Chromatic and Non-Chromatic Percussion
Should we rename 'Pitched Percussion' to 'Chromatic Percussion'?
We could then change 'Unpitched Percussion' to 'Non-Chromatic Percussion'.
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Comments
What's wrong with pitched and unpitched?
In reply to What's wrong with pitch and by [DELETED] 5
I think even "non-pitched" drums are sort-of referred to as having a pitch (see this ).
See chromatic .
In reply to I think even "non-pitched" by chen lung
Wikipedia classifies pitched and non-pitched, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percussion:
Percussion instruments are most commonly divided into two classes: Pitched percussion instruments, which produce notes with an identifiable pitch, and unpitched percussion instruments, which produce notes without an identifiable pitch
In reply to Wikipedia classifies pitched by Jojo-Schmitz
If one wants to be technical, I agree many drummers would say that even "non-pitched" percussion instruments can be and often are tuned to specific pitches. This tends to be especially true for hand percussion instruments like bongo, congas, tables, etc. Literally, it's really more about these instruments having "fixed" pitch, although of course that is modifiable by pressure on the head.
But more to the point, these instuments are not *notated* according to their pitches. For example, bongos are notated simply as high and low regardless of the specific pitches they are tuned to. So for better or for worse, the established convention (as indicated by the Wikipedia article, also any number of booms on arranging or orchestration etc) use the terms "pitched" and "non-pitched" (or similar words to that effect) pretty universally. "Definite pitch"and "indefinite pitch" are common alternatives here.
Harmony Assistant 9.6.3 refers to 'Chromatic', by the way.
In reply to Harmony Assistant 9.6.3 by chen lung
Still, that's a definite minority. Finale and Sibelius, both use "pitched", as do virtually all books and other references on the subject.
And FWIW, "chromatic" is at least as technically inaccurate for the instruments in the "pitched" category as "non-pitched" is for bongos. Many of the instruments in the "pitched" category are not in fact chromatic at all, but in fact can only play a limited range of pitches (eg, diatonic, pentatonic).
So both sets of terms are technically inaccurate. But there can be no possible question that the established convention in the industry and the literature is to refer to pitched versus otherwise. Finale, Sibelius, all the major books on orchestration, etc.
In reply to Still, that's a definite by Marc Sabatella
Yes, unpitched/pitched is the norm.
The only other candidate is untuned/tuned.
Chromatic/non-chromatic is a a non starter anyway because many tuned percussion isntruments are diatonic, and then there are Timpani - definitely tuned but not usually chromatic.