List of Caribbean idiophones

Historically, idiophones (percussion instruments without membranes or strings) have been widespread throughout the Caribbean music area, which encompasses the islands and coasts of the Caribbean Sea. Some areas of South America that are not geographically part of the Caribbean, but are culturally associated with its traditions, such as Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and parts of Brazil are also taken into account.

Although some idiophones such as the mayohuacán and probably the maraca already existed among the indigenous Taíno population of the Greater Antilles before the Spanish colonization of the Americas, most idiophones were introduced in the Caribbean between the 17th and 19th centuries by enslaved Africans, which were ethnically diverse (Yoruba, Ewe, Fon, Igbo, Efik, Mandinka and Kongo, among others). Because of the different materials present in the islands, African slaves had to construct their instruments differently, and thus new instruments began to be developed.

{{Lists of Caribbean instruments}} {{List of musical instruments- start}} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''agogô''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.221 | Tradition = Lucumí (Cuba) and other Yoruba traditions throughout the Caribbean and Brazil | Type = Hoe blade, struck with a nail or other heavy object | Other names = ''agogó'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''akanikã''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.242.222 | Tradition = Abakuá (Cuba) | Type = Belt with many attached bells | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''asson''<ref name="Shakshak"/><ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Hollow calabash with a hole, which the player plugs during performance, where the stem used to be, covered in beaded webbing | Other names = ''baksor'' (Note: ''asson'' can also refer to the ''ogan'' in Northern Haiti) }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''assot''<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Wooden board, sometimes attached to a ''tymbale'' | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''assongwé'' <ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Arará (Cuba) | Type = Rattle made of tin, with both ends conical and an attached handle, used by Arará priests | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''atcheré''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.12 | Tradition = Lucumí (Cuba) | Type = Oblong rattle made from a gourd, and covered with a network of webbing laced with nuts or beads | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''bakosó''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.12 | Tradition = Lucumí (Cuba) | Type = Large rattle made from a calabash, and covered with a network of webbing laced with nuts or beads | Other names = ''arwé-koesolé'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''banká''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.242.121 | Tradition = Abakuá (Cuba) | Type = Metal bell, struck with a wooden stick; the location of the strike determines pitch | Other names = ''ekón'', ''ekóng'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = bell<ref name="SpiritualBaptist">{{cite journal|title=Embedded Truths: Creativity and Context in Spiritual Baptist Music|first=Stephen D.|last=Glazier|journal=Latin American Music Review|volume=18|issue=1|date=Spring–Summer 1997|pages=44–56|doi=10.2307/780325|jstor=780325}}</ref> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago | Type = Hand bell, used in the Spiritual Baptist musical tradition | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = bell, ''Santería''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.242.121 | Tradition = Lucumí (Cuba) | Type = Bell with an external striker | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = bench<ref name="SpiritualBaptist"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago | Type = Ordinary sitting bench, used spontaneously by banging against the ground in the Spiritual Baptist musical tradition | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''boli''<ref name="Shakshak"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago | Type = Hollow calabash with a hole, which the player plugs during performance, where the stem used to be, covered in beaded webbing, used in the Shango cult | Other names = ''chac-chac'', ''shack-shack'', ''xaque-xaque'' (Brazil), ''chacha'' (Cuba) }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''cajón''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.2 | Tradition = Cuba and Puerto Rico | Type = Wooden box played as a bass drum, with hands held in front of the face, often while sitting on the instrument while playing | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''cata''<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 111.231 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Two types of beating tubes: a length of bamboo laid upon two y-shaped sticks in the ground, and a hollow wooden cylinder; both are beaten with sticks | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''catá''<ref>{{cite journal|first=Donald R.|last=Hill|journal=Black Music Research Journal|volume=18|issue=1/2|date=Spring–Autumn 1998|title=West African and Haitian Influences on the Ritual and Popular Music of Carriacou, Trinidad, and Cuba|pages=183–201|doi=10.2307/779398|publisher=Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1/2|jstor=779398}}</ref> | Number = 111.231 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Hollowed out trunk hit with two sticks, used in tumba francesa, yuka and rumba (rare) | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''cencerro''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = ? | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Large cowbell with no clapper, struck on the outside | Other names = ''gangária'', ''San Martín'' (for secular uses only) }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''chekeré''<ref name="Shakshak"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Hollow calabash with a hole, which the player plugs during performance, where the stem used to be, covered in beaded webbing | Other names = abwé }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''claves''<ref name="Cuba"/><ref name="HaitianInstruments"/><ref name="Manuel30">Manuel, pg. 30</ref> | Number = 111.1 | Tradition = Cuba and Haiti | Type = Cylindrical percussive sticks of African origin, made from hardwood trees like ''acana'', ''quiebrahacha'', ''guayacán'', and ''granadillo'' | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''dentli''<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 112.211 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Notched stick played with a bamboo scraping blade | Other names = ''dentlé'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''dhantal''<ref>{{cite journal|title="Brotherhood of the Boat": Musical Dialogues in a Caribbean Context|first=Tina K.|last=Ramnarine|journal=British Journal of Ethnomusicology|volume=7|year=1998|pages=1–22|doi=10.1080/09681229808567270|jstor=3060707}}</ref> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Indo-Caribbean Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname | Type = Steel rod, adapted from a piece of a yoke and hit with a beater in a horseshoe-shape, used in ''chutney'' | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = door<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.221 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Normal door, beaten with a hand during yambú performances | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = double-conical rattle<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Double-conical rattle, made of tin and held horizontally, known in Jovellanos | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''erikunde''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Abakuá (Cuba) | Type = Tubular rattle with a looping basket-shaped handle, filled with chunks of wood | Other names = ''ericunde'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''frying pan'' | Number = 111.24 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Frying pans harnessed to the torso of the player and struck with spoons, played during conga performances | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = geared rattle<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Rattle, used in rara ceremonies | Other names = ''kwa-kwa'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''grage''<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 112.23 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Metal scraper with small, closely spaced holes, played with a piece of wire or nail | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''guacharaca'' | Number = 112.23 | Tradition = Colombia | Type = Long tube scraper made of wood, used in vallenato and cumbia | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''guayo''<ref name="Manuel30"/><ref name="BJ">{{cite book|last1=Lapidus|first1=Benjamin|title=Origins of Cuban Music and Dance: Changüí|date=2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Plymouth, UK|pages=16, 170|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MmngXz9-vPwC|isbn=9781461670292}}</ref> | Number = 112.23 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Metal scraper, used in changüí | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''güira''<ref name="Manuel, pg. 43">Manuel, pg. 43</ref> | Number = 112.23 | Tradition = Dominican Republic | Type = Metal scraper, used in merengue and bachata | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''güiro''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.23 | Tradition = Cuba, Puerto Rico and the rest of the Caribbean | Type = Gourd scraper of either Taíno or West African origin | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''erimé''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Set of four rattles attached to a pair of crossed sticks | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = iron<ref name="Suriname"/> | Number = 111.1 | Tradition = Surinamese Maroons | Type = Pieces of any available metal struck together | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = iron tube, ''Lucumí''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.242.121 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Hollow iron tube with a slit along the side, played with an external striker | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''guataca'' | Number = ? | Tradition = Cuba | Type = cowbell, played using a striker | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''jhanj'' | Number = ? | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago | Type = Pair of large cymbals | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''kwa-kwa''<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Empty gourd filled with seeds; can also refer to the geared rattle | Other names = ''tcha-tcha'', ''tcha-kwa'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''kwakwa''<ref name="Suriname"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Surinamese maroons | Type = Bench with a wooden top, played with two sticks, from a squatting position | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''maraca'' <ref name="Cuba">{{cite journal|first=Harold|last=Courlander|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=28|title=Musical Instruments of Cuba|issue=2|date=April 1942|pages=227–240|doi=10.1093/mq/XXVIII.2.227}}</ref><ref name="Shakshak"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Taíno and other tribes (throughout the Caribbean) | Type = Rattle across the Greater and Lesser Antilles, and Central America, made from a hollow gourd, often a calabash, and filled with dried seeds | Other names = ''shakkas'' (Garifuna), ''maruga'' (Cuba) }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''marimba'' | Number = 111.212 | Tradition = Guatemala and southern Mexico | Type = Set of wooden bars struck with mallets, descended from the balafon | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''marimbula''<ref name="Cuba"/><ref name="Manuel30"/><ref name="Manuel, pg. 43"/><ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 111.2 | Tradition = Cuba, introduced to the Dominican Republic and elsewhere | Type = Box mounted with metal strips that can be plucked, used as a bass instrument in rural folk genres like ''changüí'' | Other names = ''marimbol'' (Mexico) }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''mayohuacán''<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ortiz|first1=Fernando|authorlink1=Fernando Ortiz Fernández|title=Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana: Los tambores xilfónicos y los membranófonos abiertos, A a N|date=1952|publisher=Dirección de Cultura del Ministerio de Educación|location=Havana, Cuba|page=127|language=Spanish}}</ref> | Number = 111.231 | Tradition = Taíno (Cuba, Hispaniola) | Type = Slit drum made of thin wood, shaped like an elongated gourd | Other names = ''mayohabao, bayohabao'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''ogan''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.242.121 | Tradition = Arará (Cuba) | Type = Iron bell, held upside down and struck with a beater; may be used in pairs | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''ogan''<ref name="HaitianInstruments">{{cite journal|title=Musical Instruments of Haiti|first=Harold|last=Courlander|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=27|issue=3|date=July 1941|pages=371–383|doi=10.1093/mq/XXVII.3.371}}</ref> | Number = 111.1 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Pieces of chain or other metal struck together | Other names = ''asson'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''quijada''<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.122 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Jawbone of a mule or donkey, teeth acting as rattles | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''quinto'' (cajón)<ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.2 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Box with two sloping sides, tapped with the fingers percussively | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = rattle<ref name="Suriname">{{cite journal|title=The Black Perspective in Music|first=Leonard|last=Goines|volume=3|issue=1|date=Spring 1975|pages=40–44}}</ref> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Surinamese Maroons | Type = Rattle used in both secular and religious purposes, with a specific rhythm for the spirit associated with each ritual | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = rattle-bracelet <ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 112.112 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Bracelets with attached nuts and seeds, worn by drummers in the ''Kimbisa'' tradition | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = rumba box<ref>{{cite journal|title=Remembering Kojo: History, Music, and Gender in the January Sixth Celebration of the Jamaican Accompong Maroons|first=Jacqueline Cogdell|last=DjeDje|journal=Black Music Research Journal|volume=18|issue=1/2|date=Spring–Autumn 1998|pages=67–120|doi=10.2307/779395|publisher=Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1/2|jstor=779395}}</ref> | Number = 2 | Tradition = Jamaica | Type = Maroon instrument used to accompany social dancing, wooden box with three metal brackets on one side | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''shak-shak''<ref name="Shakshak">{{cite journal|title=The Shak-Shak in the Lesser Antilles|first=Daniel J.|last=Crowley|journal=Ethnomusicology|volume=2|issue=3|date=September 1958|pages=112–115|doi=10.2307/924654|publisher=Ethnomusicology, Vol. 2, No. 3|jstor=924654}}</ref> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Lesser Antilles | Type = Rattle, made from a dried gourd, often a calabash, and filled with dried seeds, with a handle attached where the calabash stem had been, not normally decorated or painted, may be placed in a pair | Other names = ''chac-chac'', ''shack-shack'', ''xaque-xaque'' (Brazil), ''chacha'' (Cuba) }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''shak-shak''<ref name="Shakshak"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Saint Lucia and other Francophone islands | Type = Rattle, made from a pair of tin cans, emptied, then filled with a few loose pebbles and soldered shut | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''shak-shak''<ref name="Shakshak"/> | Number = 112.13 | Tradition = Lesser Antilles | Type = Improvised rattle, made from a single tin can and a few loose pebbles, often played by children practicing for the use of the more common ''shak-shak'' or adults at impromptu occasions | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = shepherd's crook<ref name="SpiritualBaptist"/> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago | Type = Staff, used spontaneously by banging against the ground in the Spiritual Baptist musical tradition | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = spoons <ref name="Cuba"/> | Number = 111.141 | Tradition = Cuba | Type = Pair of normal spoons beaten together, common in yambú | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = steelpan<ref name="GarlandTrinidad">{{cite book|title=Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume Two: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean|author=McDaniel, Lorna|chapter=Trinidad and Tobago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/garlandencyclope0001unse/page/952 952–967]|isbn=0-8153-1865-0|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/garlandencyclope0001unse/page/952}}</ref> | Number = 111.2 | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago originally, now widespread | Type = Made from tempered metal drums, tuned chromatically | Other names = ''steeldrum'', ''tock-tock'', ''belly'', ''base kettle'', ''base bum'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = tamboo-bamboo<ref>{{cite journal|title=Carnival, Calypso, and Steelband in Trinidad|first=Ernest D.|last=Brown|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|volume=18|issue=1/2|year=1990|pages=81–100|doi=10.2307/1214859|publisher=The Black Perspective in Music, Vol. 18, No. 1/2|jstor=1214859}}</ref> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Trinidad and Tobago | Type = Tuned bamboo stomping tubes, used as a substitute percussion instrument when drums were outlawed | Other names = }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''tibwa''<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Saint Lucia|last=Guilbault|first=Jocelyne|title=Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume Two: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Desroches|first1=Monique|title=Les pratiques musicales, image de l'histoire, reflet d'un contexte|date=1981|publisher=Centre de recherches Caraïbes, Université de Montréal|page=9|url=http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/desroches_monique/pratiques_musicales/pratiques_musicales.pdf|accessdate=29 June 2014}}</ref> | Number = 2 | Tradition = French Guiana, Saint Lucia and Martinique | Type = Wooden sticks, played against the rim of a ''ka'', or against a bamboo tube or a log sitting on a stand | Other names = ''p'tit bois'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''vaccine''<ref name="HaitianInstruments"/> | Number = 111.2 | Tradition = Haiti | Type = Bamboo trumpet, played as an idiophone by tapping it with sticks | Other names = ''bois bourrique'' }} {{List of musical instruments | Drum = ''wacharaca''<ref>{{cite book|title=New Grove Encyclopedia of Music|chapter=Netherlands Antilles and Aruba|last=Bilby|first=Kenneth}}</ref> | Number = 1 | Tradition = Curaçao | Type = Metal disks attached to a wooden board | Other names = ''matrimonial'' }} {{List of musical instruments- end}}

== References ==

*{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Manuel|title=Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey|url=https://archive.org/details/popularmusicsofn0000manu|url-access=registration|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=1988| isbn = 0-19-506334-1}}

== Notes ==

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Caribbean Idiophones}} Category:Idiophones Idiophones Caribbean idiophones Category:Central American and Caribbean percussion instruments