A Percussionist's Notebook

In the Spring of 2013 I came across a petroglyph while hiking in one of our city parks. It consisted of 2 horizontal lines with a semi circle above and lines extending from this semi circle. It looked old, old enough that lichen had grown in some of the grooves. I have seen many Native American Petroglyphs but nothing like this before. I don't even know if it's Native American. It doesn't leave much to the imagination that one is looking at a drawing of the Sun on the horizon. I took a series of pictures and downloaded them at home and studied them for weeks. Since the glyph is on a boulder facing south it couldn't line up with a Sunrise or Sunset. I realized that when I was taking the pictures, my back was against the high point of the rock outcropping. This outcropping rose 10 or 15 feet above the level of the petroglyph. Was it possible that the Sun would cast a shadow from the high point of the rock onto the glyph? It wasn't until late Fall of 2013 th...

Starting in 1971 I spent 3 years in the military as a percussionist. This particular band spent much of its time touring the US and Canada. My room mate on these tours was another percussionist and the two of us would discuss all things percussion but especially percussion education. After concerts they would bus us back to our rooms. It was not uncommon for us to talk until 3 or 4AM talking. Apparently I must have loaned him one of my books and then forgot about it. Years later and I mean somewhere in the 80's, I was looking for this book and couldn't find it so I purchased another one for my library. Fast forward to 2013, Sandy was retiring from his teaching career at a college and decided to relocate to the state of Washington. On his way there he and his wife stopped in for a visit and to bring a gift. My book is back! After 40 years my book was returned. Sandy had signed and framed it for me. I have it hanging in my studio. But then...... I have had a pair of ma...

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...

Canyon Winds was given a sizable donation last year and fortunately the Percussion Section received a large percentage of it. Doug (our director) wants to have the band own their own percussion equipment rather than rely on each of the percussionists to bring in personal equipment. We had been using a windchime (really a Mark chime tree) belonging to one of the players so this was one item on our want list. We chose a TreeWorks brand of windchime that cost us $150. Usually the mount for a windchime is an afterthought and it is mounted on an unused cymbal stand by removing the wing nut and sleeve, placing the windchime on the threaded part and then tightening the wing nut back on. This ends up having the windchime to pivot up and down when it's played making it difficult to play and dampen, plus visually it looks haphazard and sloppy. Not only does this offend my sensibilities, but it goes against my philosophy: "Why buy a commercially made product for $25 when you can mak...

Two interests dating back to my elementary school days are Astronomy and Archaeology. Combining these two had me build an Armillary. It's easier to show a picture rather than describe it. This ancient astronomical device was developed in ancient Greece and China. This one I made from embroidery hoops and when oriented properly tells the time of day. The smaller hoop is designed to track the sun on it's journey from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. It was only after I had glued everything together that I realized that I put the 'ecliptic' at 23 ° from the North/South Poles rather than from the Equator. I have an idea how to build another one (correctly this time) that should be a little more user friendly. After making this, I realized that these hoops could be used for some of my 'percussion repair'. If it works,I'll post it in the future. In the meantime, I have some private students who would probably like to make their own armillary...

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.

The Pikes Peak region has a number of culturally modified trees. These are trees that were intentionally bent when they were young saplings by different groups of Native Americans. To Pikes Peak→? An Open Space Park on the south side of Colorado Springs has one of these. There are signs on the trail pointing to the 'Holy Tree'. This one is said to point to Pikes Peak itself. The day that I took this picture I didn't have my compass so I can't confirm that statement. There are a number of local people who track down these trees and catalog them for preservation. I understand that there are quite a number of these trees located up the pass near Cripple Creek and also some near the Air Force Academy. I found one on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and also two others in a County Park closer to my home. I have done very little reading on this subject but I do find it fascinating. The first tree is in a park and well known, however, since the second tree I ...

Canyon Winds is programing 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' for the Spring concert. Of the many percussion instruments that's called for in the score, two of the instruments that we don't have are Pulli Sticks and Jingle Stick. The Pulli Sticks (more commonly  known as Puili  Sticks) are made of slotted bamboo tubes. Considering that this is a very prominent sound throughout the piece, I was afraid that the traditional Puili Stick would last only for a few rehearsals before it became kindling for a camp fire (especially if it were played by our resident gorilla).  I decided that a more appropriate and durable stick would be a Rute. They are similar in that they are both bundled, but the Rute is usually made from small wooden dowel rods. I decided to make 2 different Rutes: 1 with fiberglass rods (see my Triangle Beaters post) and the other with 1/4" Wooden dowel rods. Both have 7 pieces: 1 in the center with 6 around) 16"L. I used 'hea...

Three days before Christmas I answered the door and was greeted by one of my best friends and his wife. Big G and I have known each other since 1974 when I first started teaching, him PE and me Music. Eventually he became a Principal and transferred to a different school in the district but we still kept in touch on occasion. That friendship took a turning point in 1983. He called me and was excited about watching the movie 'Breaking Away'. He wanted to ride his bike to San Diego (where his wife's parents lived) and wanted to know if I would ride with him. I thought long and hard about this (5 minutes) and said it was a great idea. In June of 1984 he stopped at my house, loaded my bike on his car and drove his family to San Diego. We had previously decided to reverse the direction and ride from San Diego back to Colorado Springs because of the prevailing winds. As it turned out the winds blew in every direction on the trip. I flew out to San Diego and spent a few days wit...

I played my last service at First Pres. Church today. I have played there since August of 1971, and it was fitting that one of the pieces was from Handel's Messiah, For Unto Us a Child is Born. December has always been the 'feast' part of 'feast or famine' for musicians. Sometime during this month you can always hear The Nutcracker Suite, Beethoven's Ninth, and The Messiah at some concert. One December in the early 80's I played The Messiah at 9 different venues. I have my own copy of the Timp. part which is so marked up that the notes are barely legible. Each conductor would have his own interpretation of this piece, a fermata that would be held longer than others or a sezura where most would not have one. Some conductors would even specify the exact mallets they wanted to be played. Before every first rehearsal I would make sure that I knew what each conductor expected. Certainly the Messiah provided me a modest income over the years, but more importantl...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

Yep, it snowed last night (and all morning). They warned us, they said it's going to be a lot of snow and since it has been in the 40's that means there is a sheet of ice under all of it. (Abominable) Snowman tracks  The neighborhood kids must have been up early and used part of our driveway to make their snowmen. Since today is the day to take out trash and recyclables, I decided to do my Star Trek thing. I BOLDLY WENT WHERE SNOWMAN HAS GONE BEFORE.

A local auto body shop was selling empty 30 gallon barrels that had undercoating in them. At the time I knew that 55 gallon drums were originally used to make steel drums so I thought I could make a smaller version of them. My first step was to cut off the bottom of the barrel to get a 2 1/2" depth. After cutting the first barrel I realized that I needed to get some hearing protection. I found my rubber ear plugs and then put a piece of foam over my ears and put on my old Radio Shack headphones. Finally, I wrapped a towel over everything. I looked like my Italian Grandmother but it worked well enough to finish the job of cutting the remainder of the barrels without damaging my hearing. Using a 4 pound engineer hammer and punch I started pounding the face of the drum. It wasn't long before I new I could never pound all of these barrels out and then raise the different sections to produce the different pitches for a set of pans. Not only did it take more strength than ...

It can arguably be stated that  the Son, Bossa Nova, and Rumba clave can trace their roots to the Drum Gahu tradition in Africa. Although the Gahu rhythm was originally played by the Gankogui (a double bell similar to the Agogo bell), it's function was the same in that it provided the 'heartbeat' of the music. Top: Agogo bell Bottom: African Double bell To further my students' knowledge of clave, I introduced the Gahu 'clave' rhythm. Then they played along with recordings of each tradition. Once they became solid in these 'play alongs', I had them play 1 style as they listened to a different one. Having 4 students who were particularly good at playing these rhythms I wrote a quartet for claves that included all 4 of the traditions. It started with 1 player playing Gahu followed by the others one at a time. Eventually one player's part would morph into a different tradition. The final 2 players would introduce the remaining rhythms. T...

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...

Teaching Clave (the Rhythm) is an essential part for my students to learn the various Latin Dances, since it is inherent in some form in much of their folk and classical music. It can appear as 'Son', 'Bossa Nova', or 'Rumba' clave. They are similar in that they repeat over a two bar pattern with the first bar having 3 notes (Tresillo) and the second bar with 2 notes (3-2), or the reverse (2-3). Rarely have I had a private student come to me with an understanding of the Clave rhythm, even those students with a drum set background had a mangled version of the rhythm. To introduce the Son clave, I have them first sing the 'Shave and a haircut' rhythm: They then tap the rhythm on their knees with the 'sticking' shown: Step 2 has them play the Left Hand in the air (no sound): Step 3 the student leaves out the Left Hand altogether: Once the student becomes familiar with the basic Son Clave rhythm, I introduce the concept of 3-2 c...