Third-Stream Music Education

Essential and Non-Negotiable Percussion Strategy #1

Percussionists deal with a wide variety of sound-generating implements. The more your percussion students grow towards artistry, the more they will experiment with non-traditional methods of generating vibrations from each instrument to achieve the exact desired sound. However, when it’s time to rest, then it’s time to rest….and there is no substitute for silence. Silence, it has been said, is the canvas on which musicians paint. But both your percussion students and your wind students deserve a clean canvas to work their magic. In this vein, today’s percussion tip is not how to make better sounds but rather how to make no sound when silence is called for.

The secret is actually quite simple. Teach every percussionist that they require a minimum of TWO music stands–even just to play one single instrument. Set the second stand next to the instrument rather than behind it, lay it flat, and throw a black towel over it…viola, a tray for the sticks! One flat music stand can hold a pair of sticks and a tambourine; two triangles and a few beaters; a pair of yarn mallets, castanets, finger cymbals and a triangle beater; or a half-dozen pairs of sticks and keyboard mallets. Commercial stick trays are available, of course, and there is a critical mass of equipment which is better suited to a proper table or rolling percussion cabinet. Either way, the idea is to have your percussionists set their implements on a padded surface while counting rests, changing instruments during a piece, or listening to instructions during rehearsal. Make your percussionists use a stick tray consistently, and make sure your upperclassmen indoctrinate your freshmen into this habit. The primary benefit is quiet mallet changes, but valuable fringe benefits include less hacking during non-playing moments, avoiding sticks rolling off of snare drums and clattering onto the floor, and improved ergonomics when switching instruments during a piece. Listening for and appreciating silent stick changes might even lead your percussion students to discover a new appreciation for the quality of sound they make when it is time to actually strike an instrument!

Add comment August 27th, 2009

Cross Sticking on Snare Drum

If music is a language, then every genre of music has its own vocabulary and syntax. Every musician who will become fluent in a genre must learn to incorporate all of the vocabulary and syntax of that genre. Your percussion students have as much sonic vocabulary to acquire as the rest of the band….and often more, since they must learn all of the same tonal theory as the winds but must also learn truckloads of percussion-specific techniques. One essential idiomatic percussion expression is the ‘cross stick’.

The cross stick goes by many names—none of which are self-explanatory—including ‘rim click’ and others. The cross stick is essential vocabulary for the percussionist, especially any percussionist who might ever play jazz, soft rock, R&B, Broadway musicals, or acoustic ‘coffee house’ gigs. It is not to be confused with tapping the rim, or a rim shot, or the stick-over-stick.

The cross stick is created by placing one end of the stick on the drum head while striking the rim with the other end of the stick. The first end remains stationary on the head and acts as a fulcrum while the other end moves up and down. It is often helpful to leave the heel of the hand on the drum head with the end of the stick. Getting a really good, high pitched, woodblock-like sound requires the drummer to (a) turn the stick around backwards, using the tip as the stationary fulcrum, and (b) experiment with fulcrum placement on the drum head to find the highest, clearest, most resonant sound.

Cross Stick Video

Count Basie albums and Miles’ Kind of Blue are great places to find examples of clean cross stick sounds for your students. For more contemporary sounds, check out most of Jack Johnson’s album On and On or dig on “Didn’t Cha Know” from Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun.

Add comment November 27th, 2008