Drum

For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation).

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A drum is a musical instrument in the percussion family , technically classified as a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drumskin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound. Drums are among the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has been virtually unchanged for hundreds of years.

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The shell almost invariably has a circular opening over which the drumhead is stretched, but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely. In the western musical tradition, the most usual shape is a cylinder, although timpani for example use bowl-shaped shells. Other shapes include truncated cones (bongo drums) and joined truncated cones (talking drum).

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Drums with cylindrical shells can be open at one end (as in the timbales) or, more commonly in the Western tradition, they can have another drum head. Sometimes they have a solid shell with no holes in at all though this is rare. It is usual for a drum to have some sort of hole in to let air move through the drum when it is struck. This gives a louder and longer ring to the notes of the drum, so drums with two heads covering both ends of a tubular shell often have a small hole halfway between the 2 drumheads. The membrane is struck, either with the hand or with a drumstick, and the shell forms a resonating chamber for the resulting sound. The sound of a drum depends on several variables including shell shape, size, thickness of shell, materials of the shell, type of drumhead, tension of the drumhead, position of the drum, location, and how it is struck.

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In lots of popular music and jazz, drums usually refers to a drum kit or set of drums, and drummer to the band member or person who plays them. Drums are also played by percussionist's who skills can be called for in all areas of music from Classical to Heavy Rock & all areas in between.

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In the past, drums were used as a means of communication and not just for their musical qualities. - see drum (communication).

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Musical instrument: A musical instrument is a device that has been constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound, and can somehow be controlled by a musician, can serve as a musical instrument; but the expression is reserved generally to items that have that specif...

Percussion: Percussion may refer to:...

Membranophone: A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, the other three being idiophone, chordophone and aerop...

Drum related Images and Photos (experimental)

Drum Men	Drum Beats	Drum Kit Keychain	USB Drum Kit
Drum Beat 1954	Street Drum Corps.: Street Drum Corps	Street Drum Corps.: Street Drum Corps	Drum Kit T-Shirt
Red Drum Beauty	Flower Drum Song DVD (Widescreen)	Drum Beat Alan Ladd 1954	Electronic Drum Kit Shirt