Metallophone

The metallophone is a member of the struck idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 111.222). Listen to 1 recording and learn how it makes its sound.

Listen to the metallophone

Vérification du métallophone du jeu des 1 000 euros le 6 janvier 2022

0:14CC0 1.0by Benoît PrieurWikimedia Commons

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Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.

How the metallophone makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the metallophone 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.

Its timbre – the colour that lets you tell it apart from other instruments playing the same note – comes from the mix of overtones its body and resonator emphasise.

From Wikipedia

A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), such as tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, usually with a mallet, but may also be activated by friction, keyboard action, or other means.

Metallophones have been used in music in Asia for thousands of years. There are several different types used in Balinese and Javanese gamelan ensembles, including the gendèr, gangsa and saron. These instruments have a single row of bars, tuned to the distinctive pelog or slendro scales, or a subset of them. The Western glockenspiel and vibraphone are also metallophones: they have two rows of bars, in an imitation of the piano keyboard, and are tuned to the chromatic scale.