Shake, Rattle and Roll Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cabasa

To play a cabasa, you hold the instrument by the handle with your strong hand, and rest the beads in your weak hand lightly. Then all you have to do is twist the handle to make the noise. Or if you like, you can just hold it and shake it.

Cabasas were originally made with wooden beads in a net around a hollow gourd, but the metal and wood version in the picture was invented by Martin Cohen.

Answer: True

They most definitely ARE called maracas. To play them properly, you hold them together in one hand and shake them together. One should make a higher-pitched sound than the other, which is why two maracas are played together.

Maracas are sometimes also called rumba shakers, and have been around for a long time. One archaeological dig in Colombia found maracas that were 1500 years old!

Answer: Ratchet

The ratchet has a grooved gearwheel that you turn with a handle. When you turn this version of a ratchet, there are four thin slats of wood that get caught in the grooves and make a loud click as they move from groove to groove.

There are also ratchets that you play by holding a handle and spinning the slats around in a circle, with the top of the handle having the gearwheel. As they are very loud, they are often used in parades, and sometimes as warning devices (kind of like a siren).

Answer: Sleigh bells

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?"

Shaking these bells sounds just like the bells on a horse's harness. We often associate these bells with Christmas, but the bells had a practical purpose - they would warn people that a horse was coming so they could get out of the way!

Answer: Rain stick

Rain sticks are called rain sticks for two reasons. Firstly, when you turn one over, it makes a sound like rain when all the beads on the inside cascade down to the other end. Secondly, when they were originally made by the Aztec people, it was believed that playing a rain stick would bring rainstorms.

Answer: False

These aren't castanets! They are called exactly what they look like: egg shakers. They are made of moulded plastic and filled with seeds or beads to make a sound similar to the sound maracas make.

Answer: Any of these will work.

You can hold these jingle bells with your hands, or wear them on your wrists or ankles and dance around to make all sorts of joyful noises! They are mainly used at Christmas time, but can really be added to any song you want.

Answer: Tambourine

Tambourines come in many shapes and sizes, sometimes with skins and sometimes without. The little metal jingles are called zils, and they make a jangly sound when you shake or hit the tambourine. When tambourines have a skin, they also have a bit of a 'boom' along with the jangle.

How do you 'roll' a tambourine? You can either shake it quickly by rotating your hand at the wrist, or you can do a 'thumb roll', where you rub your thumb along the skin or rim, using the friction to make the zils rattle.

Answer: Jingle stick

A couple of zils (or jingles) attached loosely to the end of a stick is all this instrument is. It's like one little piece from a tambourine. Just shake to make music!

Answer: Güiro

The güiro is a hollow, cylindrical instrument (originally made from a gourd) with grooves notched into its sides. When you scrape a stick across the grooves, you get a ratchet-like sound or rasp that is amplified by the sound holes. It is commonly used in Latin-American music.