Percussion Trivia

1. Which Cuban drum, whose beat may make you want to dance in a line, is also known as a tumbadora?

From Quiz Latin-American Percussion Instruments

Answer: conga

The conga is a tall and narrow, barrel-shaped drum, traditionally used in Afro-Cuban music, like the Conga and the Rumba. It can also be found in some other rhythms, such as Cumbia, Merengue, and Punta. The conga line is a famous dance that many people do whenever they hear conga music. The drum originated in Cuba, but it has influences from African culture. Originally, musicians would have just played a single conga drum, but innovations and changes in the drum's construction in the 20th century contributed to the increasing popularity for drummers to play two or three congas, instead of the traditional single drum.

From Quiz The Beat of the Djembe Drum

Answer: A hand drum

A common misconception about djembe drums is that they are a type of bongo drum - which is completely untrue. A djembe is a type of hand drum, meaning that it is meant to be played ONLY with one's hands, and not a type of mallet (as there is a good chance of tearing right through the skin if one does so). While the same can be said of bongo drums (which are sometimes classified as hand drums), bongos are typically played by having two small drums attached to each other, whilst only one djembe is played at a time (although some professional drumming circles might occasionally tie two djembes together!) The djembe drum is also a member of the membraphone family, membraphone meaning that it is a shell or a frame covered by a drum head.

From Quiz Percussionists Have the Most Fun

Answer: triangle

The triangle often shows up in Western movies, attached to the chuck wagon. Cookie, so the cliche goes, rings it to bring in the cowboys for chow. Orchestral triangles are much smaller and softer than the cowboy version.

From Quiz Now Listen While I Play My Green Tambourine

Answer: jingles

The jingles, discs of metal set into the sides of the tambourine, set it apart from other drums. Tambourines may be made with our without drumheads, though the ones used in orchestras typically have a single drumhead.

From Quiz Percussion: Beyond the Drums

Answer: Tubular Bells

"Tubular Bells" was a largely instrumental album consisting of a continuous piece of music covering several genres. Oldfield played numerous instruments on the unusual album, and it was the first to appear on Richard Branson's Virgin Records label. The tubular bells instrument consists of metal tubes of various lengths which are played with a soft-covered "hammer" (not a construction hammer, although some artist somewhere has probably experimented with that sound). Incidentally, the cover art for the album depicts a bent tubular bell which Oldfield reportedly dented while recording the album.

From Quiz The Beat of the Djembe Drum

Answer: Bass, tone, and slap

There are three primary types of sounds that can be produced using the djembe drum, although other tones can be produced using combinations or variations of the three basic ones. A bass tone is the lowest of the three notes. It's played by hitting the very centre of the drum. A tone is played on the side of the drum, with the players fingers held together in a relaxed and comfortable fashion. The place where your fingers meet your hand is met by the edge of the drum. A tone has a nice full, round sound, and is generally the softest of all the notes. A slap is a much louder and sharper sound than the tone. Unlike the tone, the edge of the drum meets the middle of your hand (I'm not much of a palmist, but roughly where your head line begins). The sound is made by quickly bringing your relaxed and separated fingers down, and quickly pulled away. The slap, by and large, is the hardest djembe tone to properly master. Something that beginner djembe players fail to realise is that the whole point of a djembe is the idea that maximum effect is achieved with minimum effort. Many think that the harder they hit the drum, the better they'll sound, which is most definitely not the case.

From Quiz Percussionists Have the Most Fun

Answer: Sleigh Ride

The whip isn't a whip at all. It's two planks joined together by a hinge. The percussionist plays it by slapping the planks together. It's not a good idea to have one's fingers between the planks when they meet! Leroy Anderson also used sandpaper blocks and a typewriter in his compositions.

From Quiz Ay Marimba!

Answer: Zulus, South Africa

It is thought that the marimba was adapted from an old myth of the Zulus, where the goddess Marimba made an instrument with wooden keys held over hollowed out gourds and hit with beaters. The name is thought to have originated from this.

From Quiz Info on Xylophones

Answer: Tito Puente

He was a Latin jazz percussion player.

From Quiz Latin-American Percussion Instruments

Answer: woven reed or grass

Erikundi are usually smaller than maracas, and, though they are shaken like maracas, the sound quality is different due to the different material used to make them. Erikundi are generally made from woven grass or reed, and they may have a leather or gourd bottom, while maracas are usually made from gourds. The erikundi also has religious importance and is associated with rituals dealing with power, such as the Ekoria Itia Abakuá, which is celebrated in parts of Cuba.

From Quiz Percussion: Beyond the Drums

Answer: Tam-tam

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was an unlikely hit song with its mix of a cappella, opera and hard rock. It was also unique in that it scored well on the charts twice, two decades apart - first in the mid 1970s and again in the early 1990s, following the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury and the inclusion of the song in the movie "Wayne's World". The tam-tam is a suspended gong and is the main type of gong used in western orchestras. There are actually a variety of gongs - some flat, some raised, some bowl-shaped, and besides being used for music, they are also used as signals. Theatres will sometimes use a gong to indicate that a performance is about to begin, and the upper classes use them in their homes to call the family to dinner (so impress the neighbors, and get a gong).

From Quiz The Beat of the Djembe Drum

Answer: West Africa

The djembe drum can be found all over West Africa, where it originated, more specifically in Mali, as far back as the 12th century. The djembe can now be found all over the world. In 2007 during my visit to Canada, I was pleasantly surprised to find a shop which housed all sorts of African instruments, including the djembe drum (although they were a lot smaller than the traditional African ones).

From Quiz Now Listen While I Play My Green Tambourine

Answer: The Nutcracker

Tchaikovsky was fond of "unusual" orchestra instruments, and used the harp and celeste, along with the tambourine in "The Nutcracker". "The Nutcracker" suite, which was performed before the ballet was, became much more popular than the ballet, though the ballet has been gaining in popularity as a Christmas tradition.

From Quiz The Ubiquitous Kazoo

Answer: America

Yes, the kazoo is as American as apple pie, invented by a man named Alabama Vest in Macon, Georgia. He came up with the idea in the 1840's and teamed up with the German master clock-maker Thaddeus von Clegg to make it. However, metal kazoos weren't made until a taveling salesman named Emil Sorg teamed up with Michael McIntyre, a tool and die maker, to set up a factory in western New York in 1912. McIntyre later teamed up with Harry Richardson, a business owner, to produce the all-American kazoo.

From Quiz Ay Marimba!

Answer: Sebastian Hurtado

He adapted the marimba, which was introduced to the Americas by African slaves, by removing the hollowed gourd and replacing them with wooden resonator pipes.

From Quiz Latin-American Percussion Instruments

Answer: pannist

The pannist, or penman, plays the steel drum, and may play solo or as part of a band. The steel pan is a type of idiophone, or any instrument whose sound is produced by the whole instrument vibrating. While modern steel drums are made of industrial drums that have been chromatically pitched, the steel pan's first incarnation was a bamboo stick, called a tamboo-bamboo.

From Quiz Percussion: Beyond the Drums

Answer: Tambourine

"Mr. Tambourine Man" was the first hit single for The Byrds, and their version was actually released a couple of weeks prior to Dylan's version. Quite a few artists have had better luck with Dylan's songs than he did - I'm beginning to suspect that his voice is an acquired taste. Incidentally, Dylan's stark version didn't actually include a tambourine. The tambourine is usually a hand-held instrument that looks like a drumhead with tiny cymbals all around it, but there are different varieties of tambourines, some of which are mounted on stands and some of which are open with no drumhead. Since they require only rudimentary rhythm skills to play, they are often played by the least musically-inclined band member.

From Quiz The Beat of the Djembe Drum

Answer: The Mandinka people

The Mandinka people are a West African ethnic group, living in various West African countries such as Mali, Senegal and Sierra Leone. As of 2006, there are approximately 6.4 million Mandinka people left in the world. Their traditional language is also known as Mandinka (why thank you, Captain Obvious), but the large majority can either speak English or some other African dialect.

From Quiz Percussionists Have the Most Fun

Answer: taxi horns

The legend has it that Gershwin bought taxi horns in Paris and brought them to the US for the performance. Authentic sets of Parisian taxi horns are available for rent for performances of "An American in Paris".

From Quiz Now Listen While I Play My Green Tambourine

Answer: Petroushka

The Moor, carrying an axe, chases Petroushka across the stage, and finally catches and beheads him. Stravinsky's "Petroushka" was first composed in 1911, then revised in 1947. It was one of the three ballets, along with "The Firebird" and "The Rite of Spring" that Stravinsky composed for Serge Diaghilev's "Ballets Russes". Thanks to TabbyTom for reminding me of this.

From Quiz The Ubiquitous Kazoo

Answer: 1923

The kazoo was patented in 1923 by Michael McIntyre.

From Quiz Vibes

Answer: Honeydrippers

It was in the Honeydrippers music video "Sea of Love".

From Quiz Ay Marimba!

Answer: Guatemalan

The instrument was considered to have been improved extensively in South and Central America though the years. Improvements include the addition of keys, the fine tuning of the notes produced by keys, and the redesign of the resonator tubes which hang below.

From Quiz Info on Xylophones

Answer: 2

From Quiz Latin-American Percussion Instruments

Answer: Brazil

While it resembles a tambourine, the sound quality of the pandeiro is crisper and the tone doesn't last as long. It can traditionally be found in several Brazilian music genres, including Coco, Samba, and Capoeira. The pandeiro is a successor to the pandereta that was used in Spain and Portugal.

From Quiz Percussion: Beyond the Drums

Answer: Theremin

The theremin was invented in the early 1900s and was originally intended to play classical music. Its spooky sound, however, turned out to be a perfect fit for horror and sci-fi movies. The Beach Boys frequently get credit for bringing the theremin into pop music on their "Pet Sounds" album, but they actually used an electrotheremin (also known as a tannerin) which has a slide bar that allows for better control of the pitch and frequency of the sound. The theremin has been used by other artists though, such as "Weird Al" Yankovic and Warren Zevon and notably by Led Zeppelin on their song "Whole Lotta Love". The theremin looks more like a radio receiver than an instrument. It is played by moving your hands near the antenna which changes the pitch and frequency of the sound. Incidentally, there are instructions on the Internet for building your own theremin for the Nintendo Wii - another instrument for "Rock Band"!

From Quiz The Beat of the Djembe Drum

Answer: Goat skin

The djembe drum head is typically made with goat skin. It's believed that the best djembes come from Mali (where they were first made), as central African goats are believed to have the perfect climate and grazing conditions. They have also had a rougher experience than domesticated goats from other parts of the world, and thus their skin makes for the perfect drum head. Some drums are made from zebra, buck or calf skin, but this is not common, and do not yield results as good as a drum that uses goat skin. This sounds truly barbaric, but realise that the tribesmen that make these drums use the entire animal!

From Quiz Percussionists Have the Most Fun

Answer: anvils

Generally, a piece of railroad track substitutes for the anvil, though I have known percussionists who used a brake drum to good effect.

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