• Maracas are a good example of a hand percussion instrument.a pair of maracas image by Wayne Abraham from Fotolia.com
  
  Percussion instruments are those that create noise through striking, scratching, shaking, or rubbing with another object. These can include large instruments like xylophones or drums, but also include hand percussion instruments that are held by the performer during the performance. Hand percussion instruments come in varying sizes and shapes and create a wide range of orchestral sounds, each contributing to the overall scope of the music. Hand percussion instruments are easy to bring from one gig to another and are often much cheaper than larger and more complex instruments, and are often viewed as early examples of humans purposefully modifying objects to make specific sounds.
  
  

Shakers

• Shakers are instruments that are played by being shaken. Most of the time these instruments are hollow and have some sort of filler such as rice, beans or beads that make noise when the instrument is shaken, but the term is universal for instruments that need to be shaken to make noise. Common shakers include: maracas, which are played in pairs and are usually made of hollowed-out gourds filled with beads or rice; shekeres, which are similar to maracas but wrapped in a woven net of beads; and even tambourines, which are small, round frames with metal shakers.
  
  

Triangles

• Triangles are small pieces of metal that have been bent into the three-sided shape. When struck with another piece of metal, the triangle will ring out one tone. The pitch of the triangle is determined by its size, and the sound can be adjusted through various hand positions on the instrument. The triangle has been used in many compositions by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, but generally represents a small portion of the music being played by an orchestra. The triangle is often used in jokes as an instrument that requires little or no skill to play, though these jokes overlook pitch damping, hand positioning and pitch modulation.
  
  

Scrapers

• Scrapers are small instruments with ridges carved into their sides, which are then scraped by stick. The stick can be of varying thickness and the ridges can be deep, shallow, wide or narrow. Rhythm is kept by repeatedly running the stick up and down the surface of the instrument. These instruments are usually made from hollowed-out gourds, but can also be made of wood or other materials. One popular method for making shakers in China is to carve a piece of wood into the shape of a frog, hollow out the belly and carve notches into its back that act as the scraping surface.