An idiophone is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself, without the use of strings or membranes. It is one of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification. Idiophones are probably the oldest type of musical instrument (not counting the human voice). A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... Hornbostel-Sachs (or Sachs-Hornbostel) is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Musik in 1914. ... At various times, and in various different cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used. ... The human voice consists of sound made by a human using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, screaming. ...

In the early classification of Victor Mahillon, this group of instruments was called autophones.

Most percussion instruments which are not drums are idiophones. Hornbostel-Sachs divides idiophones into four main sub-categories. The first division is the struck idiophones (sometimes called concussion idiophones). This includes most of the non-drum percussion instruments familiar in the west. They include all idiophones which are made to vibrate by being hit, either directly with a stick or hand (like the wood block, singing bowl, triangle or marimba), or indirectly, by way of a scraping or shaking motion (like maracas or flexatone). Various types of bells fall into both categories. A percussion instrument can be any object which produces a sound by being struck with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. ... A drum is a musical instrument in the percussion family, technically classified as a membranophone. ... Wood block Tubular wood block A wood block is essentially a small slit drum made from a single piece of wood and used as a percussion instrument. ... Rin gong at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto Singing bowls (also known as Himalayan bowls or rin gongs in Japan) are type of musical instrument classified as a standing bell. ... An old-fashioned triangle, with wand (beater) Angelika Kauffmann: LAllegra, 1779 The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. ... The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. ... Maracas (sometimes called rhumba shakers) are simple percussion instruments (idiophones), usually played in pairs, consisting of a dried gourd shell (cuia - kOO-ya) or coconut shell filled with seeds or dried beans. ... Flexatone The flexatone is a modern percussion instrument (an indirectly struck idiophone) consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle. ... A bell is a simple sound-making device. ...

The other three sub-divisions are rarer. They are plucked idiophones, such as the jew's harp, music box or mbira (thumb piano); blown idiophones, of which there are a very small number of examples, the Aeolsklavier being one; and friction idiophones, such as the singing bowl, glass harmonica, glass harp, verrophone, daxophone, styrophone, musical saw, or nail violin (a number of pieces of metal or wood rubbed with a bow). A number of idiophones that are normally struck, such as vibraphone bars and cymbals, can also be bowed. Jews harp, from an American Civil War camp near Winchester, Virginia A modern jews harp The Jews harp, jaw harp, or mouth harp is thought to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese... A musical box (or music box) is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder so as to strike the tuned teeth of a steel comb. ... Mbira Dzavadzimu in deze (top), Mbira Nyunga Nyunga (bottom), Hosho (bottom left). ... An aeolsklavier is a musical instrument, in which objects vibrate when air is blown onto them. ... Rin gong at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto Singing bowls (also known as Himalayan bowls or rin gongs in Japan) are type of musical instrument classified as a standing bell. ... An Armonica. ... Glass Harp was a Youngstown, Ohio based power trio consisting of guitarist Phil Keaggy, drummer John Sferra and bassist Dan Pecchio. ... A verrophone is a musical instrument, invented in 1983, by Reckert, in which open-ended glass tubes are arranged in various sizes (usually in a chromatic scale, arranged from large to small, like the pipes of a pipe organ). ... The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is a musical instrument of the idiophone category. ... The styrophone is a modern musical instrument made from a Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene foam) box that is forced to vibrate by friction against a wooden stick. ... Playing a musical saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical instrument. ... The nail violin is a musical instrument which was invented by Johann Wilde. ... A typical Ludwig-Musser vibraphone. ... It is also possible that you want to know about the Cymbalum instrument. ...

Mallet-struck tuned percussion

A number of instruments fall into a sub-class within this group, and relate directly to the classification, tuned percussion. They are struck with mallets or with sticks. The term Tuned percussion refers to any number of percussion instruments that are tuned to and played in a particular pitch. ... A pair of drum sticks. ...

They include:

• marimbas
• xylophones
• vibraphones

See also

• Tuned percussion