Playing The Triangle Instrument

If there is one musical instrument that never got the respect it deserves, it is the triangle instrument. The musical triangle is one of the least appreciated percussion instruments there is, but in reality it has great potential. Everyone is familiar with the sound of the musical triangle. The triangle instrument can be heard in symphonies the world over. It has a sharp, clear, ringing tone that punctuates various sections of the piece. It usually plays very simple rhythms, but those rhythms are instrumental to the symphony as a whole.

The thing is that the potential of the triangle instrument is never fully exploited in almost any musical forms. We have a musical triangle player in our band, and I've seen him do some pretty amazing things with it. Of course he doesn't just play the triangle instrument, but it is one of his favorite percussion tools.

One of the interesting things he told me is that the triangle instrument was only recently standardized. Classically, musical triangles came in many different shapes and sizes. There were triangle instruments which were equilateral, Isosceles, or scalene triangle. Some of them even had different bells or jangles along the bottom rung, giving more variety of tone and an interesting rattle along with the music.

What I really like about the triangle instrument is the richness of tone it can give. It's not a very jamming instrument – you don't play just the triangle solo – but it does provide a high end percussion that can add a lot to many different genres of music. You can mute it with your hand, alter the force, hit it in different places, or even use different types of beaters to strike it. You can hit it on any one of the three sides, resulting in slight differences in tone. A master triangle player can really do some interesting things you wouldn't expect.

Best of all, triangle instruments are very easy to make on your own. Although a professional concert triangle has a certain look to it, you can make one out of basically any kind of bent metal. The different metals will give different tones, of course, and some things will sound better than others. Nonetheless, by trying different things out, you can find a sound that really works for you. You can then use it in place of a bell to add a little high end rhythm to your songs.

Summary: Playing the triangle instrument seems a little too easy. This percussion instrument has just recently been standardized. There are many interesting sounds you can get from this little instrument. It can be muted, different metals make different sounds, three sides can produce different sounds depending on the force and area that is struck.

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