A Percussionist's Notebook

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 ...

Families refer to the children as Big Brother/Sister or Little Brother/Sister. My mother passed away in 2004 when I was 57 and she still referred to me as 'My Baby".  Regardless of science's theories of time whether it's relative, linear, constant or whatever, families seem to be caught in a Time Warp. I'll always be the Little Brother. My Big Brother is celebrating his birthday in April so I made him a card. He started out as a Math Major in college and has continued to have a love of math. The Front The Inside

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...

THE VIDEO SAYS IT ALL Let's not lose our humor. Stay safe!

I received a mass email yesterday saying the Canyon Winds concert in May will be cancelled. As disappointing as that is, it's the proper decision. You can't put a concert together in one or two rehearsals and expect a decent performance. There will be no more rehearsals until August and tentatively a concert in October. The Skype lessons are continuing, I've given marimba and snare drum lessons, and even a drum set lesson. I say 'even' because I'm not a set player and I feel there are many more teachers in the area more qualified to teach set. The frustrating thing about Skype is the delay in the video from the audio. That means I can't play along with the student for either duets or the same piece. It's going to take some rethinking for that part. On the plus side it's great to see my students and work with them again. This only reinforces my decision to continue lessons even though I've backed out of performing from so many groups. I'm sur...

I've been waiting for 2 months to see if my armillary will register the Spring Equinox. March 21, 2020 It worked! Considering the lack of precision on my assembly it worked quite well. The inner 'globe' aligned vertically to the gnomon. Someday I'll try to construct another to get more accuracy, but now I'm happy with the result. I took this at 12:15PM

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!

The shelves are empty of  face masks and hand sanitizer. When all of this stops I wonder what they are going to do with all of the excess. Maybe...……………..             ……………………... Charmallets?

There was a news article recently about Italians serenading each other from their balconies. There were singers (a beautiful rendition of Nessun Dorma) and instrumentalists. Only the Italians would think of something like that, and then there people on the internet doing the same. I loved the idea and started to do the same for my neighbors. Unfortunately my marimba is too heavy to lug upstairs and into the driveway. The only thing I could carry would be my snare drum and I don't think it would be received in the manner in which it was intended.😢

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...

Chalk up another win for Covid-19. Canyon Winds has cancelled rehearsals for the next 2 weeks after which we will assess the situation. Bummer, but considering that the majority of the members are middle and older (some with pre-existing conditions) adults it is the appropriate response. Still it's sad to miss rehearsing and performing. Also most of the school districts in the Colorado Springs area are closed until after Spring Break. The Colorado Springs Philharmonic is closed, The Youth Symphony (supposed to tour Greece this summer??), and groups are added every day. I cancelled my private students until April. This is my biggest disappointment but with my wife having a compromised immune system it has to be done. Thank goodness for Skype, email, and texts! The upside to this 'social isolation' is we can get a lot of our projects done. I'm glad that I never took up Toilet paper mache.

Accessory Table is a general term. Their primary use is to hold Tambourines, Slapsticks, Claves, and at times Wood blocks, Cowbells that cannot be mounted on the Accessory Holder. But Sticks, Mallets and Triangle beaters(along with the occasional Girl Scout cookie) are also placed on these tables. Like most groups, we use restaurant tray holders to hold our tables, so the typical table is about 18" X 24". I built a prototype from foam core board 16" X 20" (this the size that I had laying around). After cutting it, I glued solid black rubberized Tool Drawer Liner to one side. After it dried, I glued a layer of layer of perforated Tool Drawer Liner over that. The perforated version is slightly 'bumpy' which helps keep sticks from rolling off the table. For added insurance against rolling I then put small daubs of silicon caulking on the board. If this works I will use 1/4" hardboard (to support more weight) for the real tables. ...

I was asked this question from someone 2 days ago. It's been years since I've heard it and surprised that I'm still getting it. There have been polls taken by various magazines for the 'Top Drummer of the Year' or 'The Best All Time Drummer'.  I've always thought it a kind of silly question since it is so subjective. During my freshman year in college I took a class in Musicology from Frederick Dorian. At one of those classes he made the comment 'Many times I have been asked, Who is the best composer - Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms- and I would say- Why choose when we have all 3 of them and so many more'. This is probably the best answer for any of those types of questions.

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...