History of Percussion Instruments There are few certainties about the percussion family. No one can say how many instruments it contains; few have agreed on playing techniques; and few could name one orchestral piece specifically written with percussion in mind. However, one thing is certain, percussion has been shown over time that it is not merely a matter of beating out rhythm (“ History of Percussion” 1). The family of percussion instruments is the first musical instrumentation introduced to the world. To this date there are countless percussion instruments. Each group of instruments has a different ethnic origin and history