How the gong chime makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the gong chime belongs to the struck idiophones: the body is struck directly – bells, gongs, xylophones and cymbals.
More broadly it is one of the idiophones, where the solid body of the instrument itself vibrates, without strings or a stretched membrane.
Press play above and watch the spectrum: the evenly spaced peaks are harmonics, and their relative strength is what gives the instrument its character.
From Wikipedia
A gong chime is a generic term for a set of small, high-pitched bossed pot gongs. The gongs are ordinarily placed in order of pitch, with the boss upward on cords held in a low wooden frame. The frames can be rectangular or circular (the latter are sometimes called "gong circles"), and may have one or two rows of gongs. They are played by one to four musicians, each using two padded sticks to strike them. They are an important instrument in many Southeast Asian musical ensembles, such as Indonesian gamelan, kulintang, or Thai pi phat. For this reason, such ensembles are sometimes called "gong chime ensembles" or "gong chime orchestras," and the broad variety of music "gong chime music."
Gong chimes typically are played either in a soloistic style, providing a virtuosic embellishing role, or providing a rhythmic role, for example, in a colotomic structure.
Other struck idiophones
Frequently asked questions
What does a gong chime sound like?
As one of the struck idiophones, its sound comes from the way the body is struck directly.
What type of instrument is the gong chime?
It is classified as struck idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 111.241.2).
Sources & credits
- Wikidata Q5581711 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Gong chime – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by Pbwelch – CC BY-SA 3.0