Percussion instruments?

Question:Can some one who plays the rattle, triangle, drums, or tambourine be considered a musician in the same senses as someone who can play a violin, saxaphone, accordion or trumpet?
do you agree or disagree the percussion instruments do not actually create musical sounds?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Can some one who plays the rattle, triangle, drums, or tambourine be considered a musician in the same senses as someone who can play a violin, saxaphone, accordion or trumpet?
do you agree or disagree the percussion instruments do not actually create musical sounds?

generally, a percussionist is supposed to be able to handle all or most percussion instruments in the orchestra. This includes a basic triangle to a xylophone and everything inbetween.

I think that percussionists have a very demanding role as they have to learn the techniques for all these instruments and in a single performance play many of them one after another or sometimes 2 at once! They also have to replace them very gently down and race to the next instrument.

They certainly do create musical sounds. They create dynamics, atmosphere, melody, rhythm, tone, tempo etc. Several composers have written compositions for percussion alone... they are great!

A lot of people may not realise that the percussion score is quite complex as it contains several parts at once. There are lots of rest to count which is harder than you think!

I bow down to any percussionist, they can do it all and more.

yes! drums are one of the oldest, if not the oldest musical instruments in the world. without percussion and rhythm music would be choppy, inacurate, and completely unintertaining! (yes, im a drummer!).

I'll note that most percussionists play not only the untuned idiophones, but also xylophone, glockenspiel, tympani, orchestra bells, and celesta. All of which, of course, are fully capable melody instruments.

Moreover, most symphonic percussionists are thoroughly trained musicians. I once directed a childrens' choir and our accompanist was a percussionist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra--and her piano playing was more solid than my conducting!

This kind of reminds of of the old gag about Irish bands--everyone gets to look down on the bodhran player...

yeah because we play more stuff then they do. we r the rhythm of the band we keep them goin. u know how many people that play saxaphone and trument and violin and stuff can't we play nothing that percussionist plays. on the mallets percussion we sometimes use 4 mallets at a time. we sometimes have a setup of more then 10 intruments per person

People who feel that percussion is less demanding than other musical pursuits often have limited perspective. For instance, it would be hard to hold that opinion after hearing the gamelan orchestras of Indonesia; these ensembles play music of a level of complexity not able to be comprehended by most Western ears. African percussion traditions are likewise incredibly intricate. African drummers sometimes play patterns which can imply three or four odd-time signatures at once, something few American or European musicians can even imagine.

Most non-percussionists focus on melody and harmony, which basically involves various combinations of only twelve notes (Western scale) per key. Percussionists focus on rhythm, which is the interweaving of a literally limitless range of timing intervals and patterns. Accordingly, proficient percussionists must be considered at least as skilled as their non-percussive peers.

Ditto to all the answers above, and I'll add a bit more. As principle percussionist in two orchestras, I can tell you that the hardest position to fill (in my personal experience) is an auxiliary percussionist (playing all the shakers, woodblocks, and other "noisemakers"). Many people, including percussionists, don't realize this, but there are very precise and specific techniques required to produce a good and appropriate tone on these instruments. Most of the time when I decide not to ask a percussionist back it's not because of lack of reading ability or poor performance on snare drum or mallets, it's poor execution and lack of musicality on a triangle or tambourine!

Just because an instrument isn't variable in pitch, doesn't mean it isn't an instrument! Percussion instruments aren't that different from pianos (which many consider percussion), harp, and guitar - all you have to do is push a button or pluck a string, but in the hands of a master, so much more is possible!

To a person not trained as a percussionist I can see this type of attitude towards it. On the surface it looks simplistic. By the way I'm a trumpet player and former band director. I'm not saying that playing percussion instruments is a terribly difficult task as opposed to other instruments, but it is not as easy and simple as you may think. A true percussionist has to be able to play it all, snare, bass, timpani, mallets, and auxillary percussion. You not going to go far playing only triangle. Each instrument has it's own technique and variations based on style.

Since I mentioned triangle lets look at that. Did you know they come in different sizes and thickness. This alters the tone and pitch of the triangle. There are numerous techniques needed other than the country dinner call. There is a roll, that sounds different at different points on the triangle. In various styles including Latin the player uses his free hand to mute the triangle to allow a more short staccato sound. Combinations of hands on and off the trianglel gives a variety of sound effects. Again, were not talking rocket science, but it's more complicated than most people give credit for.

drums are the worlds' oldest instruments . have been playing music since i was 4 and think you need to do a bit more research . drums are the rhythm backbone of any band . i think you need to listen to some led zep or rush and see if you still want to ask that question . they are most definitely musicians.