A Percussionist's Notebook

We woke up this morning with no heat. The overnight low was 4° and stayed that way until a few hours ago when it reached a balmy 13°. Fortunately we have a neighbor who runs a retail HVAC business. After a half an hour and a few phone calls, he was able to diagnose the problem. It wasn't any help from the support people that he called. Their suggestion was to replace the mother board ($500). After a few more tests he called a supply store and found the part he was looking for. He returned within 25 minutes (keep in mind that we had snow for the last 2 days leaving so much ice on the streets that would make the NHL proud). After another 15 minutes he had it installed and there was heat! It wasn't the $500 mother board, it was a Thingamabob or What cha ma callit that cost $25. What ever Thank goodness for neighbors!!!!

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...

In 2012 the YS programed Carmina Burana for their final concert. The one instrument the section needed was a professional pair of castanets. Until then the only thing we had was a castanet machine that I made in the 70's that worked OK if the sound was covered up by the rest of the orchestra. However, this was a solo part and should be played with a pair of hand mounted castanets. Because time and money was short I had the percussionist use my Epstein's for the rehearsals and concerts. My embarrassing machine castanets After the concert I had time to think about making a set. I found a pair of 2 5/8" ebony (they were not ebony) online, using my Epstein's as a reference, I made handles and mounted them. I then started on a design to play them as a castanet machine.  The picture below is the set of castanets and machine that I made for the Canyon Winds Band last year. The sound of these castanets are NOT the quality of the professional level brands. Th...

The original light didn't work as well as I had hoped. The light fixture and mount were OK, but the connection to the battery pack was a failure. The ledge on the stand that they used would not accept the clip mount for the battery pack, and the 9volt connection seemed too confusing for them. I found a 3 cell battery pack online with an on/off switch. I connected the wire leads to an RCA plug and rewired the light with an RCA jack. Once the plug and jack were connected, the musician could just flip the switch. The width of the pack fit perfectly into a section of the music stand pencil holder with a rubber liner glued into it. The battery pack now sits at the top of the music stand close to the light.

Stanley Leonard celebrated his birthday by making a musical birthday card for himself I decided to wish him a happy birthday myself.

For the 2017 Christmas Concert the Canyon Winds Band programmed a piece for a wind machine. Purchasing one was not in the budget and renting one was nearly impossible. Fortunately the director has a background in construction, beginning in March of 2017 I began drawing designs and in June we started building. Using 2' x 4's, 3/4" plywood, furring strips, locking caster wheels, bearings and canvas sheeting we were finished in 4 weeks. Totaling up the materials and our labor, Doug (the director) figured it cost us $800-$900. That was OK because we were planning to rent it to other groups when they needed one. To date we have yet to rent it out but that's OK too, it was fun to build and it gave me experience working with a real carpenter. It definitely sounds like wind, when cranking slowly just a breeze, faster is more like a blizzard, top speed gets it to a Cat 4 hurricane! We named it MARIAH. ...

Wednesday October 9  Hi of 75°. Thursday morning October 10 Lo of 22° and snow. Friday morning 16°!!!!!! Saturday predicted Hi of 65°. And then you hear "Welcome to Colorado" Of course our garden (zucchini,  pumpkins and 1 tomato) is gone and many of our flowers have died. The saddest part is that our Datura is done for the year. For 10 years we had a Datura plant that had up to 15 blooms at a time, but it died out over last winter and we thought we would have to plant more seeds. However in the middle of June we saw some small plants starting. By September we had 7 plants with 4 of them producing blossoms. I have high hopes for next year!  10 year old Datura 2018

Slapsticks are always fun to make. Probably the most famous piece that calls for it is 'Sleigh Ride' by Leroy Anderson. This one I made for the YS, it's painted red with snowflake stickers. One of the more memorable performances took place at a high school where I did Percussion Sectionals. At the first slapstick entrance a percussionist walked up in front of the band and played. At the next entrance another percussionist walked up and played. This continued until the final entrance when there were 8 or 10 players in front of the band. This of coarse was without the director's knowledge. Fortunately he had a great sense of humor and the audience went crazy.

I love this time of year! The air is crisp, geese are flying south, and mallets are starting to change their color😏

Unfortunately this was a rush job. I was doing a sectional at a local high school on a Thursday and the band had a concert on the following Wednesday night. At the time I was still working at the bike shop full time, coaching for the YS, and had a larger number of private students. They actually had a marching machine that someone had made, but the blocks were made from 1X2 lumber each 8" long. They were strung by different lengths of rope making it look more like a wooden windchime. It was difficult to hold, made extraneous sounds when picked up, and sounded more like a 'rout' than 'marching'. Since time was critical, I chose to reuse the existing frame but removed the rope and blocks. 2X2 lumber cut in 4" lengths, drilled holes 1" down from the top through each block, a second hole 1/2" lower on the other sides. I then re-drilled matching holes on the length and width of the frame. Paracord was used to string and tension the blocks. The mach...

It's not just for pencils anymore We all have at least one of these, and depending upon the musician they can hold pencils, reeds, picks, etc. For a percussionist it can be used to hold a triangle beater, no more clanking sounds when picking it up and replacing it on the stand shelf. Or worse yet, from the beater dropping on the floor when turning the page. Cut the shelf into 6" lengths and glue felt or a rubber sheet to the inside. Triangle beater holder It can also hold drum sticks. Cut 2 sections about 2 1/2" long and add the felt/rubber. Drum stick holder I used it for the battery holder and the stand light mount.

My wife performs at a restaurant once a month. She has been doing this since 1974. Recently she asked me if I could adapt 1 of our traditional stand lights that needs to be plugged into an outlet to a battery operated one.  I had actually done this last year when I needed a stand light with no access to an outlet. I had taken the AC parts out of the light and just stuck in 2 LED units that I got from Harbor Freight. These are units that they give out for free when you purchase other products. They are rated at 144 lumens per light, and since I used two that gave me 288 Lumens. Plenty for full stand coverage. The problem is the switch. One click and it's a flashlight (at the end), another click turns it off. A third click turns on the broad beam, and finally a 4th click turns it off. When the light is turned off from the broad beam (for reading the music), the next click turns on the flashlight and shines to the side. I covered the flashlight part with elect...

Last night we read an article that the momma bear had been put down by the Wildlife Service. The story went on to say that a bear was seen near an elementary school acting strangely.  It was said to be having trouble breathing  After they tranquilized the bear they determined that it was sick (?) and decided to euthanize it. They tranquilized the cubs but no information beyond that. This family had become celebrities in the neighborhood for the past month or so.  I would hear comments like "Yeah, they were at my house last night or I saw them walking down the middle of the street yesterday afternoon". I think we all new it was destined not to end well. To my knowledge she never showed any signs of aggression but it was only a matter of time before some confrontation would take place. Mothers protect their children, human or nonhuman. I only hope that the cubs will be either relocated (they are old enough) or otherwise placed in a safe environment. Meanwhile I consider ...

Mad Wax I've tried many ways to help with tambourine thumb/finger rolls.  Different brands of tambourine wax, waxes for different applications, sandpaper, etc. I've also ruined a number of tambourines with these experiments including one particular messy incident using cross country ski wax. By far the best commercial wax that I've found is made by Black Swamp. It doesn't build up in layers, doesn't produce globs, and is effective on both skin and synthetic heads. The only problem with this wax as with all waxes is they tend to get lost.  At nearly $10 a pop this drained my YS budget along with wing nuts, wing bolts, cymbal stand felts/sleeves, etc. I thought that if I could develop a recipe for my own wax and make it in bulk it would be less expensive. I chose to use bees wax as the basic ingredient. Then added glycerin, lanolin, white paper glue, lip balms, and fingertip moistener individually and in different combinations. All of these had drawbacks that ca...

No, I'm not swearing about my stick bag. Although trying to use a stick bag to hold mallets on a marimba would be cause for using a few choice words. I'm talking about a stick bag that literally flips when used to hold marimba mallets when mounted on a marimba. First I need to clear up my definition of a 'mallet bag' as opposed to a 'stick bag'. A 'Mallet bag'  has pockets between 14"&15" deep and fairly narrow, about 4" wide. Both the depth and the width is important to keep the mallets from leaning over and flipping the bag. Even with these dimensions it is still important to have some tie or hook system along the top of the bag to support it vertically. A 'stick bag' has shorter and wider pockets, 9"-10" and 4"-6" respectively.  Sometimes a stick bag has vertical supports. Where they are mounted is the actual difference between the 2. The stick bag is usually placed on the floor tom of a drum set, alte...

We came home from a weekend at Steamboat Springs yesterday. It seems the bears had a picnic under the pine tree in our front yard. My neighbor snapped this pic of the diners before they came to our house (restaurant?) . There were hamburger wrappers, napkins, and paper cups with straws all around. I didn't know bears used straws. They even left their own 'calling cards' in the lawn and driveway.  We have had a momma bear and 2 cubs in the neighborhood for about 3 weeks now.  Yes they are wild and yes they (she) is potentially dangerous, but not nearly as frightening as this visitor we had about 15 years ago. That's our house on the other side of the fence. At the time, our other neighbor had some ceramic deer statues in his yard and the lion decided to investigate.

I used a black bottle brush and bent the lower part to form a hook. Above the hook is a small portion of the brush which imitates a peacock hurl on a tied nymph. The body of the nymph is ivory colored yarn and the black legs and brown wings are the polyester bristles from paint brushes. At the top next to the eye of the hook is 'eyelash' yarn I found at a hobby store. Side view and front view The fish is 15" long by 10" wide. The fly is 5" long. It was a fun project, but I'm glad it's finished. I've decided to give it to him for his birthday in October.

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...

For the Spring Concert of 2019 the percussion section had one piece that required quite a few accessory instruments. We had accessory tables and one accessory holder but this piece required multiple players using multiple instruments. Adding more tables would add more space that we knew we would not have at the concert venue. The only solution was more accessory holders. I purchased a 'Gibralter' mounting clamp and built the remainder of the holder around it.  3/4" square tube as the base of the mount.  Drilled 2 holes to accept the mounting clamp.  Drilled 2 holes for the mounting(vertical) posts.  1/4" bolts (2) with lock washers and nuts for the mounting posts. That was it. Pretty simple and effective. But we needed a second one. Not able to buy another 'Gibralter' mounting clamp I borrowed the idea from the 'Reitiesher II' horizontal triangle holder clamping system. Since I had some 8mm all-thread left over from another project, ...

Since our mother passed away in 2008, my brother and I have Skyped nearly every Sunday. If you read my 'Welcome post' he was my first drum teacher and a very influential person in my musical life. For whatever reason we started to talk about connections to historical people last Sunday. That  made me think about famous musicians of course. So..... 1965- my wife(girlfriend at the time) and I had a class with musician and musicologist Fredrick Dorian. One day as we entered his apartment we found Rudolf Serkin sitting on a chair in conversation with Dr. Dorian. Serkin was in town to play Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with the Pittsburgh Symphony. After introductions were made Mr. Serkin stood up and shook hands with all of us students in the class. My memory of him was a very soft spoken, humble man and very easy to talk to. That made me think of connections: Rudolf Serkin (1) Serkin met Schnabel at a concert in Berlin 1921. Artur Schnabel (2) Theodor Leschetizky (Schnabel...