Kagul

The kagul is a member of the shaken and scraped idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 112.2). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the kagul makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the kagul belongs to the shaken and scraped idiophones: the body is shaken, scraped or split – rattles, maracas and guiros.

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

The kagul is a type of Philippine bamboo scraper gong/slit drum of the Maguindanaon and Visayans with a jagged edge on one side, played with two beaters, one scraping the jagged edge and the other one making a beat. The Maguindanaon and the Banuwaen use it in the rice paddies to guard against voracious birds, using the sound it produces to scare them away. The Maguindanaon and the indigenous inhabitants of Bukidnon also used to use it for simple dance rhythms during social occasions. The rhythms were usually simplistic in nature, consisting of one rhythmic pattern sometimes combined with another. Use of the kagul in the former way is no longer practiced.

Also called tagutok (Maranao), bantula or tagungtung (Bukidnon) and kuratung (Banuwaen).