EUREKA, AHA, and THE MARSHMALLOW MOMENT!

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 IT. YOU CAN MAKE IT!

That thought, that concept was liberating. You don't have to accept what is the norm or what is just offered. Things can be adapted, new things can be made. You might read this and think "DAH", but this was a turning point for me considering I have remembered that one statement for over 40 years.
I didn't jump out of my bathtub and run naked through the streets. This was however, what gave me the freedom (in my mind) to redesign or make different percussion instruments and accessories.

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The Amadinda

The Amadinda is an African xylophone originally made from slabs of wood or even large sticks, with or without gourds for resonators. There was no reason for this project other than to see if I could make a simple mallet instrument. The box was made from plywood (which also acted as the resonators) and the bars were made from maple. Since this was to be a true xylophone, the bars were all of equal width. Tuning was done by cutting the bars to different lengths and removing material from the bottom. Using a router I created a sort of 'stepped pyramid' instead of the traditional arc cut found on marimba or xylophone bars. Cutting the underside is not only for tuning but it focuses the pitch and creates the characteristic overtones of the instrument. Since I wanted to play this with other 'Western' instruments, I chose to use a pentatonic scale of 2 2/5 octaves (C#,D#,F#,G#,A#,C#,D#,F#,G#,A#,C#,D#). Two people sit on either side of the instrument and strike the ends of ...

Tambourine Shell Repair

A broken tambourine shell usually means that a new tambourine purchase is necessary. This can be exciting: I like getting new instruments, or sad: Any instrument that is damaged is a terrible thing. All tambourine shells can break, from my famous $14 variety to top of the line brands like Grover and Black Swamp. It's easy to replace a tambourine head but broken shells/missing pins and jingles usually means an early grave for the instrument. My early attempts at these repairs were stopgap measures until a new one was found. Wood or 'super' glue used on the shell turned out to be poor choices. It wasn't until last year that I really focused on shell repair. It happened during a Canyon Winds rehearsal when one of our tambourines exploded, pins and jingles were flying everywhere. Yep, it was the Resident Gorilla playing it. The shell had cracked between three sets of jingles near the head of the tambourine. We eventually replaced this with a Black Swamp tambourine but I s...

The Practice Pad

The practice pad has long been a staple for the drummer. After a pair of sticks it usually was the next thing purchased. Or in the case for my brother and I, a DIY project by our father. It could be as simple as a square of linoleum nailed on a board to the double sided models that produce various amounts of rebound. There are many reasons for using a practice pad. I'll start with the obvious: Practical: Compared to a real drum, they are cheap. They are fairly quiet, you can play them without annoying a sleeping parent or a neighbor in an adjoining apartment. They are portable, they can be taken on a family vacation where space is at a premium. Musical: Usually they provide more rebound than a drum head, which helps in developing single strokes but especially rolls. Articulation: The sound of each stroke is cleaner giving the player important feedback on the precision of their playing. Developing positional accuracy: Drawing a circle the size of a quarter on the pad provides a ...

A Percussionist's Notebook

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