Untuned percussion

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An untuned percussion instrument has no definite pitch and is usually meant for rhythmic purposes. Although untuned percussion instruments feature in most forms of music and are, arguably, the first form of musical instrument, they are not usually intended to as the main focus of most sorts of music - their role is more usually rhythmic or for effect. For example, the cannon shot in the 1812 Overture is considered a percussion part.

Instruments

The term "percussion", in a musical sense, encompasses a wide aray of instruments, and they cover a wide range of sounds. For the most part, though, they consist of membranophones, such as the tom tom, the snare drum, and the bass drum. Also included in this category are various forms of cymbals. There are other types of untuned percussion instruments, and they would fit well in this category, except for the fact that they fit better as members of more particular, specific categories of percussion instruments. See Latin percussion and Auxiliary percussion.

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