Idiophones are instruments made of naturally sonorous material. That simply means that those materials are naturally capable of producing sound vibrations. Their development began in the early days when man hit sticks, rocks, bones, and other items together to communicate. This often mimics the language of the people, and also emphasizes the rhythms of clapping your hands or stomping your feet. They are classified in this website according to the ways in which they are made to produce sound.

The Idiophone family of instruments consists of eight basic groups:
Stamping: Sounded by banging them on the ground or another hard surface.
Stamped: Sound comes from the surface on which the stamping takes place.
Shaken: Sounded by shaking.
Percussion: Also called 'struck idiophones'. Sounded by striking with an object.
Concussion: Sounded when 2 or more similar parts are hit together.
Friction: Sounded by rubbing.
Scraped: A ridged or notched surface that produces tap sounds when rubbed.
Plucked: Also called 'Linguaphones'. One or more flexible tongues attached to aframe. They are sounded by plucking the tongues.