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Music vocabulary · Instruments and Voice

Percussion

Meaning in music, with examples

/pərˈkʌʃən/nounCore term

In music, percussion means: Instruments played by hitting, shaking or scraping them, such as drums, cymbals, the xylophone, the tambourine and the darbuka.

In Turkish: vurmalı çalgılar, perküsyon

How it is used

An orchestra has a percussion section; bands may add a percussionist next to the drummer. Percussion can be pitched (timpani, marimba) or unpitched (snare drum, shaker). In pop credits, 'percussion' usually means extra hand percussion.

Example sentences

  1. The percussion section needs extra space on stage for the timpani.

  2. We added darbuka and frame drum percussion to give the track a local feel.

Common collocations

  • percussion section
  • hand percussion
  • percussion instrument
  • on percussion
  • percussionist
  • instrumentAn object made or used to produce musical sounds, such as a piano, violin, guitar, drum or ney.
  • rhythmThe pattern of long and short sounds and silences in music, and how they are placed in time against the beat.
  • orchestraA large group of musicians playing string, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments together, usually led by a conductor.
  • grooveThe rhythmic feel of a piece that makes people want to move, created mainly by the drums and bass locking together.
  • stringsThe section of instruments played with a bow, mainly violins, violas, cellos and double basses. It also means the actual strings on an instrument such as a guitar.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Instruments and Voice

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