Sep 09
28
Percussion drums
Percussion Drums
Percussion drums produce rhythmic sounds or beats when their head is struck and are used in conjugation with other musical instruments or even for solo performances. Percussion drums are of many forms and are mainly comprised of bongos, conga, timpani, bass drum, tom-tom, snare drum, diebe, tabla etc.
Many of the above forms of drums produce sound when their skin is hit with a stick or with the hand, called struck drums while some of these produce sound when a knotted string attached to the skin is pulled, commonly known as string drums. Last but not least are the friction percussion drums where the skin vibrates on some sort of rubbing motion.
Percussion drums come in varied shapes, each of them following a unique technique. For instance, cylindrical drums are two-headed and straight-sided drums, examples include bass drums; Kettle drums have a pot shaped body like timpani; Conical drums are one-headed sloped drums like tabla; Long drums are exceptionally long and include hollow tree trunk drums of Africa; Goblet Drums are goblet shaped, and generally open at the bottom like the Arab Darabukka.
Bass Drum
Percussion drums are known for their melodious sounds and are used in different countries in different forms for the production of music. For example, Tom-Tom has originated from Native America and Asia, the Bass Drum was imported from Middle East, Conga and is associated with Central Africa, Bongos are Cuban percussion drums and Tablas are the most popular Indian percussion drums.