Percussionistic

Eye Movements on the Marimba

Elias — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:27:42 +0000

One of the things that make the marimba a very engaging instrument is the fact that you are not physically touching the instrument at any time. This is also true for the drums, but you don’t need as much precision as you need on the marimba. To make things more “engaging”, the marimba is very long, and you need to take some steps in order to move to different notes. No two bars are of the same width, which means you can’t get used to the distances between notes, because it would be different at every region on the instrument.
You can multiply all these factors by two while playing with a sheet of the music score, because your eyes need to be fixed on the score, and you have to “see” the notes while looking somewhere else!
Did I forget to mention that striking a note can be done on four different regions of each bar? The edge of the bar, the center, a bit off the center, and the node (which you don’t want to hit and kill the music, unless you intend to create that sound for a special effect).
My recommendation for visually maneuvering the instrument while playing a piece is to configure eye movements just like you would configure the sticking and which mallet to use to play which notes.
This applies mainly to playing without the notes, but can be even more critical with the notes in front of you. This means that, assuming you memorized the basic structure of the piece, and decided which mallets will play which notes, you will also have to decide on where your eyes will be looking during each bar, or at least when it is critical.
In some bars, you will have to play two distant notes at the same time. You need to figure out (and this is done case by case) which hand will be better prepared for the next note, so that you can easily strike that note without looking at it. At the same moment you would be looking at your other hand to ensure you have positioned it correctly.

Below is an example of how you might configure eye movements based on the needs of the marimba for that specific piece of music. L and R (left and right) correspond to which hand your eyes need to focus on that particular note or bar:

For the first bar and a half, you will have set your right hand in the position to play a repetitive pattern of notes for four times, and then you have to go down the scale gradually. Since your hand position remains the same (you only need to move mallet 4 inwards going down the scale), you don’t need to focus much on your right hand. The reason for the focus on the left hand is that you will have to jump from the low E and up to G quite often and throughout the piece. You will have to maintain a wide interval on your left hand and make big moves from note to note. No need to go through the details of all the notes, you get the point.
So while studying a piece and configuring the mallets and stickings, you might also want to determine the eye movements that best works for you to ensure you are hitting the notes properly.
I think with time, you will develop a sense of where to look at the right moment, but at the beginning it makes sense to put some conscious effort in that, just like you do with sticking.

Saito Gakki Marimba, My First

Elias — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:31:15 +0000

I recently received my first marimba from Saito Gakki. It’s quite a challenge to buy one! Most companies don’t ship overseas, and it has to be ordered…
Having tested it for a bit over a month, I must say I’m happy with the overall product I received.
The shipping was on time (around two weeks), and the package came in excellent condition. I opted for model SS-280, which is a 4-octave semi concert marimba made of synthetic wood. In the first weeks there was a buzzing sound coming out, although it had a warm and deep sound. I thought it had something to do with my apartment, and that the echo is causing this. It was so bad that I had to remove the resonators to get rid of the buzz. It worked, but the sound became so shallow, and it wasn’t as enjoyable to play. Two weeks ago I decided to try the resonators back on, and surprisingly it worked! I still don’t understand why, I think the wood took some time to adjust to the room environment.
Whatever the reason, I’m having a great time playing my SS-280.

Inner Mallets Technique

Elias — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:19:07 +0000

Coming from a drumming background, it’s fairly easy for me to play with mallets, do the rolls, and coordinate the two hands. However, it needs a bit of learning and training to get used to holding two mallets in each hand. It is of course very important to be able to play each mallet independently as much as possible.
I discovered a simple exercise that helped me a lot in separating inner mallets and having a lot of power and precision in playing at different dynamics.
The main aim of the exercise is to separate the movement of the inner mallets to two distinct movements: wrist rotation, and finger pressure.
These are self-explanatory and can be used with any of the different grips used. The two exercises:

Wrist movement: Practice playing scales, or just single notes alternating the inner mallets. Make sure your finger are not moving and that the mallets are moving only through the wrist. Obviously, there are unlimited techniques that can be practiced. THe main aim is to become aware of the wrist motion, and give it flexibility in different tempi, dynamics, and notes. While this is happening, the finger(s) holding the inner mallet should be holding it in place with as much relaxation as possible, making sure the finger(s) are not causing the motion.
Finger movement: Practice the same scales / notes, making sure that the movement is caused solely by the inner finger(s) and that the wrist is not moving at all.

This technique helped me a lot in isolating the inner mallets movement to two different sets of muscles, and focusing on each one made me much more aware of the muscles. I feel I’m getting closer to playing with stick even though I’m holding two mallets.
Eventually, you should be able to utilize the necessary muscle groups together, minimizing the effort and movement, and having more control over volume, tone quality, and dynamics.You can start utilizing a motion similar to the Moeller techniqe, which helps a lot with what you want to do after hitting the keys, and the amount of dampening you want to apply.

Polyrhythms Can Be Easier With “Polysounds”

Elias — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:53:09 +0000

It is very easy to learn the first basic polyrhythms (2:3 and 3:4), you can learn how they sound, and can get the feel for them. What is more important is being able to hear each one separately, and count each separately.
A great idea in Peter Magadini’s book “Polyrhythms – The Musician’s Guide“, is in addition to playing two rhythms on two surfaces, you can use it in musical instruments and play a chromatic scale or any sequence of notes against a singly note that is played in the base rhythm.
This is counter-intuitive, but playing a scale against a note makes it much more easier to hear the two rhythms at the same time. The reason is probably that we can easily hear the tune that is produced by the scale, especially that each part of that tune is a distinct note. When we are playing on two surfaces only, we are only hearing a sequence of hits, which are the same.
I use the same principle on the drum set. I play the base beat on the hi-hat foot, or base drum, and play the counter rhythm using the different toms. This also helps a lot in understanding all the parts of that particular polyrhythm, beginning, middle, end, or any particular part.
It’s also great to experiment with different sequences and surfaces. For example, playing 3 on the bass drum, and 4 on the toms you can play them in different ways:
side tom, low, high, snare
snare, high, low, side tom
OR snare, snare, tom, tom
It is obvious that the possibilities are endless.
This is actually a necessary skill on the drum set, because you need to be able to play those rhythms in different ways, utilizing different sounds, so it is kind of necessary to master this skill. This way it is more enjoyable, and clearer.

Moeller Method, My Two Cents

Elias — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:14:03 +0000

Your elbows… This is definitely not a descriptive post about the details of the Moeller method, but one of the most important things I realized about it, is that (although this is a bit controversial) the elbow movement is what creates the effect.
If you move your elbows in the proper way, you can cause your wrists to produce the sounds by hitting the sticks on the drum head. I took Jeff Queen for his word and practiced the techniques in his book and now started to feel a difference in the stroke. Snapping the shoulders in the right way away from your body causes the beginning of the “whipping” motion, the first stroke causes the stick to naturally jump away from the head, so the second bounce is a natural result, and raising the arm again to start a new whip will result in the third hit.
The wrist and fingers play a crucial role of course in terms of the subtle effect they produce on making sure the sticks don’t fly back in the air, and ensuring that the sticks touch the head at the right angle in order to produce the maximum bounce and resonance for the sticks.
A list of very interesting and descriptive videos can be found on Wikipedia’s Moeller Method article.

“Forward” To Basics

Elias — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:12:59 +0000

When people say,”back to basics” it sounds as if you are going to the elementary stuff, and that you are not progressing but going back. Actually, it doesn’t sound that way, people explicitly say it!
I strongly believe that practicing the basics is in no way going “back”, on the contrary you are going forward, more than you know it.
On the drum set, you have two sticks in your hands and your feet are pressing against a pedal each. That’s how it was when you first started, and that’s how it’s like for the world’s top professionals. Even if you add one or two pedals and you alternate between them, it’s still pretty much the same, and some of the greatest performances have been played with the “basic” four.
Therefore, since you are always producing your music by hitting the same sticks and pressing the same pedals, it makes perfect sense to me that improving the way we hold the sticks, the rolls, the doubles, the bounces, etc. gives us mastery over the basic frame of playing, and therefore frees our creativity to explode spontaneously. The more basics we master, the more freedom we have to focus on dynamics and musicality.
My experience in teaching ballroom dancing shows a similar thing. Most of my time was spent teaching basic and intermediate classes (since very few people ever continue!) and that gave me the chance to practice with the “beginner” students on the simplest things. Since each student is different, I’d have to teach the step in a different way, different students find different things difficult, so I had to spend more time on these things. As an end result, I had the privilege of focusing on each aspect and part of each step and that helped me master the basic steps, and move “forward” with my own dancing.
My current strategy is spend 60 – 70% of my practice time on basics and the rest to learning something new. Since I need to warm up anyway, this is really helping. The thing is that my performance in the basics is usually not as good as I think it is, so I need to practice and review them.

Never go back to basics, go forward…

Polyrhythms : Approaches to Learning

Elias — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:58:18 +0000

Playing more than one beat at the same time, is one of the richest experiences in drumming, especially when other musicians are playing each to a different beat. It can be very confusing and complicated to learn, especially with more than two beats. Several approaches exist to learn and master polyrhythms, and I’m using three different ways to practice and learn.

How does it sound: Using this method you try and listen to the two beats played together and how they are sounding in total. This works fine for simple combinations, especially 2:3 and 3:4. A good trick to learn these is transforming them to words. For example the 3:4 polyrhythm sounds like, “take the bread and butter”. Polyrhythm 3:4
Drum tab (using tables): This is the easiest way to mentally understand exactly where each beat is executed, and to visualize the relationship between the beats. The sheet below show all the rhythms and their relationship to each other from 1 to 10. You can easily download the sheet, or scroll and see any combination of beats you want. The 1 beat is used as a reference for counting.

Accents: I got to learn this approach through Jason Gianni’s videos on VicFirth’s website. It is a very interesting way to understand how the beats work together, especially knowing that you are not playing a polyrhythm! The main idea is to play eighth notes on the hi-hat along with a simple base and snare beat (on 1,2,3, and 4). Although this is the simplest beat you can ever play on a drum set, the trick is that every third note on the hi-hat is accented. It feels strange to play it, and needs a lot of practice. I found the best way is to read it and play it, it truly gets you started in clearly understanding the two rhythms working together.

Coordination and Independence on the Drum Set

Elias — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:04:56 +0000

One of the key skills each drummer must develop and master is the ability to independently play different things with each of his/her limbs at the same time. Ultimately that means playing complex polyrhythms easily and effortlessly. The usual approach when learning a new beat, is to understand what each hand and foot does, master each on its own, and then try and combine them together. This is the logical linear approach, and works well if you have enough independence.

Another approach that works for me is, instead of learning each line on its own, is to learn the beat count by count. This means that I divide the beat into the lowest common denominator of counts (could be quarters, eighths, or anything), and then think about what’s happening on each count. Which limbs are hitting at the same time, which are resting, and so forth.

I found this approach implemented in an interesting way in Jim Chapin’s famous book. As in the example score below, you can see a dotted line connecting the notes that occur at the exact moment. This helps a lot in understanding a written score and in how to play holistically, moment by moment, as opposed to hand + hand + foot + foot.

Another clear approach is the drum tabs approach, this is even clearer. Not only does it show what is happening at each moment, it also shows how many counts each limb is waiting.

HH|X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-|X-x-X-x-X-x-X-X-|X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-|
S |----o-------o--d|----o-------og--|----o-------o---|
B |o-o----oo-o-----|o-o----oo-o-----|o-o----oo-o--o-o|
  |1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |

I only find tabs a bit confusing visually and I think the perfect solution is to transcribe the notes on an Excel table, this is especially helpful when trying to understand polyrhythms and complicated beats, where you need to know exactly when the beat has to be executed. The problem with polyrhythms is that beats played together don’t necessarily divide each other, and it can be a bit tough. Here is an example of a 3:7 polyrhythm. The beat can be played against 21 counts of a metronome, and you can see exactly when each beat falls.

Of course there is much more to independence and coordination than this, but I think this way the drummer is engaged in every moment, and feels the harmony instead of automating each limb, forgetting about it, and focusing on others.

Achieving Good Bounce and Rebound With Drum Sticks

Elias — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:32:04 +0000

Achieving speed and a resonant sound are essential aspects of playing good drums. One of the most important skills to help this is being able to bounce the sticks on the head of the drum as much as needed. For a full vibrant sound, you will need maximum bounce, for a restricted sound you might need to go to the extreme of a “dead stroke” where the minimum bounce is happening. Several things can be done and worked on to improve bounce, and help with the quality of sound and speed.

Fulcrum point: This is one of the basic things that is usually taught to beginning drummers. Finding the sweet spot where the stick is held to produce maximum bounce. This is usually around one third the distance from the butt of the stick, but it changes from person to person and from stick to stick. It’s up to the drummer to find it by experimenting.
Grip: The grip you use has some effect on the amount of rebound you get. I feel that the traditional grip with the left hand allows for more rebound. The French grip is a bit different than the German in terms of how the fingers are wrapped around the stick.
The angle at which you hit the head: At the moment of contact (the stick’s tip with the drum head) the angle between the surface of the head and the stick needs to be quite close to zero degrees for maximum rebound. The closer you get to ninety degrees, the less rebound you get.
The path the stick goes through: Imagine the stick is forced to go through a path that lies between two walls that are very close to each other, with enough space for a stick to pass. This is the optimum path for maximum rebound. If this path is tilted, then you will loose a lot of the momentum created. Make sure the stick is traveling in a straight line as much as possible.

For me I know that I’m getting good bounce and rebound when two things happen:

Vibration in my hand and arm: If the stick is vibrating and the vibration is transferred to my bones and I can feel it, then there is good rebound.
When it takes less effort to sustain the bounce: The first hit in a roll will require a certain amount of energy, to lift the stick and hit the head. The rebound will provide an initial push for the second hit, and so on. So when I’m spending less energy on sustaining the movement than on beginning, I know there is a healthy rebound.

Most of these things are based on feeling and experiencing, and your body will resonate with pleasure (or not) depending on how you are using the sticks.

Percussionism

Elias — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:38:49 +0000

I’d like to view this is as an “ism” rather than a profession. I’d like to think that being a percussionist is being rhythmic and harmonious in life. It means you are aware of every millisecond of your experience, as well as aware of the general theme of how things are progressing. You can see the trees, as well as the forest.

Saying things in the right time, is equally as important as saying the righ thing. Finding the right moment to shoot your bullet, with good aim, and timing is what makes our life musical, beautiful, resounding.

Percussion instruments are some of the most non-standard instruments. The same drum set can be configured and tuned in totally different ways, to produce dramatically different sounds. Just changing the sticks is enough to produce that effect. Maybe another aspect of “percussionists” is the spontaneity with which they create the sounds and music. Give them a table and they will play on it!

The beat is the spirit of the musical piece. It is the foundation upon which the melody and harmony ride. Spirit doesn’t have a shape, but it’s presence is felt very clearly.

To be a percussionist in life means to have these qualities, and playing percussion instruments helps us cultivate these qualities.