Collection: Temple Blocks

Temple block sets from EMUS and SUZUKI.

A temple block is a hollow wooden shell with a slot cut across the front, originally used in Buddhist temples for chanting. Struck with a mallet, it gives a rounded, hollow knock with far more body and resonance than a plain wood block, and a distinct pitch.

They come as a set of five, tuned to a rising scale and mounted on a frame. That layout is the whole reason to have them, because it turns a rhythm instrument into a melodic one: a five-note phrase can be played across the blocks, and the classic descending run down all five is instantly recognisable from cartoons and film scores.

Both the EMUS and SUZUKI sets are five blocks on a stand, playable seated with two mallets.

In a classroom they earn their place as the instrument that shows students that pitch and rhythm are not separate things, and in an ensemble they cover a colour nothing else in the wooden family can.