Auxiliary Percussion

Basic Auxiliary Percussion

• Used for special effect sounds
• Used to provide comical sounds or to stimulate a known sound

If you listen closely enough to the following song you can hear some auxiliary instruments

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Que_oPWNo
  

Examples:

ACME Siren

This is a small version of early police and fire sirens that were mounted on vehicles and cranked by hand to rotate the blades. This is a sound effect that is normally used for humorous effects in music and to add extra comic effect for sight gags on stage and in cartoons.

Bird Whistles

The bird whistle is a hand-held mouth-blown instrument that can be made out of metal, wood, or plastic. They are created like a simple closed flue pipe with a tube leading through the instrument that splits the air stream to create the whistle sound. The tube then leads to a chamber with water. The air is forced to agitate the water and produce a high-pitched gurgling sound that combines with the whistle to imitate the chirping of a bird. A screw on the top of the chamber can be used to adjust the degree of water agitation and change the quality of the sound to have more or less chirping quality.

Finger cymbals

Finger cymbals were used together with a frame drum, during religious rites and at secular dances. Forked cymbals known as crotala traveled from Egypt to Greece and Rome, and finger cymbals were introduced from the East, chiefly for dancers, a pair being attached to the thumb and middle finger of each hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G5T_hWWrF4

Slap Sticks

An instrument that creates a loud clapping or slapping sound, often called a whip. This instrument has been used in the theatre for hundreds of years. Through the years, the slapstick has been used extensively to add extra comic effect for sight gags in theatre, vaudeville, and in cartoons. It is used as the sound of whips in a number of classical and more contemporary compositions.

Triangle

The exact origins of the triangle instrument are unknown, but a number of paintings from the Middle Ages depict the instrument being played by angels, which has led to the belief that it played some part in church services at that time. Other paintings show it being used in folk bands. The triangle started appearing in marching bands as early as the 1700s.

Tambourine

All of the major civilizations of the ancient world could justifiably make claim to the invention and origins of the tambourine. Seen across ancient history and texts across the settled world, from India to the Roman Empire, to the Far East, to the cradle of civilization in Mesopotamia, many of these regions likely cultivated the instrument around the same time, with or without knowledge of it from neighboring regions.

Cowbell

While the cowbell is commonly found in musical contexts, its origin can be traced to freely roaming animals. In order to help identify the herd to which these animals belonged herdsmen placed these bells around the animal's neck. As the animals moved about the bell would ring, thus making it easier to know of the animal's whereabouts. Though the bells were used on various types of animals, they are typically referred to as "cowbells" due to their extensive use with cattle.

This is a video about the cowbell. It is kind of poking fun at how one may choose to play the cowbell but it is all in good fun and it is kind of funny. The second link is the real verson of how to play a cowbell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT4cGVNuSnA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUIG2LX3zqY

Mallet Percussion

Basic Mallet Info

• First fully developed xylophone dates to 3500 BCE
• Variations appeared in Africa and Asia in 1300s
• Africans changed name to marimba
• Slave trade transported marimba to Latin America
• First appearance in European orchestras in 1874

In general, mallet percussion instruments are chromatically tuned bars, either metal or wood, strung over a frame. Each bar has a sealed resonator tube under it to allow for amplification and resonance. They are played with mallets--wooden rods with a plastic or rubber ball on the end and sometimes covered in yarn.

Vibes and Glockenspiel

The vibraphone (or vibes) is very popular in jazz music. Percussionists playing this instrument will play a variety of parts, including both melody and chords. It is commonly played with 4 mallets, two in each hand. The instrument itself works by striking the tuned aluminum bars, or keys, with mallets; the sound then reverberates through resonator tubes which are equipped with motorized butterfly valves, rotating disks that close and open the tubes. This creates a vibrato effect in the sound when played. If a player uses the sustaining pedal, the sound will resonate longer than if the pedal is up.

The glockenspiel, or bells, is often used in marching or military bands but can be found in all forms of music. It has metal tone bars that are much higher in pitch than many of members of the mallet family, producing a clear, bright, bell tone. Usually harder mallets are used to strike each bar.


Marimba
The marimba was born when its precursor, the xylophone, was brought to Africa and the Americas. It has tone bars made of rosewood which is found in the tropical rain forests common in those parts of the globe. Due to the shortage of such wood in present day, fiberglass alternatives are being used in conservation efforts. Originally introduced in North America in 1908, the marimba has 4-5 octaves of keys and is sometimes played by 3-5 people at a time.

Xylophone
This instrument, the most well known of mallet percussion, is named for the Greek words "xylon," which means wood, and "phone," which means sound. The major differences between the xylophone and other mallet percussion are that the wooden bars produce a short sound, hard mallets are used, and they are rarely used as a solo instrument. In its early years, the xylophone was merely two wooden bars placed across a players lap. Since then, it has developed into a frame-mounted instrument with connections to music, especially the ethnic genre, across the globe.
A very popular and good example of xylophone playing is in Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals, in the movement entitled "Fossils." The xylophone is the featured instrument in this part of the work.



Indonesian Gamelan
A traditional gamelan is a sort of percussion ensemble, including both pitched mallet instruments and other non-pitched members of the percussion family. The ensemble includes metallophones (metal bars laid in single row and struck like a glockenspiel), xylophones (gambang; with wooden bars instead of metal), drums, gongs, and sometimes bamboo flutes, strings, and vocalists.