One of our favourites. These instruments from the percussion family are played by being struck, shaken, or scraped. Untuned instruments produce a sound with an indefinite pitch, like the sound of a hand knocking on a door. The percussion represent musical styles from many different cultures. Castanets consist of two pieces of hard wood in the shape of a shell that are hinged together. When the wood pieces strike each other, they create an untuned sound that is often associated with Portuguese traditional music and Spanish dances. Traditional portuguese rhythm's are incomplete without the castanets.