| The drum kit is one of the defining symbols of | | | | have clappers, but are rather hollow, metal, |
| rock and roll. A set of usually four or five drums, | | | | semi-conical instruments that are meant to be |
| these instruments are as memorable for their | | | | played with a drumstick. Despite its unassuming |
| look as for their music. Yet when listening to a | | | | name and appearance, the cowbell is used in |
| drummer rip through a drum solo, it is not just | | | | various types of music, including salsa, pop and |
| the sounds of the drums that stand out, but the | | | | even R&B and hip hop. Certain cowbells are used |
| sounds of other percussion instruments as well. | | | | for their distinctive sounds, some of which sound |
| Drum kits can include a number of other | | | | nothing like an actual cowbell. In a drum kit, a |
| percussion possibilities besides the drum, including | | | | cowbell can either be hooked to the stand for |
| cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, | | | | cymbals or provided with a stand of its own. |
| tambourines and of course, cymbals. Each of | | | | Musical triangles, which some believe to have been |
| these lends a certain quality to the music created | | | | around since the Middle Ages, are also used in |
| by the drummer, and each has an accepted place | | | | drum kits. These instruments are typically made |
| in the drum kit. | | | | of steel and, as the name suggests, in the shape |
| Cymbals are probably the most common and | | | | of a triangle. They are played with a specially |
| certainly the most dramatic of the non-drum | | | | designed stick, which is also steel. Although |
| instruments in the drum kit. These instruments | | | | traditionally used in music like samba and |
| are thin metal discs made of various alloys. A | | | | orchestral, rock music has adopted the triangle to |
| basic drum kit will almost always include cymbals, | | | | enough of an extent that it can usually be found |
| which are usually used in one of two ways. Hi-hat | | | | on a drum kit of the genre. Groups like Queen |
| cymbals are mounted on a stand with one cymbal | | | | and artists like Joni Mitchell have helped make the |
| on top of the other but not touching. The top | | | | instrument popular. The triangle's greatest rock |
| cymbal is connected to a pedal which, when | | | | and roll moment was probably the 20-second |
| pressed, causes the cymbal to crash down into | | | | triangle solo used by the Foo Fighters in their June |
| the one below. The development of the hi-hat is | | | | 2008 performance at Wembley Stadium. |
| thought to have occurred in the mid-1920s. The | | | | Finally, wood blocks make an interesting addition |
| other set up for the drum set cymbal is that of a | | | | to the drum kit. These instruments may be the |
| suspended cymbal. In this instance, the cymbal is | | | | oldest musical instrument known to man, as some |
| suspended horizontally from an arm and us played | | | | authorities hold that its use predates the Bronze |
| with a drumstick rather than struck against | | | | Age. In its essence, a wood block is a small slit |
| another cymbal. Both types of cymbal setups are | | | | drum, or a hollow percussion instrument with slits |
| usually found in basic drum kits. | | | | in it to increase its resonance. Wood blocks are |
| The cowbell is another fairly common percussion | | | | stuck with sticks and make a characteristic sound. |
| instrument used in drum kits. Although it | | | | They can be used either alone or in conjunction |
| resembles an actual bell, musical cowbells do not | | | | with other wood blocks of varying size and pitch. |