Which instrument is a percussion idiophone?

Study for the Praxis Music Content and Instruction (5114) Test. Prepare with multiple choice questions and materials, complete with explanations and clarifications. Master the content and excel in your exam!

Multiple Choice

Which instrument is a percussion idiophone?

Explanation:
Sound comes from the instrument’s own vibrating body. That’s what defines an idiophone in percussion: the material itself vibrates to produce the sound when it’s struck or otherwise excited. The xylophone fits this perfectly—the wooden bars vibrate and generate pitch directly when struck with mallets, making it a percussion idiophone. A drum, on the other hand, produces sound mainly through a stretched membrane that vibrates, so it’s a membranophone. The saxophone and clarinet produce sound from vibrating air in a column created by a reed, which makes them aerophones. So the instrument that is a percussion idiophone is the xylophone.

Sound comes from the instrument’s own vibrating body. That’s what defines an idiophone in percussion: the material itself vibrates to produce the sound when it’s struck or otherwise excited. The xylophone fits this perfectly—the wooden bars vibrate and generate pitch directly when struck with mallets, making it a percussion idiophone. A drum, on the other hand, produces sound mainly through a stretched membrane that vibrates, so it’s a membranophone. The saxophone and clarinet produce sound from vibrating air in a column created by a reed, which makes them aerophones. So the instrument that is a percussion idiophone is the xylophone.

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