quality:corruption, linguistic:translation, structural:scholar_edition
By prevalence in common knowledge

It is difficult to define what is common knowledge but there are instruments percussionists and composers use in contemporary music that most people would not consider musical instruments. It is worthwhile to try to distinguish between instruments based on their acceptance or consideration by a general audience.

For example, most people would not consider an anvil, a brake drum (on a vehicle with drum brakes, the circular hub the brake shoes press against), or a fifty-five gallon oil barrel musical instruments yet composers and percussionists use these objects.

Percussion instruments generally fall into the following categories: