World Percussion

About World Percussion

Percussion instruments are arguably the most straightforward family of instruments in the world. As a result they're used in some form by virtually every culture each of which has developed its own unique collection of drums hand percussion and related instruments. In many cases these are natural evolutions of improvised rhythm tools: for instance the roots of the wooden cajon are thought to go back to resourceful Afro-Peruvians drumming on crates. Other world percussion instruments - including the very well-known conga djembe and bongos - are varieties of drums. These are usually played with the hands employing different strokes and striking different areas of the drum head to produce a wide range of possible sounds.

Many of the world's percussion instruments are able to provide effects for the music in addition to making rhythmic contributions. Hand percussion has many examples of this from popular instruments like the tambourine maracas and wood blocks to rarer types including chimes, cabasas, and guiros. Specialty instruments like these are available from many of the leading world percussion brands such as LP (short for Latin Percussion) and Meinl although there are some manufacturers who specialize - as a case in point Remo and Pearl are drum makers and their contributions to the world percussion market are largely exclusive to various styles of drum.