Why the Tambourine is the Greatest Instrument Ever

Why the Tambourine is the Greatest Instrument Ever

Jaime Lepinsky

The tambourine is the greatest instrument ever conceived and yes you can
quote me on that.

This thought came to me both from listening to my favorite albums and
reflecting on my own personal experience as a music consumer since the tender age of zero. The
thing is, I have records from all kinds of genres, countries, and cultures – blues, jazz, garage
rock, post-punk, soul, funk, hip hop, folk, even fucking some electronic music – and the
tambourine is sprinkled throughout all of them.

Musicians can’t get enough of it, which speaks
to my first point: It’s versatile and efficient. It sounds good on any song and can really
emphasize a stellar rhythm section. It can be used to create suspense; listen to the intro of
Marvin Gaye’s rendition of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” Yes, the tambourine only
appears briefly throughout the song, but damn, those tambourine shakes send shivers down my
spine. It’s proto-ASMR. It’s a musical vibrator, essentially. It’s keeps the listener hanging on,
just like Diana Ross and the Supremes. These three badass women knew the power of the
tambourine, since they used it extensively in their biggest singles (“You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You
Keep Me Hanging On,” “Stop! In the Name of Love”).

There’s something about the tambourine on these songs that make the rhythm really pop. It can render a drum set useless. Who has
time and money to buy and properly set up a snare drum, a bass drum, some floor toms, and a
bunch of cymbals? Not me, that’s for fucking sure. I mean, come on. They’re so loud and so hard
to carry. I remember working at Chuck Levin’s, and all the employees would brag about
dropping $300 on a golden-plated snare drum. What they should have been doing is investing
in a decent tambourine, and they’d be just as fine. Of course, drum sets sound cool and some of
the world’s greatest rhythms would not have been conceived without them (blast beats, disco,
samba, breakbeats, bossa nova, the Beatles’ “Come Together”) but also like, you don’t need all
those fucking toms and cymbals to prove anything (I’m looking at you, Neil Peart). Just buy a
tambourine and play. Exhibit A: “Pale Blue Eyes” by The Velvet Underground. Exhibit B: “Your
Southern Can Is Mine” by The White Stripes. Exhibit C: “Ominous Cloud” by Broadcast. Exhibit
D: “You Can Get It If You Really Want” by Jimmy Cliff (there’s barely a drum set on that song).

Point number three: It’s mad soulful other than handclaps. Oh my god, don’t get me
started on handclaps. The thing about the tambourine is that it somewhat makes the act of
clapping your human hands together in rhythmic succession much easier – your hands start to
swell after mashing it into another hand, and no one likes bruises, abrasions, or lacerations from
violent mashing of the palms and/or phalanges. The tambourine is the hand, manufactered and
industrialized. Hands as instruments have been used extensively in soul, gospel, and the days of
spirituals, because these musicians and artists have understood the power of keeping time with
your hands.

And nothing says human other than two pieces of flesh smashed together, that’s why our American culture is so obsessed with sex and it shows in our music, not because sex
sells (which it does) but also because music and tambourines sell just as well, if not better because they are vibrators. And just like vibrators, anyone can use the tambourine. It doesn’t take a genius to play the tambourine, and that’s what makes it so fun. It’s punk rock as a true artifact – Iggy Pop used it throughout his 1973 magnum opus Raw Power (one of the songs, “Shake Appeal,” even uses handclaps. F*cking incredible.)

They’re also very cheap and can be found in any music store. So pick one up and start playing.