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Don't continue pining over the end of cover your ears blog. Take a look at my new blog 3000 mile Internship, where I share my trials and tribulations as an intern for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. You'll be glad you did.

Blog Funeral

cover your ears blog must now come to an end.  I'm so thankful for everyone who took an interest in this project.  Without a doubt, this has broadened by musical perspective, and I hope it has done the same for some of you.

The blog will remain public for an indeterminate period of time, however I will not be contributing further content to this project. I hope to start another blog sometime in the near future.  The best way to stay up to date is by following me on Twitter @TashinaLyn

All of the students featured in this blog are students at Southern Utah University, and most videos were shot at SUU.  To learn more about the music program at SUU, visit http://www.suu.edu/pva/music/

Learning a new instrument isn't pretty, but I hope you'll give it a try whenever you have the chance.

Timpanist Enthroned

This week I met with percussionist Joe Howe.  He showed me what it’s like to sit behind the tympani, and he stressed the importance of playing with presence and power, in manner that shows ownership over the ensemble.  Upon further research, Joe’s observations rang true.  Conductor, author, and professor of the Royal College of Music in London, Norman Del Mar (1919-1994), wrote that a timpanist “appears to be enthroned, presiding as it were over the orchestra.”  I’ll let you decide whether I possess the powerful stance of a true timpanist; just check out the video.  And in the interview below, you can read more about timpani tasks and troubles.

Interview:

Tashina: When did you first start playing percussion?

Joe: I started playing in 5^th grade, so when I was about 11.

Tashina: Was it like a school band program?

Joe: Yeah, school.  It was an intermediate school.

Tashina: Why did you choose percussion over other instruments?

Joe: Um, I don’t really remember.  I was originally going to do euphonium, because I thought it had a cool name.  And I don’t really remember why I chose to do percussion.  But when I showed up for school that year, I just decided to do it.

Tashina: What is the biggest challenge of being a percussionist?

Joe: I think the biggest challenge is that there are so many different things you need to learn. Um, and there’s so much different depth you can go into.  Like I learned a certain extent in high school, and I thought I knew some cool stuff. And then I came here [Southern Utah University].  And actually, I’ll never forget my audition for Dr. Vartan.  I played this snare drum piece, and I thought it was pretty good.  And then the first thing she said to me was, “Do you know how to roll on the snare drum?”  And I was like, “I think so.”  And I tried to roll, and she’s like “We’ll work on it later.”  And so, there are so many different levels, and that was just the snare drum, you know.  And I didn’t even know how to play the mallet instruments until I came to college.  And um, there’s so many different things.  Like I thought I knew how to play timpani, and I didn’t.  Now I realize that there’s so much further I can go with all these different instruments.  And there’s so many different levels.  Like just playing the John Cage piece, Third Construction, there’s so many different things that he did with layering, and different kind of rhythms, and stuff like that.  Just crazy.  There’s so much stuff to take in.  It’s kinda hard to pick what you want to do.

Tashina: Why are timpani different sizes?

Joe: They are different sizes so you can get the different pitches. Um, these are the four normal sizes, starting at the bottom: it’s a 32” (it goes up by three) and then the next one’s 29”, 26”, 23”.  And the bottom range goes from a ‘D’ to a ‘G.’ The second goes to a ‘F’ to a ‘D.’ And then the third one goes from ‘Bb’ to ‘Gb.’ And the top one goes to ‘D’ to ‘Bb.’ But that’s what they should be able to do, but not all of them can get that high. Like the third drum over there only gets up to a Bb.

Tashina: How do you tune timpani to desired pitches?

Joe: If you’re really good, you can go by ear.  I don’t.  Most of the time what really good timpanists do, is they know their intervals really well. And they can get usually the ‘Bb’ off the band, or an ‘A’ if they’re with the orchestra. And just sing the intervals, and be able to do it that way.  They do have gauges on them now, a lot of the new ones actually have gauges that you can set. But those are only relative, because the orchestra changes, obviously. So that’s how you’re supposed to do it.

Tashina: Which orchestral composers write the best timpani parts?

Joe: My favorite is Beethoven, personally.  Because he writes the timpani as part of the bass line, kinda, but also kinda as a drum.  And I think that nowadays, most composers think of it more of as part of the percussion section.  When he actually thought of it as more of a bass line.  Even though back then, they didn’t have the capability to actually tune them, as much as they do now.  Actually in the old days, if the different movements went to different keys, they wouldn’t tune the timpani to different keys, because it would take too long.  And so it would actually be out of tune.  But nowadays, they do obviously. Beethoven wrote, probably the best, I think.  Some other good ones are Mahler.  Mahler actually wrote some pretty good timpani parts too.  But Beethoven’s the best in my opinion.

Pulling out all the stops

In a world of MP3’s, Smartphones, and Ke$ha, Savannah is passionate about an ecclesiastical keyboard instrument that dates back to the 8^th century.  Savannah Sommers is a radiant, young college student with a warm, welcoming personality.  But yeah, she’s also an organist.  

I must admit, that I was curious about how this came to be.  But after speaking with Savannah, and after getting a closer look at the organ, I think I understand.  I hope you will too!  Great interview, awesome video.  Please take a look.

Interview

Tashina: What makes an organ different from a piano?

Savannah: Alright, well the only thing that is similar between the two, is the keys—how there’s black and white keys.  And that’s pretty much the only similarity.  And other than that, pianos have strings that the hammers strike, and they vibrate, and that’s where the sound comes from.  But organs have pipes that are opened (depending on what keys you push) and the sound comes from the pipes.

Pianos only have one keyboard, right?  But I’ve seen organs with up to 5 different keyboards, and they’re called manuals when you’re talking about organ.

Let’s see, the organs have a volume-control pedal, and it’s called the swell box, and when you push it, it makes it louder.  Whereas the piano doesn’t have a volume control, other than just hitting the keys harder or softer, depending on how loud you want it.

The piano has a damper pedal, to allow the notes to sustain longer—for the strings to vibrate longer.  But organs, the sound will sustain as long as you’re holding the key down, it never dies away.

Pianos aren’t capable of any other sound, besides just the sound of the strings.  But organs have stops that you open, that control different sounds and different pipes.  And they can sound like the trumpet, they can sound like the flute, a combination of the two, they can sound like bells—that’s a fun one to use.  It can sound like really high-pitched and shrill, or just like really soft and mellow.  It’s really cool how you can control all the sounds.

And for playing piano, you don’t have to wear any special kind of clothing.  But you do have to wear special shoes for organs.  They have a little heel on them, and they’re for playing the pedals.

And then, of course, there are foot pedals on the organ, they [foot pedals] just look like a keyboard, only it’s bigger and down by your feet.

Tashina: What made you decide to start playing on the organ?

Savannah: Well, it’s really useful for me, just because I get asked to play at church all the time, so church is a good place.  But also, I wanted to be able to play another instrument besides piano—which has been my main instrument my whole life.  And my piano teacher could teach me organ too, so that worked out really well.  I just really wanted to play it!

Tashina: What was it like going from piano to organ?

Savannah: Organ is a lot trickier than piano.  Like, it makes you think a lot more, because your feet are doing completely separate things from your hands. And you’re thinking about what sounds you want it to do—like you have to change stops for certain sections of certain pieces and, I don’t know, it just requires a lot of brain power, a lot of thinking.

Tashina: There are pipe organs, and electric organs, and hybrids of the two; what type of organ do you use most frequently?

Savannah: Well I practice here [at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], and this is a hybrid.  It’s pipe, but it’s electric, which means basically it doesn’t require any pumping to get the sound out.  So this is the hybrid, and this is the one that I play on the most.

Tashina: In modern-day America, where can people see performances that include organ, besides in sacred services?

Savannah: Yeah, organ is not really that popular to have in a recital, which is sad because I think that it’s really cool.  But um, I did find out that you can go up to Salt Lake and at the Tabernacle, they have daily concerts, like just like organ concerts every day.

The Marimba Confession

At this time, I must humble myself and admit that my brain can’t process chords.  As a clarinetist, I can handle one note at a time; but when I’m faced with two or more simultaneous notes, I’m completely hopeless.  How did I make it through my music theory, ear training, and piano classes?  With great diligence!  I could force my brain to comprehend chords for a time, but it was very cumbersome, and mentally taxing, and in the end, the concepts didn’t stick.

This week I had to face my weakness full-on.  Percussionist Lydia Bradshaw handed me some mallets, and I needed to play Mary had a Little Lamb on the Marimba, with an accompanying bass line.  It was more than I could take.  My rendition was more like ‘Bertha had a sickly gopher, who gnawed on human flesh.’  To hear this charming childhood classic, check out the video.  Lydia is an incredibly talented musician, and you can read about her experience with mallet percussion in the interview below.

Interview

Tashina:  When did you first start exploring percussion?

Lydia:  I started playing when I was in 6^th grade, Middle school, the beginning band in the mornings.   But yeah, 6^th grade, and then I played all throughout middle school and high school.

Tashina:  You have a very musical family and you have diverse musical talents yourself; you could have chosen to specialize in any area of music, why did you choose percussion?

Lydia: Um, I don’t know!  I just really liked how in percussion you can do a lot of different things.  You play on different instruments.  You don’t just play the flute all day long, or the saxophone.  You know, you get to explore and do different instruments and learn all sorts of different techniques.  Variety.  That’s probably what I like the most about it.

Tashina:  What is mallet/keyboard percussion, and what makes mallet instruments different from other percussion instruments?

Lydia: Mallet percussion is a lot like a piano.  You have the xylophone, and marimba, and vibraphone and those sort of things. Yeah, they’re basically just a piano, and you hit it.  But, they’re different from other percussion instruments because, not only do you have to focus on rhythm, but you have to focus on hitting notes.  So they’re probably more like the other instruments in that way—you have to focus on being more musical as opposed to just playing rhythm. 

Tashina: When I see a percussionist playing with two mallets in each hand, it seems like something that is crazy difficult.  Is it as difficult as it looks?  Is it a skill that takes a long time to master?

Lydia: It is pretty hard at first.  Because, you know, you think two is hard enough just trying to hit the right notes; but then you put two in each hand, it’s a lot more coordination.  It is a bit harder, but once you get used to it... I enjoy it a lot.  I really do.

Tashina:  When you’re playing in an ensemble, you need to be able to see your music, and where you’re at on the keyboard, and what the conductor is doing.  How do you manage all that?

Lydia:  Um, time, mostly.  You have to be able to get to the point where you’re very comfortable playing on the instrument, so you can focus more on the music and the conductor, as opposed to where you are on the instrument and what notes you’re playing.  You just have to get familiar with all the intervals and stuff on the instrument. 

waH wah wAH wAh WaH

Some women love shoes or baby animals or frozen yogurt.  I love brass.  First I wanted to kidnap a tuba, and now I want a trombone. Brass instruments make me feel so powerful!  You think I’m some feeble woodwind gonna play you some Mozart, then BLAT! I hit you with a hunk of trombone outta nowhere.

Watch the video and you’ll get a taste of what I’m talking about.  Jared Wonnacott is our featured musician this week.  In the interview below, you can read about his experience with the trombone and the many musical opportunities the trombone has provided him. 

Interview

Tashina: When did you first start playing the trombone?

 Jared: The first time I ever played a trombone was fifth grade.  I got my own trombone the summer after that.  What happened, there was an Elementary School music education guy that went around to all the elementary schools in town.  And he had one day where he brought in all these different brass instruments and taught us about brass instruments. We had a little bit of time at the end of it to, you know, play around on different things. And I got to play a tuba, and a trumpet, and a trombone, and a French Horn.  I really liked the trombone, just off the bat.  And so I was going into middle school the year after that.  So we were looking at electives, and I’m like “I want to be in band.”  My sister was in band, and it seemed like a good route to go.  And there was the question of what instrument.  I was leaning towards trombone.  And I was at this track meet actually, and me and my mom were talking to this random guy that sat next to us as were watching other events.  And we mentioned that I was looking for a trombone.  And he was like, “Well I’ve got an old trombone that I’ve not touched in years and years and years.”  And he’s like, “I’ll give it to you for, you know, a $100, a $150 bucks, or something like that.”  Which is great for a trombone.  It was a piece of junk, but it was a good beginner-level trombone and something that I could play and learn on.  And so we decided to get it.

Tashina: What kinds of groups do you play in?

 Jared: I’ve played in just about everything.  I was in a Ska band, briefly, down in St. George. I had a big band back in California, before I came here.  It was called “The Hop.”  We just played around town.  I’ve played a lot of jazz.  I’ve played in several different jazz groups.  And I’ve played in a lots of marching and athletic band kind of things.  I’ve played with orchestras, I love that.  Trombone is a pretty versatile instrument, even though it’s kind of obscure in a lot of things.  I’ve played with just about everything you could play with.  I’ve played for musicals.  I’ve played with orchestras, and wind symphonies, and small ensembles—chamber music stuff.  I’ve played with just about everything.

Tashina: What’s the most widely recognized trombone solo, of any genre? 

 Jared: There’s not a lot of really well, well-known trombone stuff out there.  You can listen to Chicago, if you want to go back to the classic rock.  There’s James Pankow, who plays the trombone for them.  Everyone’s heard some of his stuff here and there.  You know, he’s got this really nice riff at the end of “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” There’s a lot of jazz. Glenn Miller is probably the biggest trombone name in big band jazz, back in the day.  He’s probably the most famous trombonist that’s been around.  As far as like classical stuff though, the trombone hasn’t really been a classical instrument until relatively recently.  So all the classical composers, all the baroque composers, they never even saw a trombone, they never wrote for trombone, they never touched it. It wasn’t until the Romantic era that they even started putting trombones in their orchestras.  So there aren’t a lot of concertos or anything for trombones that are known by anyone. Probably the most famous classical-type performance piece is “Blue Bells of Scotland,” by Arthur Pryor.

 

Tashina: Does your arm ever get tired?

 Jared: You’d be surprised that it’s not the arm that’s doing all the back and forth or anything, it’s the arm that’s holding the instrument that gets tired.  You know, one of the things with the physical aspect of playing the trombone, is that your trombone is balanced on your shoulder.  It’s usually weighted on the back, so that it balances fairly well.  But every time you change positions on the slide, the balance of the instrument changes.  So your arm, your back, your whole shoulder area, is constantly adjusting for a weight difference in your instrument.  And so when you push a button on the clarinet, it doesn’t change the balance of your instrument at all.  But the entire weight distribution of your instrument is constantly changing when you’re playing [the trombone].  So your left shoulder, your left arm, can get fatigued if you play for a long time.

Tashina: What’s your favorite mute?

Jared: I’ve got this really cool mute that’s like a hybrid mute.  It’s like a cup mute/bucket mute.  And that one’s nice because it’s versatile.  But I think the funnest mute to play with, and the one that everyone always is most intrigued by, at least, is the plunger mute.  It’s fun because you’re playing with one hand, and you got your bell resting on your wrist, and then you’ve got a plunger in that hand.  And it’s just your typical plunger you pick up at Walmart or whatever.

Tashina: And the trombones use a toilet plunger and trumpets use a sink plunger?

Jared: Generally, yes.  You can do a lot with it, ‘cause the closer it is to the bell, the different sound it is [able to produce].  You can bend it and flex it and stuff to get different sounds out of it.  There’s a lot you can do with a plunger mute.  I’ve done a couple solos where I’ve used a plunger.  And it always gets a good reaction from the audience because their like, “Dude, he’s got a plunger and that sounds so cool.”  There’s lots you can do with it. 

Become a Vocal Percussionist Here and Now

In this week’s blog, we give you a free, 100% portable drum set. No assembly required.  The drum set is contained in your own mouth, lips, lungs, and voice; and with the following information, and some perseverance, you learn to lay down a beat anytime, anywhere, at a moment’s notice.

In the video, you can learn the basics from vocal percussionist Cameron Schiessl.  And I assure you, my attempts at vocal percussion will make you feel exceedingly more confident about your own abilities. In the interview, you can read more about what vocal percussion is, how it differs from beat boxing, and what it’s like to be a vocal percussionist. To learn more about Cameron’s a cappella group and how they use vocal percussion, Rhapsody n' Rhythm, you can find them on Facebook.

Interview

Tashina: What is vocal percussion?

Cameron: This is an interesting question, because really it all depends on which way you’re looking at it.  Vocal percussion, in the entire, encompassing word, is just anything that’s imitating a drum or any sort of rhythmic instrument with your voice. Whereas in the professional world, we tend to make vocal percussion as the more realistic form of mimicking the drum set. Whereas beat boxing, which is also technically a form of vocal percussion, is actually not as realistic, and it’s used for rap and hip-hop, and that kind of stuff.  Basically, it’s creating drum noises with your voice, or with air pressure in your mouth—depending on which way you do it.

Tashina: When did you first start getting involved in vocal percussion?

Cameron: I was in 7^th grade, and there was this group, called InPulse, they used to tour the Midwest a lot.  They’ve actually recently disbanded.  But they were together for quite a long time.  Their first vocal percussionist they had in their group was actually the guy that invented vocal percussion, the way it is used in an a cappella today.  So he was basically the best at the time.  He came, and he was showing off what he did.  And I was like, “That’s really cool.”  And so I started teaching myself, and by about junior year, I had gotten pretty good. So my choir teacher said, “Hey, you should do vocal percussion with the jazz choir.”  And so I did that, and then me and my band instructor—whose name is Erik—we started an a cappella group my senior year, with two of my other friends from school.  And now we tour around North Dakota and Montana.

Tashina: Do people pay you?

Cameron: Yeah.  We haven’t had a lot of paying gigs, because we’re trying to get our name out.  We’re not super-big yet.  We did a competition and were able to perform in Medora. Which I’m sure you’ve never heard of, but it’s like the biggest tourist town in North Dakota.  They have this thing called the “Medora Musical,” which is like a Vegas-style show.  And we got to open for them because we won this contest.  So that really got our name out and stuff.  We’ve already got a few people that have asked us to do gigs this summer.  So it’s looking pretty good.

Tashina: What’s the name of your group?

Cameron: Rhapsody n' Rhythm. We’re on Facebook, if you want to look us up.

Tashina: What kinds of percussion sounds can you make?

Cameron: I have a relatively wide range.  But really, it’s all based off of three basic sounds, which are the kick drum, the snare drum, and the cymbal, which is most often used as a high hat.  But then you can take variations of those, like you pitch the kick drum to make toms.  And then you can lengthen the cymbal to create crash cymbals, and whatnot. And the snare, there’s like 20 billion variations of the snare, because each person kind of has their own way of doing it.  But you basically have your loud snare hit, then sort of like a softer hit, and a rattle, and a rim tap, and synthesized sounds.  It’s pretty interesting.  Once you learn the three basic ones, you can really go off and do a lot of different stuff. 

Tashina: Do vocal percussionists typically use a microphone when they perform?

Cameron: Most of the time we do, but depending on the situation, I don’t have to. The microphone really helps just in the fact that it amplifies.  I can do less work and not strain my face as much.  And so it really helps doing multiple shows really quickly if I’m using a microphone, but I can do it just fine without.  To make the kick drum and stuff loud enough… I can technically do it without my vocal chords at all… but when I’m not using a microphone, I want to make it louder and more full, because the way I do it with a microphone, it isn’t as full. So, I end up using my vocal chords when I’m not doing it with a microphone, it actually it strains my throat and my face a lot more.  So I do like using a microphone, but I don’t have to.  Though most of the time we do [use microphones] in our concerts.

Tashina: What's your favorite thing about being a vocal percussionist?

Cameron: Probably the fact that even though it’s getting really popular, it’s still really unique.  Anyone can learn how to do it, but most people haven’t even really heard of it.  

Tashina: Like me.

Cameron: Yeah.  A lot of people are like, “What’s vocal percussion?”  It’s getting a lot more popular.  Unfortunately here at SUU, there’s not an a cappella group, but most colleges around the country actually have an a cappella group as part of the college.  And I’d love to start one down here.  I might do that next year, I don’t know.  I just think it be awesome having a cool college a cappella group.

I just really enjoy it.  It’s unique.  It’s fun.  It keeps me entertained.  Everyone I know hates it, because when I get bored, I’ll just start doing vocal percussion, percussing as we’ve nicknamed it.  When I’m driving and I’m listening to music—you know Michael Jackson, Journey, whatever—I’ll just starting drumming along with it.  It’s entertaining.  And I’m constantly striving to get better, because there’s always more that I could do.  I’ll listen to other vocal percussionists, and I’ll hear a sound that they can do, and I’ll be like, “Oh my gosh, I want to do that.” And I’ll just try to teaching myself how to do it.  So it’s just like a never ending, expanding thing of drums.