Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the May 1980 issue of The Instrumentalist.
Grip
Ames: I recommend the matched grip for students because of its versatility. Once you become a multiple percussionist; you’ll be expected to play everything. Because many of the mallet instruments require that you use a matched grip, it’s a lot easier to stay with that grip overall than to switch back and forth from one method to the other.
Peters: The controversy of matched grip versus rudimental grip can be resolved only by the individual percussion player, according to his specific needs. It is good to be familiar with both grips, but what really matters is what ultimately works best for you. For either grip, the most important thing is that it be firm but relaxed. Gripping the stick should feel natural and there should be no tension in the wrist or arm. If you feel comfortable with your present grip and can achieve good sound on the instrument, I recommend that you keep it.
Wickstrom: In playing snare drum I use mostly the traditional grip. I’ve played it since I was five years old and still seem to get more power from it than from matched grip, which I’ve only played for about 12 years. However, I find myself switching to matched grip for softer playing and when I play the snare drum as part of a drumset or another multiple percussion setup.
Rolls
Ames: I’ve developed what I believe is a “foolproof” method for learning rolls. It’s amazing. Some students can master a good-sounding roll in only a month. Since we have learned that smooth rolls are made up of triplets, the best way to learn a roll is to practice triplets with the sticks bouncing three times for every hand movement.
Starting slowly, let the sticks bounce three times just to get the feel of it. Then increase the speed gradually. Work for clarity and precision, but stay relaxed. Once you become tense, all anyone will hear are the strokes – and you will strain your wrists as well. To master the technique, you can build all sorts of little exercises for yourself using three strokes per stick.
Peters: The function of a roll on any percussion instrument is to sustain the sound of the initial stroke If one hand does not match exactly what the other hand does – such as lifting one stick higher, or moving one wrist faster – the result will be an uneven sound.
To help eliminate any inconsistency, first isolate the problem and then exaggerate it in both hands, one at a time. In this way you will become more conscious of executing identical motions in both hands. Also, your ear should tell you if your roll is producing an even sound or not, and for this reason a tape recorder can be extremely helpful in evaluating your practicing and in detecting unevenness of sound in rolls.
Ames: To improve your rhythm, always subdivide beats. When you play eighth notes, count sixteenths. It is very helpful and makes for great precision in all your playing. It noticeably improves accuracy in ritards and accelerandos. Sometimes students aren’t convinced that there is any difference between “almost right” and “absolutely right.” But there is a difference, and the problems created by “almost right” rhythm become painfully obvious in a group where each player is a little bit inaccurate.
Wickstrom: I like to use the metronome for instruction and practice. It can be used in many different ways, such as tapping quarter, eighth, or sixteenth notes. To develop an internal rhythmic pulse, set the metronome to only the downbeat of each measure. For jazz I’ll use the metronome clicking two beats to a measure, the second and fourth. I ask the student to think of it as a drummer’s high hat. Learning to read rhythmic notation is important, right from the beginning.
Versatility
Ames: I strongly urge getting plenty of experience playing many different instruments in a variety of styles because the percussion field is currently highly competitive. The more you play, the better your chances will be.
Peters: You’ve got to be absolutely first class on all the percussion instruments if you want more doors open to you in the professional music business. I was accepted into the band at West Point even though they had too many drummers – not because I was a superstar drummer, but because I was versatile. They gave me the job because they needed a percussionist who could also play marimba and timpani. If you limit yourself to only those instruments you can play well, you also limit yourself to fewer job opportunities in the percussion field.
Wickstrom: A percussionist today can be either a musician capable of performing on a wide variety of instruments in divergent areas or a virtuoso on one instrument in one field. The choice is ultimately each performer’s; background in all areas of percussion as a young player will give you the basis to make intelligent choices and to re-direct goals in performance throughout your life. I personally believe every percussionist should have some knowledge of snare drum, timpani, mallet keyboard percussion, and drumset.
Timpani
Peters: A good ear is essential for the timpanist. In fact, the ability to hear true harmonic intervals is the primary requisite for playing timpani because the intonation of the drums must be exact. The timpanist should learn to tune the drum with one reference pitch (from a tuning fork or from the tuning note of a band or orchestra) and then change pitches intervallically from that initial pitch. To check the exactness of your tuning, hum the desired pitch into the drum: when it resonates back the loudest, the intonation is as good as you can get it. I don’t approve of electronic tuning devices because they become a crutch for the ear.
The best playing area on the timpani head is generally about one-third of the distance from the rim of the drum to the center of the head. While playing, I prefer to sit on a stool because pitch changes can be made more efficiently.
Wickstrom: I began playing timpani by using the flat-handed matched grip identical to what I use on snare drum – referred to by many as the German style. Gradually, I changed to a thumbs-up or thumbs-almost up position, often called the French grip. I find that in playing timpani with this thumbs-up position, the stick comes up off the head as far as with the flat grip, and in addition there’s a certain wrist snap on impact that actually helps you take the stick off the drum.
I divide timpani lessons into technique, reading, repertoire (solo and ensemble), and of course, tuning Tuning is a big part of timpani playing. Mallet study, piano study, and singing all help with timpani tuning and help develop musicianship.
Mechanical knowledge of the instrument is invaluable. I play timpani in the Florida Philharmonic, and I try to get to every concert a half-hour early to check the drums. I make sure they haven’t been jarred, the posts are all in tune, and everything is functioning.
Snare Drum
Wickstrom: I believe there are two ways to develop technique on the snare drum: through work on rudi-ments and rudimental solos, and through using multiple bounce methods, such as Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone. I start a beginning student with a multiple bounce roll: I use it 99 percent of the time I play. But I won’t neglect the double-bounce rudimental roll, either.
Playing the snare drum is important for developing your hands for all percussion playing. Practice pads are helpful for working on your hands, but you can’t develop a snare drum sound with a pad, so it’s important to practice on the drum as well.
Mallet Percussion
Ames: For four-mallet percussion, work on broken chords in all keys with four mallets starting slowly and gradually increasing speed when possible, but without sacrificing accuracy. You can make up all sorts of exercises. For example, in C major, play C and G in the left hand with E and C in the right. Roll the chord, playing in a 1-2-3-4 pattern. Then try 1-3-2-1 or 1-4-2-3, and so forth. Proceed through all keys, major and minor.
After practicing the exercises, play easy keyboard music such as simple Bach chorales and other pieces that highlight the vertical quality of four-mallet playing. In really difficult technical passages, you can use two mallets and then return to the four when you can.
It’s important to learn about chords and harmonic progressions for improvising on vibes and marimba. Also, I recommend using a good etude book written for any instrument to help increase your musicality along with your technique.
Peters: Technical studies are important for the mallet player. When you play scales and arpeggios in practice, not only do you develop your technique but you also learn to recognize their occurrence in the music you play. Mallet players should have a balance between technique and sightreading ability. Weak sightreading can be strengthened only by doing a lot of it. When I was a student, playing duets with someone who read better than I did was an invaluable aid in improving my sightreading. A book I recommend to mallet players is Pasquale Bona’s Rhythmical Articulation (Carl Fischer), an excellent collection of studies to improve your phrasing and basic musicianship.
Wickstrom: There are many ways to hold mallets when playing marimba, bells, vibes, and xylophone. Fundamentally, in holding four mallets there are three principal techniques: the traditional or scissors grip, the Musser grip, and the Burton grip. I use the Burton grip in most of my playing but teach all three. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of these grips are in front of Volume II of my Keyboard Mastery for Mallet Percussion.
I start a mallet lesson with technical exercises, including traditional scales and arpeggios. Next we work on reading, including sightreading and re-reading for speed and accuracy. Taking a simple thing and playing it very fast is a good way to improve your sight-reading. Morris Goldenberg’s book Modern School for Xylophone, Marimba, and Vibraphone is good for a student past the beginning stages. Also, Bartok’s Mikrokosmos for piano are excellent. Because they’re written for young pianists, there are no large stretches for the hand and therefore no big leaps on the marimba. A good follow-up to that book is the Louis Moyse Little Songs for Beginning Flutists. The piano accompaniment gives the percussionist a chance to work with another instrument. “Music Minus One” records are also good for this purpose.
Another suggestion is to learn to read in all clefs, not just the treble clef. It will facilitate your reading and later “on the job” transpositions.
Double-stop playing is another important part of the lesson plan. One of the best books on this subject is Al Payson’s Double Stops for Mallet Instruments.
I think every part of the lesson should use all four mallets, even if it’s only for striking and rolling triads and other easy things. Creative Music Publishing has some good books by Bobby Christian and the Rubank Intermediate Method for marimba is good. Guitar music and two-part Bach piano music works well. Other good books that demonstrate this mallet technique are David Friedman’s Vibraphone Technique and The Solo Marimbist, Vols. I and II by James L. Moore and Linda Pimental.
Peters: The accessory instruments are probably the most neglected area of percussion playing. Inexperienced players often assume that they can play a bass drum, tambourine, triangle, and similar instruments if they can simply read the part. But it takes as much practice to play a cymbal crash correctly as it does to play a snare drum roll evenly. Take the time to experiment with each of the accessory instruments, playing as many articulations (staccato, legato, roll, etc.) as possible, pianissimo to fortissimo. Look to your percussion teacher and/or band director for advice. Two books that can be very useful in strengthening your playing on accessory instruments are Al Payson’s Techniques of Playing Bass Drum, Cymbals, and Accessories (Payson Products) and Morris Goldenberg’s Modern School for the Snare Drum (Chappell).
Additional Books
Ames: Two helpful background works that I recommend for every percussionist are James Blades’ Percussion Instruments and Their History (Praeger) and Emil Richards’ The World of Percussion (Gwyn Publications). Two exercise books I suggest are John Bergamo’s Style Studies (Music for Percussion) and Delecluse’s Complete Method for Vibraphone (2 vols., Leduc).
Wickstrom: A good rudimental book for snare drum is Odd-Meter Rudimental Studies by Mitch Peters; I especially like one piece, “The Downfall of Paris,” which is written in 58. For reading notation, Teaching Rhythm by Joel Rothman is very good and more thorough than any other book I’ve used with beginners. The book goes through all combinations of quarter and eighth notes and rests before moving on to anything else.
Final Advice
Ames: Playing with others will build your confidence and prepare you for different situations. And if you’re at ease, others will feel comfortable with you. Try to do as much ensemble playing as you can – there’s no substitute for it.
Listen to other musicians perform things you are working on. For example, if you’re playing a Bach violin partita with mallets, listen to some violinists play it and compare phrasing. Or if you’re doing a keyboard work by Bach, listen to Glenn Gould at the piano and compare interpretation. Those are the things that distinguish a really good musician from an ordinary one.
Peters: Listening is the single most important aspect of musicianship. The ear must be the ultimate guide. Whether practicing or performing, a player must listen to himself and constantly evaluate the sound he hears.
Wickstrom: I think piano study is basic for anybody going into a music school. You need it for theory and harmony classes and it’s required as a secondary instrument. The more proficient you can become in high school, the better off you’ll be in college. In general, the best type of experience for us all is playing, and it’s playing with other people that counts. The most successful people coming into the university are those who played in everything in high school. They were in marching band, concert band, jazz band, and symphony orchestra.
