A Percussionist's Notebook

Normally the cow bell should be handheld controlling the amount of ring with the fingers and palm, but I've found that too many times it has to be played mounted on a stand. Using Moon Gels© at different places on the cow bell controls the ring nicely. Much better than using a wadded up handkerchief which tends to fall out. There are times when I've had to play Tambourines mounted. Again the Moon Gels© work well. They can also be used to change the timbre when handheld. The problem with Moon Gels© (I call them Drummer's snot) is they tend to leave a greasy imprint on plastic and skin heads if left on for any period of time. On plastic it eventually disappears but I wonder if it could damage a skin head. Regardless, I always remove them soon after they are used.

Like so many of the 'Drum Beats' for the military in the 1700's, The Three Camps was usually passed on from older drummers to their students by rote. There were a number of publications printed to standardize performance but so many people were illiterate (especially in musical notation) that too many times these pieces would morph into something unrecognizable to the original. In the mid-1700's The Ashcroft Rudimental School was published and eventually adopted as the official version. My brother used the version found in the Haskell Harr Bk. 1 Snare Drum Method (which closely follows the Ashcroft's version). Like so many drummers in the past I learned it by rote first and used the printed version as reference for later. I continue to teach The Three Camps by rote and writing out just the # of the rolls. Samples of the written versions: I'm sure there are many other ways of writing this solo, but none are the exact way of performing it. The traditio...

The Three Camps is a snare drum solo with quite a history behind it. This was one of three solos that my brother had me memorize when I was his student. In the mid 80's I attended a percussion history lecture/demonstration given by William F. Ludwig II whose father was the co-founder of the famous Ludwig Drum Company in 1909. This is the story of The Three Camps as I remember from his lecture. The Three Camps goes back to at least the French and Indian War. When the troops were traveling from point A to point B they would have to bivouac every night (no Holiday Inns at the time). To guard against surprise attacks during the night they would break into 3 groups. The first group would stop and make camp while the rest would continue on. Far enough away but still within ear shot the second group would make their camp followed by the third group doing the same. At daybreak the drummer from the first group would play the 'First Camp'. The last roll of the 'First Camp...

Every time that I turn around I'm hearing about more people that I know who were born in February. Me(2), Nephew (4), former student(5), Niece (11), Mother (13), Grandmother (14), Uncle (16), Sister-in-Law (22), just recently the husband of a blogger that I follow (15). February minus 9= a lot of people were frisky in May.

In 2014 I was fortunate to have toured Mexico City and it's environs. This was an archaeological tour conducted by the Archaeological Conservancy. I had read about the Teponaztli (log drum) and Huehuetl (single headed drum) for years because of my interest in ancient Mesoamerica. These drums were prominent in the Aztec Culture but also in the earlier cultures of Central America. In the Museum of Anthropology there were quite a few of these instruments along with of course the famous Aztec Calendar (most likely from Teotihuacan) and artifacts from the Maya, Olmec, Mixtec, Zapotec, etc. The Teponaztli was made by hollowing out a log and cutting out an 'H' pattern on the top creating two wooden tongues that would vibrate when struck  with wooden mallets tipped with rubber. The outside of these drums were always beautifully carved sometimes in the shape of animals. The Huehuetl was a tall vertical drum also made from a log with an animal hide stretched across the top. The...

Dampening Percussion instruments can be a divisive topic. Let it ring completely Dampen it How much dampening Where to place the dampener What to use for dampening I'll start with the last part. In so many schools, I've seen wallets, credit cards, cell phones, books, towels, socks (yes) used. Essentially anything handy at the time. Different instruments, situations and affects require different solutions. For the most part a snare damper is used to remove all or part of the higher partials of the vibration.  High dynamics require a snare drum damper to stay in place without moving around the head. It also needs to be placed in different locations on the head depending upon the tuning of the drum. It needs to be readily available at all times. The best solution that I have found is based on the Black Swamp designed damper. This is a thin piece of split leather shaped to match the contour of the drumhead arc. A piece of looped cord is placed around the tension ro...

Finally, a Rute that sounds like it's supposed to and doesn't break!  The Barbecue skewer Rute worked great and happily 'No Percussionists were injured or mistreated during the filming..er..rehearsal last night." This project required more attempts than anything else that I have tried (so far). So , here is the transition of the Rute.                                                      From left to right: A. Wooden dowels- sounded great but...... B. Wooden dowels- broke during the first rehearsal. C. Fiberglass dowels- durable but sounded terrible. D. Plastic rods- durable but sounded like...…well....plastic. E. Bamboo skewers- The Mama Bear, sounds great and durable!

Well......it broke. It lasted through 1/3 of the piece. Actually it was quite dramatic. Wood was flying everywhere. It sounded less than what we wanted so I'm not concerned about it breaking. We tried the fiberglass version which did not break but sounded even worse. My next attempt is to use flexible plastic. These are the plastic stakes that a lawn care company uses when they apply pesticides and herbicides. I cleaned them and used epoxy, electrical tape and heat shrink tubing similar to the first attempt. I took them to the rehearsal and tried them and they sounded like...….well...….plastic. UGH! Bamboo is stronger than wood and sounds so much better than plastic, but finding bamboo long enough and thin enough for this project is difficult. I did find some bamboo barbeque skewers at the grocery store: 12 inches long, 1/8 inch diameter, 100 for $2. These things look like something from an Indiana Jones movie. If I had a Brazilian frog that point could be lethal. I stack...

Groundhog Day has a special meaning for me. I was born on Feb. 2.  As time went on, I learned that Groundhog Day has quite a history. It is called Candlemas in the Christian world because Priests would bless the candles of the followers which would be used for the remainder of the year. The ancient Celts called it Imbolc or Lamb's Milk, I think this was because this was the time when lambs were born. It's also a Cross-Quarter Day which again comes from the Celts. Imbolc was the traditional Cross-Quarter Day that was midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. I've had a number of nicknames over the years, one of them was 'Rodent', although I think this moniker was given me more for the shape of my nose rather than my birthday's namesake. Somewhere I have a picture of a groundhog holding a sign (I'm sure it was Photoshopped) that says 'I'm a rodent, not a meteorologist!'. When I was in college I would go groundhog hunting with my ...