A Percussionist's Notebook

Three days before Christmas I answered the door and was greeted by one of my best friends and his wife. Big G and I have known each other since 1974 when I first started teaching, him PE and me Music. Eventually he became a Principal and transferred to a different school in the district but we still kept in touch on occasion. That friendship took a turning point in 1983. He called me and was excited about watching the movie 'Breaking Away'. He wanted to ride his bike to San Diego (where his wife's parents lived) and wanted to know if I would ride with him. I thought long and hard about this (5 minutes) and said it was a great idea. In June of 1984 he stopped at my house, loaded my bike on his car and drove his family to San Diego. We had previously decided to reverse the direction and ride from San Diego back to Colorado Springs because of the prevailing winds. As it turned out the winds blew in every direction on the trip. I flew out to San Diego and spent a few days wit...

I played my last service at First Pres. Church today. I have played there since August of 1971, and it was fitting that one of the pieces was from Handel's Messiah, For Unto Us a Child is Born. December has always been the 'feast' part of 'feast or famine' for musicians. Sometime during this month you can always hear The Nutcracker Suite, Beethoven's Ninth, and The Messiah at some concert. One December in the early 80's I played The Messiah at 9 different venues. I have my own copy of the Timp. part which is so marked up that the notes are barely legible. Each conductor would have his own interpretation of this piece, a fermata that would be held longer than others or a sezura where most would not have one. Some conductors would even specify the exact mallets they wanted to be played. Before every first rehearsal I would make sure that I knew what each conductor expected. Certainly the Messiah provided me a modest income over the years, but more importantl...

In the mid 70's I was an elementary music teacher when one Friday afternoon some members of the faculty decided to celebrate the end of a particularly hectic week. During the discussion the kindergarten teacher walked into the faculty lounge and was invited to join us. She had a side business as a baker and declined by saying "Thank you, but I have to go home and make marshmallows." I thought "Wait, you don't make marshmallows. Marshmallows come in a plastic bag or in a jar as marshmallow cream".  In the following weeks her statement would come to mind and I kept thinking about it. Finally I thought- "Well.....someone has to make them". Then my thoughts began to snowball, "Someone must have made the threads on a bolt for the first time." Likewise someone came up with the idea of units of length measurement. All of these concepts I learned in school but since they already existed I just took them for granted. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY ...

I have kept an old $14 tambourine around so that my students can see and hear the difference between this and a quality Grover or Black Swamp brand. Last month the head split which gave me the opportunity to experiment with some ideas that I've had for sometime. Modify the tambourine to install 'captive' jingle pins. Install a used head. When installing a replacement head you use a skin that is at least 2" larger than the diameter of the shell (12" skin for a 10" tambourine). Since I had an 11 1/8" skin that was removed from another 10" tambourine this gave me the chance to experiment. I removed the pins and stamped steel jingles. inverted the tambourine in a warm water bath to loosen the old glue and removed the split head. I then removed all of the residual glue from the shell with a stiff nylon brush and began soaking the replacement head.  Since the top of the shell was now softened from the soaking, it was an easy job of drilling ...

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. No, this is not political. I'm referring to the Percussion Section in general and specifically the Bass Drummer. Too many times a conductor admonishes the Bass Drummer if the tempo speeds up or slows down. Here you have a group of muscians who are expected to listen to each other and watch the conductor as they play. And yet when the tempo fluctuates it's the fault of a single person. I have never heard a conductor blame the 1st Clarinet when the Trumpet section doesn't observe the key signature, or the Concert Master when the Basses don't play at the proper dynamic. True, when playing marches the bass drum essentially has nothing but downbeats but let's go beyond that. Some conductors use an amplified metronome during rehearsals which now places the responsibility on each player and section to maintain the tempo. Although this is an effective tool, I find it torture to my ears especially when there is just one constant...