My list is just illustrative and informative, and not meant as exhaustive nor as representative as such. Its melodic possibilities are less used or explored, though tension-building, semi-melodies are heard, mostly when introducing song parts like choruses and bridges. Bells (cowbells), shakers (of different kinds), scrapers, thumb pianos, woodblocks, tambourines, cuicas, balafon, rattles, a.

I am primarily a Reggae fan though, and that genre is largely less mainstream than the ones I mentioned till now. This method give the player greater control of the sound of the flexatone as it eliminates the need to shake the instrument. Compositional and Orchestrational Trends in the Orchestral Percussion Section Between the Years of 1960-2009", p. Right after mentioning that, "the latter [the musical saw] is orchestrally wholly unknown," he mentions Khachaturian's use of the flexatone in his Piano Concerto. Like on Burning Spear albums from roughly the same period, a wide variety of percussion (drums and idiophones) tends to be used on several songs, but softer in the mix than in Burning Spear albums: a bit more emphasis on the “driving bass and drum” – somewhat understandable - , requiring therefore closer inspection to distinguish percussion sounds.

On it, the Flexatone is quite prominent, not “drowned in the mix”, as elsewhere, or only heard in the intro or bridges of songs, but actually “carrying” the song (with mainly a 5-3 pattern/riff). Yet as time progressed, inventive humans with more means, started in more modern times to come up with “new” percussion instruments, albeit derived from existing ones.

I had to listen more closely to Protoje’s song Hail Rastafari to ensure it was actually a Flexatone used in it. Let’s say that the definition of percussion in this case is all rhythmic instruments outside the (trap) drum kit/set, so commonly used now in modern pop music. In this stage, other percussion instruments, the said idiophones, were a kind of a side-path, though I practiced with it, and had quite some of these idiophones, using them and recording with them, alongside drums.

Hans Werner Henze also used this instrument in his opera entitled The Elegy for Young Lovers in 1961. Please give us the reason for your assessment in the following text box and – if possible – your e-mail address for further questions. Percussion is also creative in Tom Waits’ more experimental work (like on the album Swordfish Trombones). The Flexatone is a modern percussion instrument consisting of a small flexible metal sheet suspended in a wire frame ending in a handle. Vibes generally make a perfectly acceptable alternative, especially when the music is somewhat indeterminate anyway.