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

Imitating a xilophone?

It´s been a long time since I don´t show you something funny but, today, I´ve found a video on YouTube that I think is worth sharing with you.

It´s about a man who, since he was a little boy, caught the idea of trying to imitate a xylophone: 

You have to agree with me that this video is pure kitsch: this gentleman with a flower in the buttonhole of his lapel trying his best to look good on TV, his "fluency" and "self-confidence" before the camera, phrases pasted together with eh...., ah...., uummmmm...., takes while playing crouched down, then standing up, giving the impresion of a picture descending from heaven....

It´s also funny how he pronunces "zilaphone" instead of "xylophone" and, when trying to explain his development, nothing comes to mind and says: "...And this is the result!"

But, the weird thing is when he says (and he seems to have realized after having said it): "About five years ago, I was in my backyard entertaining a friend with my hands". No need to say, in this context, that phrase is hilarious.

This is a video which could have been filmed by Luis Buñuel himself.

It´s been very funny.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés