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Lincoln Hall

Percussion Instruments

Steel Drums

Cornell offers beginning and advanced sections of steel band, performing calypso and soca music of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as arrangements of pop tunes and compositions for the group. The Cornell Steel Band performs on pans cut from 55-gallon oil drums, and includes a complete engine room, or percussion section including irons (brake drums salvaged from cars), metal scratchers, shakers, and drumset. Read more about the Cornell Steel Bands.

African Drums

Cornell’s World Drum and Dance Ensemble performs traditional dance-drumming repertoire of the Ewe people, an ethnic group living largely in the Volta Region of Ghana, southern Togo, and Benin. The group’s percussion set features seven drums carved from solid blocks of tweneboa, a West African cedar tree, and is supported by several cast-iron double bells and gourd rattles. Read more about WDDE.

Western Percussion

Cornell’s western percussion collection includes sets of orchestral instruments (snare drums, timpani, cymbals, mallet instruments, and other small percussion) stored at Lincoln Hall for rehearsals, and at Bailey Hall and Barnes Hall for concerts. These instruments also provide the base for the music of the Cornell Percussion Ensemble, and are extended by oddities like mixing bowls, homemade shakers, trash cans, and anything else a percussionist might find useful! Read more about CU percussion.