Percussion
Like many other oriental musical ensembles, the Chinese orchestra is also rich in percussion. Modern ensembles have adopted the concert timpani. Other pitched membranophone instruments are the paigu, or small drums in a set of five to seven. Drums come in varied sizes, emitting very high to quite low pitches. Other pitched percussions are the yunluo (gongs with tuned pitches) and qings (bronze bells with bell-like tone). The jingluo (small gong used in Beijing oepra) gives a characteristic portamento tone. Other metal ideophones are cymbals, gongs, bells and hand bells; wooden ones are clappers, claves and temple blocks.