A Percussionist's Notebook

Yep, it snowed last night (and all morning). They warned us, they said it's going to be a lot of snow and since it has been in the 40's that means there is a sheet of ice under all of it. (Abominable) Snowman tracks  The neighborhood kids must have been up early and used part of our driveway to make their snowmen. Since today is the day to take out trash and recyclables, I decided to do my Star Trek thing. I BOLDLY WENT WHERE SNOWMAN HAS GONE BEFORE.

A local auto body shop was selling empty 30 gallon barrels that had undercoating in them. At the time I knew that 55 gallon drums were originally used to make steel drums so I thought I could make a smaller version of them. My first step was to cut off the bottom of the barrel to get a 2 1/2" depth. After cutting the first barrel I realized that I needed to get some hearing protection. I found my rubber ear plugs and then put a piece of foam over my ears and put on my old Radio Shack headphones. Finally, I wrapped a towel over everything. I looked like my Italian Grandmother but it worked well enough to finish the job of cutting the remainder of the barrels without damaging my hearing. Using a 4 pound engineer hammer and punch I started pounding the face of the drum. It wasn't long before I new I could never pound all of these barrels out and then raise the different sections to produce the different pitches for a set of pans. Not only did it take more strength than ...

It can arguably be stated that  the Son, Bossa Nova, and Rumba clave can trace their roots to the Drum Gahu tradition in Africa. Although the Gahu rhythm was originally played by the Gankogui (a double bell similar to the Agogo bell), it's function was the same in that it provided the 'heartbeat' of the music. Top: Agogo bell Bottom: African Double bell To further my students' knowledge of clave, I introduced the Gahu 'clave' rhythm. Then they played along with recordings of each tradition. Once they became solid in these 'play alongs', I had them play 1 style as they listened to a different one. Having 4 students who were particularly good at playing these rhythms I wrote a quartet for claves that included all 4 of the traditions. It started with 1 player playing Gahu followed by the others one at a time. Eventually one player's part would morph into a different tradition. The final 2 players would introduce the remaining rhythms. T...

I had a student come in for his lesson yesterday and he brought me 8 skeins of Alpaca wool. It was put in the trunk of his car to donate about a year ago, but when he saw them he decided to give it to me to wrap some mallets. It is slightly thicker than the #1 (Baby/Fingering) yarn that I normally use, but I wanted to try it and compare it to the sheep wool that I have.  I've found that 300 wraps for the #1 yarn works very well for general playing, but as I continued wrapping with this yarn I realized that 300 would make this too large. I stopped at 200. The result was a mallet that brought out a full fundamental (similar to my Balter Grandiosos at 300 wraps), but even less ictus on the initial contact. The finished head weight was 29g. This is the most beautiful sounding mallet that I have ever wrapped! Putting it in perspective: I've found that 28-32g. is the optimum head weight for my playing. Wool or Acrylic produce less ictus than Cotton. Here is a br...

Teaching Clave (the Rhythm) is an essential part for my students to learn the various Latin Dances, since it is inherent in some form in much of their folk and classical music. It can appear as 'Son', 'Bossa Nova', or 'Rumba' clave. They are similar in that they repeat over a two bar pattern with the first bar having 3 notes (Tresillo) and the second bar with 2 notes (3-2), or the reverse (2-3). Rarely have I had a private student come to me with an understanding of the Clave rhythm, even those students with a drum set background had a mangled version of the rhythm. To introduce the Son clave, I have them first sing the 'Shave and a haircut' rhythm: They then tap the rhythm on their knees with the 'sticking' shown: Step 2 has them play the Left Hand in the air (no sound): Step 3 the student leaves out the Left Hand altogether: Once the student becomes familiar with the basic Son Clave rhythm, I introduce the concept of 3-2 c...

Canyon Winds recently purchased a used Ludwig Bass Drum. The drum itself is in good condition, the stand is an older Ludwig suspended model.  We made a 10" removeable felt damper, and added a foot rest. 10" Felt damper with a plastic stiffiner. One of our Trumpet players is a welder. He made the foot rest and bottom leg. I used 3/4" steel square tube/ 3/8" steel rods/ 3/8" bolts/nylok nuts and mylar washers. 8mm nuts were welded on for the 8mm wing bolts for adjustments. Finished Foot rest Since it is articulated, it can be folded against the support bar for moving. Obviously this is not my design. I just copied the idea from the newer Ludwig model stand.

9",12", 21" Rebar Triangles with an Alan Abel triangle to show perspective In the late 80's I found 3 sections of rebar in a dumpster. At the time I was teaching instrumental music at a middle school and one of my classes was teaching world music through percussion. We had explored some music of the United States and this time I wanted to teach Jazz. In our school the students were very much into Rock, Hip Hop, Country and some Reggae, but I was amazed that very few had any knowledge of Jazz. This rebar provided the solution. I measured the length of each piece and marked them to form an isosceles triangle (thanks Euclid). Using a torch, I heated and bent them as close as I could to the proper angle. After each bend I quenched them in water. I now had a 9", 12", and 21" triangle and because of the water quenching, each had a relatively long sustained sound. A coating of silver paint finished the project. The player would hold them in their hand ...