the other for the opposite role, further blurring the distinction between the two types. The term unpitched refers to the usage and perception of the sound of the instrument rather than simply to its sound, which is the more recent approach.

cowbell

Traditionally, unpitched percussion instruments are referred to as untuned percussion, and this remains a common concept and term, and a common name for the auxiliary percussion subsection of the percussion section of the orchestra. However, the terms tuned percussion and untuned percussion are avoided in recent organology, for two main reasons:

Classification of percussion instruments

Inharmonicity

List of percussion instruments

Percussion notation

Pitched percussion instrument