Describing a certain sound

I am trying to describe a certain sound textually and I feel like I'm fumbling for the right words...any suggestions?

The sound: If one's hand were resting on a hard surface with a small marble held between the thumb and index finger and the marble were raised a half inch or so off the surface and dropped, with a slight repetitive bouncing sound as it comes to rest.

Below is the context I'm using it in;

“It’s a-“ as he was about to describe the sound he had been hearing for weeks now he heard it again, clearly, and he saw Sam’s eyes glance reflexively up at the ceiling and he knew she heard it too as the other kids stopped chattering to focus on their conversation. He looked up at the ceiling and then at Samantha, “You heard that didn’t you?” The stack of cards lay still in his hand as he waited for an answer.

“Yea, I did,” she said, “What is it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been hearing it for a while now, not very often but I heard it twice while we were sitting here playing cards. It sounds to me like a little marble or something being dropped on the ceiling.”

 

It's sort of a skittering sound, isn't it? Like a really fast echo with multiple repeats.

 

Yes...exactly like the sound in this video...how would one describe it?

 

...fast decaying clacks

 

Like someone playing dice in an empty bathtub?
ETA: Or bead?

 

I like 'bead'....I've always been stuck on using "B.B." for an alternative to marble and not happy with it...bead is better than B.B.

“I don’t know. I’ve been hearing it for a while now, not very often but I heard it twice while we were sitting here playing cards. It sounds to me like a little bead or something being dropped on the ceiling.”

or change the surface?

"...It's like a hand dropping a bead on the table."

meh...

 

A hard clatter that reverberates? Like someone loudly chattering their teeth?

 

The pattern of the sound is an exponential decay, so I would use the word "decay" in the description to describe it but that might not fit your style :|

Edit : Oups I missed SethLoki's answer ^^

 

For lack of a better first draft choice, this is what I went with...

 

It's a difficult sound to describe. Depending on context, I think this sounds really nice.

 

I'm struggling to understand why you can't just use 'like a marble being dropped'. I think if most people heard this they would probably recognise it exactly for what it was.

Again, though, it's not something the reader is going to dwell on. It's a one-line description and as long as they 'hear' it from your description, that's all that's required. Maybe add '... on a tiled floor' for clarity.

The description in your OP is just fine.

 

I don't if this is helpful but maybe you can consider something along the lines of this:

Like someone drumming his fingers impatiently on a porcelain sink.

I know it's too wordy and doesn't have that bouncing element in it explicitly but maybe you can work on it.