Vibraphone
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The Vibraphone has metal bars, which you strike using two hammers. It looks like a xylophone, but sounds very different. This is because the vibraphone has electrically-operated fans that produce the distinctive vibrato (trembling) effect for which the instrument is named. This breathy, pulsating sound is familiar in both jazz and orchestral music.
| Family |
| Percussions |
| Pitch range |
| Three octaves. |
| Material |
| Aluminum-alloy bars and tubular metal resonators. |
| Size |
| 4 ft 7 in (1.40 m) wide and 3 ft (0.9 m) high. |
| Origins |
| The vibraphone was developed in the United States of America in the early 1920s. |
| Classification |
| Idiophone: an instrument that produces its sound through the use of the material from which it is made, without needing strings or a stretched skin. |
| And also... |
| On early vibraphones a clockwork, rather than electric, motor operated the fans that create the vibrato effect. |
