Membranophones: Skin Stretched Over A Frame

A membranophone's sound comes from a stretched membrane — skin, plastic, whatever's tight and thin — vibrating over a resonating cavity. Almost everything you'd call "a drum" lives here.

Struck

Hand or stick hits the head directly: the snare drum, the djembe, the timpani (which is also tunable — the head's tension can be adjusted mid-piece, unusual for the family).

Friction and singing membranes

Rub a stick or a wetted thumb against the membrane instead of striking it, and you get the cuica's distinctive yelp, or the lion's-roar drum's groan. The membrane doesn't just get hit — it can be dragged into sound.

Kazoo — the impostor in the family

The kazoo has a membrane, and technically it's a membranophone, not a wind instrument — the player's voice buzzes the membrane, the membrane does the vibrating. It just borrows the shape of a wind instrument.