A Percussionist's Notebook

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 ...

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...

I'm not going to explain how to wrap marimba or vibe mallets, there are a number of videos on YouTube for that. They range from just OK to excellent. These are just my ideas, concepts and opinions that I've developed over the years of wrapping and teaching my students to wrap (No, not RAP!). Yarn Brown Sheep®, I Love This Yarn®, Patons® Kroy Socks  Acrylic #3 weight (commonly called Sport weight): This is the first yarn that I have my students use. It's inexpensive, durable and easy to handle.  Wool or wool blend #1 (also called Baby or Fingering yarn): It's more expensive, doesn't last as long as acrylic but produces a better sound and shape for my purposes.   Cotton: I don't like cotton nor do I recommend it to my students. It produces a harsh ictus on the bars. Mallet head  The hardness of the finished mallet is mainly determined by the hardness of the core (soft/medium/hard rubber, nylon/poly/etc.).  Mole skin or latex (surgical) t...

The Felt Strips I didn't find any felt that I thought appropriate for the replacement so I tried other materials. I needed strips that were 1/2" wide by 3/8" thick.   Weather stripping- Too soft, it dampened the resonance.  Plastic tubing- Too hard, it produced a buzz.  Closed cell foam (Backpacker's insulation pad)- Perfect! Goldilocks would be proud. Since I was playing with silicon I decided to try adding a bead of silicon to the top of the foam to hear the results. This produced a ring that lasted for 2 minutes. That was great!.....for some applications but not for bells. It also brought out the higher partials and over powered the fundamental pitch. I went back to just the closed cell foam, but at least I know how to make a metal bell ring for a very long time. I cut the foam to the proper length. width, and height. Placed them over the wooden support rails and put holes in the foam to match.  Now I could install the bars. I p...

Escutcheon Pins, Washers and Isolators Most of the pins were bent but easily straightened. Just tapping them on a bench vise did the job. I replaced the one wood screw with a sheet metal screw for the lost pin. For the washers I used silicon caulking compound. Earlier this year I tried making sheets of silicon by applying caulk onto a plastic sheet protector. I placed another sheet on top and rolled it out to the desired thickness. After it cured I took a hole punch for the outside diameter of the size that I needed. The smallest punch was used for the center hole for the pin. In the past I used catheter material for the isolators but when I went to a medical supply store to find the size that I needed I was asked for my doctor's prescription. A prescription?.....Are they afraid that I'm going to insert a piece of plastic into parts of my body just for the...….never mind. OK, so nix the catheter tubes. Since I was working with silicon I tried a di...

Deagan Round Top Bells #1120 A friend of mine was cleaning out his Music room recently and found an old set of bells that he purchased in Pittsburgh when he taught music in their school district. He asked me if I were interested in having them and when he opened the case I said YES!! Being just shy of 100yrs old they were in decent condition. The case was badly scratched but structurally sound, the bars were rusted,   the escutcheon pins were bent (one was replaced with a wood screw), the rail felts were compacted and turning to powder, the rubber washers and pin isolators were crumbled into small bits at least the ones that were left. Refurbishing this was going to be an adventure! The Bars The first priority was the bars. I didn't want to use a grinder, buffer, or harsh chemicals that would affect the intonation. I decided to use distilled vinegar and salt. As an experiment I chose the most rusted bar, the High 'F'. I soaked it for 28hrs and liked the resul...