Japanese Percussion Ensemble (Group)

Look and LIsten for:

1. Skin

2. Wood (sticks on side of drum)

3. Dance

4. Voice

Watch with another person  and answer our 5 questions?

1) Who is making the music?

2) Where are they?

3) Is there an audience?

4) What are they wearing?

5) Why are they making music?

Bonus Question: Is this a percussion instrument?

Did you notice:

• The body of the drum is made of wood

• The snares are made of metal and vibrate when you hit the drum

• You can turn the snares on and off, on the side of the drum

• The shiny outside is just paint

• The part of a drum that you hit is called the "head"

• A snare drum sits right in front of the drummer in a drum set.

• You play a snare drum with drumsticks, not your hand

Bonus: This instrument has metal, wood and skin.  How does it make its sound? If the snares are on: metal and skin.  If the snares are off, just skin. 

The Timpani 

• Timpani means one drum, or all of the drums

• Can also be called kettle drums

• The body of the drum is usually made of copper

• The different sized drums play different pitches

• You mostly tune the sound with a foot pedal under the drum

• You make small changes with the "fine tuners" on top

• Bigger drums make lower sounds

• You play timpani with mallets, not your hand

The Orff Family of Instruments

• In music class, we call our mallet instruments, Orff instruments

• They come in several sizes 

• They have a wooden body 

• They are usually played with medium hard mallets

• You usually sit on the floor to play them

• Wooden/Fiberglass bars = xylophones

• Metal bars = metallophone