PERCUSSION
JINGLE TIME IS COMIN ’ | Mark Shelton
Is your percussion set-up about to expand during the Advent and Christmas seasons ? Will you find yourself playing instruments that you only touch between Thanksgiving and late December ? Are you a bit concerned about how one person might cover that much percussion without growing an extra arm ? Been there .
While drumming through dozens of Decembers , I ’ ve picked up several percussion pointers that might come in handy as you prepare for the upcoming holiday season .
SET-UP SCIENCE A multi-percussion setup should be ergonomically designed to meet the technical and musical requirements without wasted motion and energy .
When dealing with a large number of instruments , consider starting the design on paper before shuffling a bunch of drums back and forth . Work from a list of the needed instruments and draw a rough sketch of the setup . Study your drawing and imagine making the necessary playing motions . Use a bit of air drumming as you study the logistical demands .
LOCKED AND READY After depositing the finger cymbals onto the trap table , you quickly grab the hammer , take two steps , and arrive at the chimes to triumphantly strike the correct tube . But instead of a glorious DOOOONG , it ’ s a stuffy donk . In your haste , you neglected to push down the damper pedal that allows the chimes to ring freely . When playing chimes within a multi-percussion setting , consider keeping the damper stopper engaged so that the dampers will be locked in the sustain position .
NO NEEDLESS JINGLING A slight jiggle of the sleigh bells can set those little pellets into motion and cause unwanted noise--along with a glare from the conductor .
Drill a hole in the handle , thread a cord through the hole , and suspend the sleigh bells from a boom cymbal stand or an overhead rack . This upright arrangement allows you to easily bring the instrument into playing position without producing undesired ringing .
REDUCE YOUR CHOICES A timpanist could easily use three different pairs of mallets in the course of a piece while a xylophonist might switch between two sets of implements . Selecting the right stick , mallet , or brush for a passage of music is part of the percussionist ’ s art but if the multi-percussion transitions become challenging , reduce to one set of compromise implements per instrument to save time and avoid confusion .
RIGHT WHERE YOU NEED ‘ EM Time was tight moving from the congas to the glockenspiel , but you made it — just in time to discover the mallets are still over on the trap table past your reach ! When playing multipercussion parts , consider leaving implements parked on their instrument so they are at the ready upon your last-second arrival .
TWO-DRUM WORK-AROUNDS Churches might provide only two timpani , yet composers and arrangers continue writing for three to four drums . In many rehearsals , I have made quick adjustments to the timpani part and achieved a satisfactory performance with only the 29 ” and 26 ” kettles .
Check out these pauken pointers for making do with just two : Switch octaves to fit the pitches onto the two available drums . Example : If the notated pitches are Eb2 - G2 ( usually played on the 32 ” and 29 ”), simply flip to
G2 - Eb3 and the pitch set fits on the 29 ” and 26 ” timpani .
Substitute another chord tone . Example : What if the part calls for a D played beneath a D major chord , but the pitch change is awkward with the two-drum set-up ? Substitute the fifth ( A ) or the third ( F #) if either is more attainable .
ELECTRONICS TO THE RESCUE The best-laid plans go awry when you discover that the magnificent layout that worked in the practice room cannot be shoehorned into the allotted smidgen of stage . An electronic percussion instrument such as the Roland Handsonic with its hundreds of digital samples allows you to play tubular bells and timpani parts when the real deal will not fit into your sliver of the stage .
CHOOSE WISELY
There could be too many instruments written in an arrangement for one person to handle . Deciding what to play and what to delete should be in your skill set . I tend to give priority to the parts that add a unique flavor or interesting rhythm over playing lines that simply double other instruments . If my choice is between sleigh bells or glockenspiel , it ’ s jingle time !
All the best to you as we employ our percussion skills to celebrate the birth of Christ !
© 2022 Mark Shelton Productions / Percussion For Worship
Mark Shelton Mark is a freelance musician and educational consultant based in Dallas / Fort Worth . Performance credits include North Carolina Symphony , Tin Roof Tango , Daystar Singers & Band , Gateway Worship , Wichita Falls Orchestra , Strata Big Band , TALEA , and Dallas Wind Symphony . www . marksheltonmusic . com percussionforworship . blogspot . com