A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excluding zoo-musicological instruments and the human voice, the percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments

Citations: Bibliography: The Oxford Companion to Music, 10th edition, p.775, ISBN 0-19-866212-2 : Websites: