Sound Effects

Sound effects are a very important part of the percussion instrument family. Understanding how to justify their place as percussion instruments is an important part of being a percussionist. Historically, gongs, cymbals, and other non-pitched instruments were used in orchestras, operas, and theater productions to represent sounds like thunder or noisy collisions. Later, sound effects like whistles, ratchets, slapsticks, woodblocks, bird calls, popguns, and hundreds of other instruments were used in theaters around the world to accompany silent films and theater productions. This pattern of percussive instrument use across performance barriers has led to an extremely wide mix of instruments and sound effects which populate the percussion instrument category. The scope of this video series of sound-making or effects instruments includes glasses, vibraslap, sandpaper blocks, ratchet, slap stick, popgun, flexatone, and many more.