There are an enormous amount of percussion instruments, making it very difficult to provide a detailed description for all of them. However, below is a table of common percussion instruments, and by clicking one of the components you will be linked to an explanation of the instrument or category. The website supplying these explanations is the Virginia Tech Department of Music (www.music.vt.edu).
TABLE OF COMMON PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS
Click here to view the original table at http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textp/percussioninstruments.html.