idiophones

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
I was reading about cymbals and I heard them referred to as idiophones. Can anyone confirm this? Say it aint so!
 
Absolutely. An idiophone is any non-drum instrument that creates sound by vibrating itself, including when struck. Thus cymbals and most non-drum percussion instruments are idiophones...triangles, shakers, bells, marimbas, etc are all idiophones.
 
And, in case it makes people wonder, drums aren't idiophones because they are membranophones. The sound isn't produced (primarily) by the whole instrument vibrating, but by the vibrations of a stretched membrane (head).
 
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