Collection: Ratchets

Ratchets and kokoriko clackers from EMUS and Groove Masters Percussion.

A ratchet is a wooden or plastic tongue held against a toothed cog. Turning the handle makes the tongue snap over each tooth, and the result is a hard, rattling clatter that is genuinely loud. It has no pitch and no subtlety, which is exactly why it is used as an effect rather than a rhythm instrument.

Orchestral scores call for it in comic and rustic passages, and in a classroom it is the sound of a machine, an alarm, a woodpecker, or anything that needs to interrupt.

The EMUS ratchet is the standard handled model. The GMP kokoriko is a related instrument, a set of thin wooden slats strung together and swung to produce a rolling clatter rather than a single burst, and it comes in a painted version, a natural wood version, and a gecko-shaped clacker.

All of them are played by the whole arm rather than the fingers, which makes them accessible to players who cannot manage a fine grip.