A vibraphone is a musical instrument you hit. It is a set of flat metal bars laid out like the white and black keys of a piano, with a metal tube hanging under each bar, and the player strikes the bars with soft mallets — sticks with a round wool or yarn head. It looks like a xylophone but is made of metal, so the sound is sweet, ringing and bell-like rather than woody and dry. Its special trick is where the name comes from. A small electric motor spins little discs inside the tubes, opening and closing them many times a second, and this makes the held note pulse gently — wavering, shimmering, breathing in and out. The player can turn that motor on or off, and speed it up or slow it down. There is also a foot pedal, like a piano's, to let notes ring on or cut them off. You hear the vibraphone most in jazz, where it is often called simply the vibes, and players are called vibraphonists or just vibes players. It is also common in film music when a scene wants to feel dreamy, cool, or slightly unreal. It is a countable noun: a vibraphone, two vibraphones. The everyday short form, vibes, takes a plural verb: "the vibes sound great".

顫音琴（也譯震音琴）。爵士樂裡常見的金屬音板打擊樂器，用軟槌敲，管內有馬達讓聲音抖動。台灣樂手口語常直接講 vibes 或「鐵琴」，但「鐵琴」也可能指 glockenspiel，講清楚比較保險。