The Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification divides membranophones in a numeric taxonomy based on how the sound is produced:
21: by hitting the drumskin with a hand or object
22: by pulling a knotted string attached to the drumskin
23: by rubbing the drumskin with a hand or object
24: by modifying sounds through a vibrating membrane
Shape and technique
Membranophones can also be divided into large divisions based on shape and manner of sound production:
Tubular drums include a wide range of drum shapes, like waisted, long, footed, cylindrical, conical and barrel
Mirlitons, Kazoos and Swazzles vibrate in sympathy with sounds travelling across a membrane. These are the only membranophones that are not truly drums.
Cylindrical drums are straight-sided, and generally two-headed. A buzzing, percussive string is sometimes used. Examples include the bass drum and the Iranian dohol.
Conical drums are sloped on the sides, and are usually one-headed. Examples include the Indian tabla and the Venezuelan chimbangueles.
Barrel drums are normally one-headed, and may be open at the bottom. They bulge in the middle. Examples include the Dhak from eastern parts of India, bendre, made by the Mossi of Burkina Faso out of a large calabash, and the trong chau of Vietnam.
Hourglass drums are hourglass-shaped and generally two-headed. The drumheads are laced onto the body, and the laces may be squeezed during performance to alter the drum's pitch. Examples include folk drums in India and much of Africa, as well as some talking drums.
Goblet drums are one-headed and goblet shaped, and are usually open at the bottom. Examples include the Indian tabla, the West-African djembe, and the Arab darabukka.
Footed drums are single-headed and are held above the ground by feet. The space between the drum and the ground provides extra resonance. Examples include a range of East African and Polynesian drums.
Long drums are a diverse category, characterized by extreme length. Examples include the single-headed hollow tree trunk drums of Africa and the ornately carved and dyed gufalo of the Nuna in Burkina Faso.
Kettle drums are frequently played in pairs, and have a vessel or pot body, are one-headed and usually tuned to a specific note. Examples include the timpani and tabla.
Friction drums produce sound through friction, such as by rubbing a hand or object against the drumskin. Examples include the Brazilian cuica and the Spanish zambomba.
Mirlitons, Kazoos and Swazzles produce sound by blowing air across a membrane.
The traditional classification of Indian instruments include two categories of percussion.
Ghan: Percussion without membranes, such as chimes, bells and gongs
Avanaddh: Percussion with membranes, such as drums with skin heads
Other categories
The predrum category consists of simple drum-like percussion instruments. These include the ground drum, which, in its most common §—Form, consists of an animal skin stretched over a hole in the ground, and the pot drum, made from a simple pot. Water drums are also sometimes treated as a distinct category of membranophone. Common in Native American music and the music of Africa, water drums are characterized by a unique sound caused by filling the drum with some amount of water. The talking drum is an important category of West African membranophone, characterized by the use of varying tones to "talk". Talking drums are used to communicate across distances. Military drums or war drums are drums in various forms that have been used in the military.
