A Percussionist's Notebook

  ( This also explains a student's mind shift when hoketing [see Amadinda]) One of the more common rhythms for snare drum in a concert band are 'After beats', the Bass drum plays the 'Down beats (1,2,3,4,etc.) and the Snare drum plays the 'ands' of the beats. Normally the instruction process starts with the teacher having the student counting all  of the eighth notes (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &), but playing only on the &'s. This is a good introduction but it shouldn't stop here. As the student improves with their stick control, their ability requires a different way of thinking. The first thing is to find the Tempo that the student is comfortable playing. I choose a Tempo slightly slower than this.   1. I have the student play all  of the eighth notes along with a metronome.  2.  They continue to play all  of the eighths but the downbeats are played on the rim of the drum.    3.  Now they play the downbeats either in the air or...

 I react to a popped flam like a vampire reacts to garlic. It has the same affect as when a wind player plays a B♭ when they are supposed to play a B𝄮.  A flam played correctly is a primary note preceded immediately by a grace note. The grace note is played softer than the primary and in theory doesn't have a time value.  Right Flam as written and played When played correctly, a flam has two distinct sounds. A popped flam happens when both sticks strike the drum at the same time. Popped Flam as played Imagine throwing a rock into a pond. When it strikes the water, ripples travel outward in circles. If two rocks are thrown at the same time, each produces its own set of ripples. When those two sets of ripples meet they cancel each other out. By replacing ripples in the water with sound waves in the air you get the same effect. The difference is when the sound waves intersect this immediate cancellation is so abrupt that it gives a popping or choked sound. A single tap on a...

 Everyone has an opinion for their 'go to' or 'default' triangle and many hours can be spent arguing about them. When the Alan Abel triangle was first introduced it was considered one of the best on the market. Over the years companies started to focus on making different sizes, designs and metals. This has raised the standard for the quality of sound while increasing the confusion over what a 'good sound' is. This has caused the Abel triangle to be shunned by many people, the most common reason is it's purity of sound.   The triangle sound should not produce a specific pitch, it's shimmering quality is what makes it stand out from the rest of the instruments. This 'shimmering' is caused by the many different overtones as it vibrates. So for this discussion I'm using a standard 6" Alan Abel triangle keeping in mind that no 2 triangles regardless of make or model will sound exactly the same. The first 'default' position that band ...

 Since I spoke about the issue of addressing the drum with the stick, I should talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the grips.  THE TRADITIONAL GRIP When the drum is tilted to the right (either field drum or concert drum) using the traditional grip would be a good choice. The angle of attack for the left hand is correct and the right arm just needs to lower a bit. Even if the drum is level, by bringing the left elbow in and rotating the palm in a more vertical position the angle of attack can be corrected. There are disadvantages: The traditional grip for the left hand is inherently unnatural. This would cause unnecessary stress on the muscles. Bending the elbow in and twisting the palm vertical only exacerbates the problem. Playing multiple percussion complicates things. If the drum is tilted and the other instruments (wood block, cow bell, etc.) aren't then the elbow and palm are constantly changing positions to accommodate the angle of attack. The grips for Timpan...

 Since I spoke about grip in my National Left Hand Day I feel I should begin with the snare drum grip. Any discussion about grip should begin with the relationship between the stick's stroke and the plane of the drum's surface.   Newton's first law of motion states: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." In a perfect world the bead of the stick will strike the drum head at a 90° angle and rebound at that same 90° angle giving it maximum energy. However the stick scribes an arc in it's movement to and from the drum since the wrist rotates to create the stroke. This means the bead of the stick is forced to rebound from the plane of the drum surface at an oblique angle. Therefore it's important to reduce this angle by keeping the stick parallel to the drum surface as much as possible. By reducing this angle of attack the drummer can recycle this rebound energy for the following strokes.                   ...

 I guess there is a day for everything. But since I am left handed (mostly) it has more importance. I say 'mostly' because I write with my left hand and eat with my left hand (using a fork or spoon even though I was raised by wolves) but I throw with my right hand. I think this contradiction comes from my brother who is a real lefty, he taught me to write before I started school and I just copied him when we ate our meals. The point being is this has affected me all of my life not only as a daily occurrence but as a bicycle mechanic and a percussionist. Sinistral, Sinistro, Sinister, these are all words associated with the left hand. They also imply something dark, mean, evil, wrong. As a bike mechanic I had to endure the insult when I installed some pedals on bikes, many European pedals were marked with a 'D' destra meaning right or 'S' sinistro meaning left. Both of these words are Italian with their roots in Latin, Right means good, Left means bad! 'Clock...

When I first started teaching I had one very big problem: I had difficulty watching my student's sticking and remembering that my Left was their Right. Developing a curriculum wasn't a problem since I applied the same order that my brother had taught me. Over the years I added more literature, extended techniques, and included Timpani, Mallets, and Accessories in my teaching. I evolved as a teacher. I found that the act of teaching sometimes included being a mentor that created a bond that lasted years with many of my students. Then came Covid-19, the first thing I noticed with our isolated teaching was the difficulty of watching and listening to their playing over Skype, Zoom, or any of the other videos. I couldn't sync (in my mind) the audio and video during the lesson. It was like starting my teaching career all over again. Dealing with the 'Sync' problem took about a week of lessons when I learned to accept the limitations of the technology and develop a differe...

What I didn't say in my post about practice pads was my concern about one particular student. She has been playing less than a year and doing quite well even during the Skype lessons because of the Covid-19 isolation. Her problem is making the transition from a concert (buzz) roll to an open (rudimental) roll.   I start my students on rolls with the concert roll because it's easier to achieve positive results quickly.  My philosophy is: " If you don't teach you student how to play a roll within the first 2 months of lessons, then they will just learn it on the streets."  However, playing the open roll is a necessity to not only play different styles but also to gain more stick control. A practice pad gives more 'bounce' to the rebound of a stroke than an actual snare drum, which means the player must 'control' that added rebound. By now she has learned to react to the rebound from the drum but needs to develop more control that only a stronger rebo...

Rudiments: "The basic principles or skills of a particular subject." Onomatopoeia: "A word that is phonetically associated with the word it describes." Scales are for a violinist as drum rudiments are for the drummer. To master anything one must learn the basic rudiments. Once learned they can be assembled to create something more than the individual parts. Drum Rudiments are a collection of sticking patterns and bounces that were developed to provide the beginning drummer the skills to play his/her instrument. But why the funny names? Most of the Rudiment names are onomatopoeiae. They imitate the sound of the rudiment/sticking. They were developed in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the use of onomatopoeia was to help the student memorize them. Since many people were illiterate at the time, this technique was easier than using notation.  The teacher would say the name of the rudiment and then play it. The student would repeat the name and play it. ...

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 ...

As inconvenient as it is to teach by Skype or any other platform during the Covid-19 isolation, I'm finding small threads of silver lining. In this instance I'm speaking of pencil and paper work. Two of my advanced students are entering high school this fall semester and they have been given  audition music for their seating. For snare drum they are to play a portion of Etude #6 from the Anthony Cerone book 'Portraits in Rhythm'. This book has become standard literature for concert snare drum since it was first published in 1966. Complicated rhythms, phrasing, metric modulation, dynamics, these are just a few of the musical issues that Mr. Cerone has advanced for snare drum education. Understanding subdivision is one aspect for Etude #6. Written in 5/4 this piece contains everything from Half notes down to 32nd notes which can be intimidating to the young student. For their assignment I had them write out the rhythm counting eighth notes as the beats (making 10 beats...

Sometimes the instructions on music are small (such as Rit. or cresc. ) or the conductor adds a sezura after a section that wasn't in the arrangement. These are just 2 of any number of things that a player wants to emphasize on his part during rehearsals and the performance. MARK YOUR PARTS! A comment that I always make to my students is: "One of the things that separates a professional from an amateur is a professional never trusts his memory but an amateur will."* If you were to watch a professional player during a rehearsal they are constantly marking their parts. It's a basic step in any performance. For years I had a mechanical pencil that held a 2mm lead in a grade of 6B, this is softer than a typical writing pencil (2B). I used this pencil for marking all of my parts. I would intentionally wear down the tip from a sharp point to a rounded end. This gave me a very dark and broad stroke so that I knew it would get my attention and could be easily...

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected everyone and more specific the private lessons, I have been using Skype in lieu of having my students come to my studio. I then tried a group meeting with everyone together. Re-heading a drum is a time intensive procedure and although I've done this a few times during a lesson, I don't like doing it because it takes at least 45 minutes to do it correctly not just the procedure but to answer all of the questions from the student. As I expected it took about an hour because of the many questions from the students. During our weekly Skype session my brother suggested that I include this on one of my posts for this blog. I initially dismissed the idea since there is a wealth of videos on You Tube about this subject. The idea stayed with me so I decided to watch those videos to assess their value. The result was that only one of the videos had good information and the rest had moderate to even misleading instructions. The result is...

After 4 weeks of Skype private lessons, I finally tried my first group Skype lesson. There are a number of topics that lend themselves to a group lesson and one of those is how to re-head a snare drum. I've done this during individual lessons in the past but it normally takes more than a half an hour to do it properly and I've always felt that it shouldn't be during an actual lesson. However, the times that I have done this, the student has brought his/her drum to the lesson with a broken head and it needed to be repaired before they could continue to practice. For this lesson I had scheduled it for a time well in advance so that everyone had it on their calendar. I sent an email to them with an attachment outlining the process with drawings and a step by step order. They had the sheet printed out and in front of them while I went through the actual procedure of re-heading one of my drums during the lesson. Twice during the procedure I stopped and asked for questions to ...

The Youth Symphony posted the audition music for their 2020-2021 season. One of the requirements for snare drum is to perform the Four stroke ruff. This is how I explain and teach it to my students: The traditional way of playing this figure is to play alternating grace notes starting with the Left hand and ending with the primary stroke on the Right. For many young students, the idea of playing a series of single strokes fast enough is difficult because they lack the ability to utilize 'finger' control on the stick. This ends up sounding stiff and too slow for the proper execution. For this reason I offer an alternative version to playing it. The concept is to think of it as starting with a Left ruff followed immediately by a Right tap. Another way of thinking about it is to think of it as an aborted 5 stroke roll. The regular 5 stroke roll is played (rrllR), an aborted 5 stroke roll would be (rrlR). Either way should produce the correct sound of the Four stroke...

I've had 2 Skype lessons today, both a success. What a joy it is to see my students again. It certainly has some limitations: the sound comes before the visual, and the sound itself doesn't have a very good quality. That's still better than not having a lesson. I can still monitor their hand/body positions, listen to phrasing/dynamics/notes etc. So there......Covid-19, you can't stop us now!

I am overwhelmed by the good wishes and offers to get groceries for us by my students and their parents. There is a silver lining for being an older person during this Covid-19 time. I'm going to try and do some lessons by Skype (PerSkypeun Lessons). I'm sure it's been done before but this is a first for me. I know there are a lot of logistic issues to do this and even a lot more that I haven't even thought of, so we'll see how that works out. I've also decided to forgo the monthly rental fees for the instruments. People don't need to worry about renting an instrument paying for mortgages/food/gas, etc. during this time of decreased income. For years I was frustrated that I couldn't teach my students mallets. Rarely did music stores offer xylophone/marimba rentals and when they started they would charge $75-$100/month. The alternative was for the parents to purchase an instrument outright from $1000 and up, or for the student to practice on the lit...

One of the great joys of teaching is when we get visits from former students. I say 'we' because many times when I'm working with one student in the studio the next student would be sitting in the living room waiting for their lesson. During those times my wife would visit with some of them talking about some common interests like painting, climbing 14ers, science projects, and of course music. The majority of my students did not go into music as a profession, they followed different paths- Engineers, Upholsteres, School Teachers and Principals, Doctors, Sommeliers. Some became professional Percussionists far exceeding my abilities. Each and every one of them has given us a wealth of fond memories. Thank You to all of you.

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...

The first part of the title is what is called a 'fool's errand', like a snipe hunt. A carpenter feigns frustration on a tool and tells his young apprentice to get him a 'Left handed screwdriver'.  There is no such thing but the apprentice runs around asking for one or looking for it until someone finally ques him in on the joke. The second part is the reply to a question that either requires a specialized tool such as a torque wrench or the more subjective concept of 'going by feel'. Both parts have one thing in common: the lack of experience. Percussion instruments get damaged or broken, that's just the way it is. But why they get damaged or broken is the important question. 1. Old or worn out This is simple enough. Either replace it or repair it. 2. Intentional/vandalism This requires monitoring, securing instruments when not in use or other ways of limiting access. 3. Misuse This is the responsibility of the Private teacher, Sectiona...