Is A Xylophone A Percussion Instrument?



The short answer to this question is yes.
An Xylophone is indeed a percussion instrument.

There is sheer joy in being able to play a music instrument and making music. Music unites people, it promotes creativity, stimulates the mind, and being able to play an instrument stays with you for a lifetime. Awakening a child’s love for music is highly beneficial and it is small wonder that the Chinese philosopher Confucius said that music produces a pleasure which human nature can’t do without. The basics learned as a child can open the door to more advanced music and participation in bands and orchestras.

  • An Exciting Sound from the Xylophone

Music instruments fall into different groups, and the instruments of an orchestra for instance will include woodwind instruments, string, brass and percussion instruments. If you play in an orchestra, the percussion instruments are those which makes a sound once they are hit or shaken with a certain amount of strength and in the right place.
The xylophone is a percussion instrument which is tuned to sound different notes. The xylophone’s unique sound adds an exciting and necessary sound in a band or orchestra. The instrument is widely used in symphony orchestras and its sound, a high sharp, short sound, creates sought after special effects, which made it a popular instrument with early jazz bands in the 1930s.

  • The Xylophone Has Been Around for a Long Time

The earliest evidence of a xylophone is from Southeast Asia and from the 9th Century already. Many forms of xylophones are found in Africa today. Most keys on xylophones increase in pitch from left to right, but there are models in which the keys increase in pitch outward from the center. This is mostly with xylophones from Africa where they make provision for the natural movement of the arms. Western xylophone’s keys are arranged in two rows.

The xylophone is a percussion instrument made up of wooden, metal or bamboo bars which the musician strikes with a mallet. Two mallets are mostly used to play the orchestral xylophone. They can either be made of wood, plastic or rubber. The marimba is a larger version of the xylophone with a mellower sound, but you can change the quality of the pitch by using different mallets and also by striking the bars in different ways.

  • A Sought After Percussion Instrument

Each of the bars on the xylophone is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale. An idiophone is a music instrument which creates sound by way of the instrument’s vibrating, without the use of strings. At the bottom of the bars are metal tubes known as resonators and this is where the sound vibrates, giving the xylophone a bell-like sound.
The xylophone is a sought after percussion instrument with percussionists often playing a glockenspiel with hard mallets. This is a miniature xylophone with metal bars and the sound coming from this xylophone are like a clear tinkling bell.

The keys of the xylophone can be fixed or removable, with the standard orchestral xylophone being arranged like a piano keyboard. The xylophone can be used for solo work and for backup and you will find it being used in orchestral works such as Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly as well as Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird among others.

  • The Xylophone is Loved by All Level of Musicians

The sounds from a xylophone depend much on the person playing them, and skilled and talent musicians get the most melodious sounds from the wonderful xylophone. They are the perfect instrument for a young child to get going with making music and are used at schools for ensemble playing . Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional musician, being able to play the xylophone; a percussion instrument, will simply enhance your musical experience.

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