"Individual Practising Techniques" Course.

The "Individual Practising Techniques" Course took place in Vitoria-Gasteiz on November 5th-8th. It´s been organized by the municipality, at it was addressed to the members of the percussion section playing for the Banda Municipal.

The way these percussionists got to know about me is quite curious, as they wanted me to teach the course thanks to some of them knowing "Percusize Me!" and my YouTube channel. Being requested to teach by a group of professionals that know my online efforts is something I´m very proud about.

During the course we talked about concepts such as conscious practice, constant contact with the instrument, efficiency, simplicity, economy of means, physics, variables affecting sound, and tried to eradicate some of the many myths involved with percussion.

All these concepts were mainly practised on accesory instruments, as this was the instrumental family the students were most interested in. So, we worked on techniques suitable for tambourine, triangle, castanets, cymbals and bass drum. We also spent some time explain the way I understand snare drum technique, rudiments and the control of rebound. With just one afternoon available, some basic issues on timpani technique were covered.

I was delighted with the students and their attitude (naming them students makes me feel a little embarrassed, as they are professionals!), and their response was magnificent. Obviously, I have also learnt very much during the four days I spent with them.

I would like to thank Ricardo Espinosa (from the Local Council) and Iker Olazábal (Music Director) for their kindness and professionalism and, how not, all the members of the percussion section of the Banda Municipal for wanting me to teach them. To all of you: Thanks!

For right to left: José Ramón, Elisa, Carmen, Gorka and myself.

© David Valdés

  

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Malletech vibraphones.

PASIC 2012 has taken place during the last days in Austin (Texas). It´s a convention were many concerts, conferences, master classes and events take place, and percussion related brands present their products and novelties.

I have already written about Malletech vibraphones and the absolute revolution its "Love Vibe" is. Thought this vibraphone was "da bomb"? Not happy with this revolution, Malletech has introduced a new model during this last PASIC: The "Omega Vibe" (maybe it´s been named "Omega" because this is the ultimate vibraphone, as "omega" is the ultimate letter in the Greek alphabet?).

Still hot from the oven, we can see a video produced by totalpercussionist.com, on which Leig Stevens himself explains the difference between the two models. Enjoy it!:

 

I still haven´t tried any of them yet, but I think the true revolution is in the "Love Vibe", being the "Omega" one a little bit more conservative. Should I had to buy a vibraphone, I think I´d go for a Malletech, and it probably may be the "Love Vibe". 

Which one would you chose?

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

New website.

New article on Percusize Me! after a period of inactivity. It is not that I´m getting lazy with my blogging, but there have been certain issues during the summer that kept me away from Percusize Me! One of them is me practising timpani like crazy, and it seems that practise has payed back, and will write about it in the future. The other, and the reason of this article, is that my website has been fully redesigned.

The site has a new design, new sections, the blog has been integrated, and surfing has been made much easier. I´m really excited about it, and I hope you find it useful.

Here is David Valdes new website.

© David Valdés

Have a look at it, and don´t hesitate to contact should you want to suggest someting.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Various stickings for "Scheherezade".

Sometime ago I showed you a one-handed way to play the third movement of "Scheherezade". That article was "Snare drum technique VI. One-handed Scheherezade".

After recording that video, I tought I should try that excerpt using different stickings. You can see the result on the following:

These are the different options (in order of appearance):

© David Valdés

Obviously, these stickings can be reversed if you are left handed and convert rights into lefts and viceversa.

I decided to play the last three eighth notes with my strong hand (right one) in order to get the best rhythmical and timbrical homogeneity, but they can be played with different combinations: RRL, RLL, RLR... (and all their right/left inversions).

Every single sticking showed on the video produces a different phrasing, providing us with many different options when it comes to making music. That, and no other, is the purpose of technique: a mean to get to a musical solution that suits best a particular context.

Which sticking are you using for this famous excerpt?

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Boston Magazine. The Audition.

New entry after almost two months without writing. I love managing Percusize Me! and tlike offering my readers articles or opinions of their interest but, if you are a follower, you may already know about my passion for the sea and navigation: this is what has kept me away from you for a while. Recently, I took my exam for becoming the Spanish equivalent of an Yachtmaster Ocean and, being the exams quite hard, the time devoted to study didn´t allow me to update Percusize Me! as often as I would have like. Everything is more calmed now (and my exams have been a total success!), so I can retake the blog with renovated energies.

Today I´m bringing an article which, in my opinion, is devastating. On it, Mike Tetreault (my mate at the Royal Academy of Music for two years) explains how he prepares an audtion, how a friend of him is sacked after three years with the Boston Symphony, how the hard preparation doesn´t even take to the second round, his wishes, his frustrations, the fairness or unfairness of a system looking for machines instead of musicians... I felt so identified with him, that thought I had to share it with you. Here´s the link where you can read it:

Boston Magazine: The Audition  

What is a fair system for auditions? Starting with the fact that percussion audtions are quite ridiculous due to percussionists been asked to play orchestral excerpts totally out of context and with no accompaniment, this is where I see the first mistake. I only played once with piano accompaniment ("Rosenkavalier" timpani part), and only once was I able to play with other musicians (all the percussion section plus piano accompaniment in a memorable Royal Opera House audition). If our job is to play, accompany and make music together with other instrumentalists, to play excerpts by themselves is, at least, bizarre. Having said this, I don´t mean I like the French way, a system which asks for pieces featuring 15 cowbells, 9 toms, 7 woodblocks, tambourine, snare drum and five timpani with piano accompaniment... I will never understand why this kind of solo works are asked for an orchestral audition. It is as if you were attending a job interview to gain a mechanic post and you were asked to cook some spaghetti...

     

Does a screen assure a fair audition? It depends on the case... I´m really suspicous about the last auditions I played behind a curtain; on the contrary, I have very nice memories of those I played in Rotterdam and Manchester. The one I won in Lisbon was behind screen, but that´s a loooooooooong story, and the one I won in Tallin was also behind screen, but that´s, again, another horror story... A behind the screen audition ensures no discrimination by reasons of race, sex or any other condition is taken (go and talk to the female trombonist under Celibidache in the Munich Philharmonic...!). I don´t dislike this option, but would never (in the case of being in the panel) ask for it in the finals: I would like to see the player, his attitude, commitment, style... In the same way, as a candidate, I want to show those qualities to the panel, so I prefer a final round with no screen. This system is not perfect, and it can be biased towards the candidate prefered by the panel. 

The trials method favoured by the British, in which various people "win" the audition and are tested trough a variable period of time, is a favourite of mine. A post in an orchestra, in my opinion, cannot be granted just by playing isolated excerpts: is for this reason that British orchestras "try" those who have played a good audition. Checking how they do in "real situation", they employ a good musican, not a mere "excerpt player".

Nowadays, with everybody using Facebook to advertise their success, I consider Mike Tetreault and Lee Vison to be two very brave musicians, as they had enough balls to say "I haven´t win". The "everything is fine", "I´m doing very well" attitude is easy, but the honest one, admitting "I didn´t get to the second round", or "I´m not giging very much", is the brave one. I really wish them all the best.

This auditions issue can be lengthy, but it´s something that will come out on this blog in the future. For now, I´d like to read your opinions about it.

I, for now, will quote a phrase in the article:  "Give me success or take this desire away from me. One of the two". 

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Tambourine technique V. Rolls.

New article, this time retaking an issue related to tambourine, as asked by one of the followers of Percusize Me!

There are many excerpts requiring differents types of rolls depending on dynamics, musical context...Shake or finger roll: possibilities are allmost endless, and I´m showing you a few of the many options:

The first roll is the traditional shake one, suitable for the majority of the situations. My advice is to practice it very relaxed.

The second one is a variation producing a triplet feeling. You can get the effect using the movement you use when playing single alternating strokes on marimba.

For piano and light passages, the third roll is your best option. Believe or not, I´ve used it quite a few times.

The nightmare every percussionist fears is to play a piano roll and then making a crescendo: the way I´ve found to give the roll a very clear beggining and articulation is to use the previous technique,  and then play the shake. As a result, we get a very clear initial articulation, pianissimo, and the we can do a nice crescendo.

The two handed version allows great volume and a busy roll, also permiting a clear beggining and ending.

Leaning the fingers against the head we can play very long rolls without fatigue, with a very articulate beggining and ending.

But, if we want a very long and piano roll (Shostakovich 2nd Cello Concerto comes to mind) using a riq technique is the best option.

Finally, finger rolls. We should be able to use all of them, depending on dynamics and character we are looking for.

These are just a few of the many possible options. You know I like tambourine, so more techniques will be shown in the near future.

Let me know your techniques and tricks, and I´ll be more than happy to include them in my arsenal.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Snare drum technique VI. One-handed Scheherezade.

Some weeks ago I saw a video by Tony Ames (principal percussion with the National Symphony Orchestra) which got my attention. That video feautures him playing the famous snare drum excerpt from the third movement of "Scheherezade" using just one hand.

You know I always try anything that can lead to a technical improvement or entails a new music making possibility. I try and work on it until I get something that wasn´t previously in my musical arsenal. Any new option is more than welcome.

As always, and before going on, here´s the part we are dealing with:

And here´s my one-handed interpretation, emulating Tony Ames:

This solution is a very interesting one, as we get a very atractive phrasing: the seven stroke roll is nicely tapered down, resulting in a very elegant and musical diminuendo. Also, the hand alternation can´t be heard, making for a very homogeneous phrasing.

Despite what it may seem, it´s not difficult to play (if we know how to get it). In my previous article "Snare drum technique: the roll" , I wrote about rebound control, and showed a video on which I was getting eight controlled rebounds. Put into context, what I´m doing here is getting a six stroke controlled rebound with my right hand, finishing it with my left one to complete the seven stroke roll and, again, use my right hand to strike the remaining three eight notes of the bar. I´m also using a "trick" I explained in the above mentioned article: I´m moving horizontally across the head in order to facilitate bouncing but, if you noticed it, I´m not moving my stick as much as Mr. Ames does, and I´m moving it more in a diagonal line instead of "vertically", trying not to get an evident timbrical change.

Moved by curiosity, I wanted to check if there was visual corespondence with what I heard and, using an audio editor, the graphic result of this one-handed "Scheherezade" is a follows (bare in mind we have a double wave because the audio was recorded in stereo):

© David Valdés

We can clearly see every single stroke of our seven stroke roll, together with a progresive diminuendo (see the amplitude of each wave is smaller than the preceding one). We should not hear with our eyes, but it´s always a relief to visually confirm our hearing impression.

I´d like to know your opinion on the musical effect this way of playing results in. I will soon post an article on the many ways this famous excerpt can be played.

Give me your opinion!, Let me know!

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Snare drum technique: the Paradiddle.

Some months ago (exactly last summer, as you will see me on the video wearing a t-shirt and tanned), one of the Percusize Me! followers asked me about the paradiddle. At that time I shot a video explaining some of my thoughts, but couldn´t upload it because my PC was running short of RAM and I could not render long HD projects.

Fortunately, after a good cleaning, an OS change, and some "steroidic" diet based on RAM modules, I can retake old projects that were left for better occasion.

In my modest opinion, not many people understand drum rudiments, what they are, what they are for, and how to practise them. Despite rudiments have been with us for centuries (first rudiments were introduced in medieval Switzerland), there are still doubts, myths and missconceptions on how to play them.

Trying to explain my thoughts on the paradiddle, I shot the following video:

Think of rudiments as a very powerful musical, independence, phrasing, rebound control, and use of inertia tool. If you see them as mere hand combinations, you would have understood nothing.

If rudiments have been with us for so long..., let´s practise them the way they deserve!

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Snare drum technique: the roll.

Probably, the roll is the most characteristic and idiomatic of all snare drum techniques. I always tell my students we don´t have a bow or an air column allowing us to play long notes: isolately played, a 64th note lasts the same as a whole note on a snare drum. Thus, the roll  is the only way we can create the ilusion of a sustained sound.

A good rolling technique resulting in a good music making tool is a must. The sad thing is that, despite the roll being a basic technique, there are still wrong ideas and concepts arround it.

Trying to explain my thoughts on the roll, how I analyze it, the way I improved mine, and how I work to control the number of rebounds, I have shot this video:

 

Aplying the concept of the "Triple Stroke Roll" rudiment has been fundamental in order to improve my roll. I hope you find this video helpful.

As always, any comment helping me to become a better musician will be more than welcome. Anxiously waiting for them!

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Percussion Orchestrations in Spanish.

Organizing a percussion section, where every work recquires a different number of percussionists, different instruments, asigning parts to musicians…, is a hard task. This involves the principal (who asigns parts, determines which instruments are to be used, where to set them up…), the stage mannager (who is in charge of the logistics), the personnel mannager (who contracts the extra percussionists needed), the artistic comitee and the music director (in charge of deciding the works to be played during the season).

All this hard work was done by the orchestras themselves, as there was not a global archive with all the repertory specifying the distribution of parts, number of extras needed, what instruments to use, if they can be shared among musicians… It was back in 2004 that Percussion Orchestrations landed on the internet filling that gap.

© Percussion Orchestrations

This powerful site is now a fundamental tool for orchestras arround the world. Since early this year, it´s not only written in English: it also features an Italian, German, French and Spanish version.

© Percussion Orchestrations

I was in charge of translating the web into Spanish, and I´d like to thank Ed Cervenka (founder of Percussion Orchestrations) for the confidence he put on me to make this project possible.

© Percussion Orchestrations

Visit Percussion Orchestrations. As percussionists, I´m sure you will find it of great interest.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

"The Typewriter"

New year, new post...

As the Gijón Symphony Orchestra was including "The Typewriter" (Leroy Anderson) for its New Year´s Concert, I thought it would be funny to tape a rehearsal and share this unusual experience (because of the instrument being played) with you.

The original score suggests two aditional percussionists (apart from the "typer"): one in charge of the bell, and other one imitating the carriage with a güiro. For the sake of the theatrical aspect, and for a better rhythmical fit, I decided to play everything myself. I also added some "notes" that were not on the original score, which I think make for a better phrasing.

This is the result:

Voilá... My letter to Santa is ready!

I´d like to whish you all a very happy, musical and percusive 2012.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés