page_title: Classification of percussion instruments
section_title: Orchestral percussion
hierarchical_section_title: Classification of percussion instruments / By tradition / Western music / Orchestral percussion
caption_attribution_description: English: Acme Thunderer and Metropolitan police whistles in the submitter's collection.
context_page_description: There are several overlapping schemes for the classification of percussion instruments.
  These schemes are based on four types of criteria:
  The means by which the sound is produced. The most widely used classification system for musical instruments, Hornbostel–Sachs, takes this approach.
  Musical usage, in particular the traditional division into tuned percussion and untuned percussion, and the similar and more modern division into pitched percussion and unpitched percussion.
  The means of playing the instrument and skills required to play it, for example the grouping together of mallet percussion instruments, or of hand percussion instruments. This underlies the division of the orchestral percussion section into auxiliary percussion, tuned percussion and timpani, and is the reason percussive keyboard instruments such as the celesta are excluded from the percussion section.
  Origins, cultural significance or tradition, for example grouping instruments as Latin percussion or as African drums. This criterion overlaps but is not a subset of the usage criterion; Both Latin percussion and African drums also refer to some extent to current usage.
context_section_description: An orchestral percussion section is traditionally divided into:
  Tuned percussion, consisting of pitched percussion instruments.
  Auxiliary percussion, consisting of unpitched percussion instruments.
  Timpani.
  Keyboard instruments such as the celesta are not normally part of the percussion section, as the playing skills required are significantly different.
caption: Although they are aerophones, whistles such as these are played by percussionists in the orchestra
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