Collection: Sound Effects

The instruments that make a sound rather than a note: guiros, whistles, ratchets, vibra-slaps, slapsticks, wah wah tubes, castanets, rainsticks, thunder tubes and agogos, from Groove Masters Percussion, EMUS, SUZUKI, MEINL, NINO and REMO.

Every one of these exists to produce something recognisable from outside music. A frog guiro croaks. A slapstick cracks like a whip. A thunder tube rumbles. A rainstick falls. A slide whistle swoops. An owl whistle calls.

That is what makes them the most useful group of instruments in a room where the work is storytelling, soundscape building or scoring a class performance. A student who is not ready to hold a rhythm can still be handed the thunder and told exactly when the storm arrives, and they will get it right.

Guiros cover the scraped sounds, including animal-carved frog, cat, pig, crocodile, iguana and fish models. Whistles cover the calls: owl, loon, bird, train and slide. Ratchets and kokoriko clackers cover the clatter. Vibra-slaps, slapsticks and wah wah tubes each give one distinctive effect.

Rainsticks and thunder tubes cover weather, and both work better in a group than singly, because a room of rainsticks at different lengths sounds like actual rain rather than like an instrument.