r/percussion

Is it worth "upgrading" the suspension from felt only to cord on a "Student" bell set?

-

Getting a used "Student" bell set (Musser M650).

It will need a little refurbishment, some of the isolators are worn out so will likely replace them all as this is a set of unknown vintage.

Not sure of the felt condition, but since we are going to be taking the bars off we have the opportunity to upgrade the suspension if it's a good idea.

Kit will be at home only, our JR high student will use a set at school.

I'm doing music A-level (AQA) and we just started work on our free compositions before summer. I'm trying to compose a piece inspired by symphony orchestra music. I would like to add some percussion instruments (timpani etc) to my composition for the best effect, but I don't know how to write for percussion instruments, so if anyone knows how to compose for percussion in symphony music, I would very much appreciate some advice before I email my school teachers :)

Hey everyone! I have been playing mallets for about three years now (I can play four mallets), and I would like to start learning how to play jazz on mallets so I could join my jazz band later. However, I honestly don’t even know where to start.

Does anyone have any resources or suggestions of how to start learning and what I need to know? Additionally, I know it’s not the right subreddit, but do you guys recommend learning jazz on marimba or vibraphone? Any and all help is appreciated!

Hello! I'm entering into my senior year of high school, and I'm looking for a very difficult Marimba solo to spend about the next 9 months working on. I'm trying to to find a solo that has lots of technical variety in it's skillset; has plenty of obvious musicality (obvious in the sense that someone who's not a trained percussionist like my family members will be able to enjoy listening to it for fun); and musicality in the sense that it has great potential for musical phrasing (Dynamic and/or Tempo wise).

Last year I performed Northern Lights by Eric Ewazen (albeit quite roughly), so this year I really want to challenge and end my senior year with a bang. That being said, I've my director has told me no to Etude in E Minor by Casey Cangelosi, so I have been given an upper limit on difficulty lol.

I'm also trying to find a solo that I subjectively really enjoy listening to, so here's a list of some solos that I've really enjoyed listening to, to hopefully help describe the type of music I enjoy:

• Any solos by Eric Sammut,
• Any etudes by Casey Cangelosi,
• Over the Rainbow and Pining for the Spring Breeze by Robert Oetomo (for their musicality),
• Northern Lights by Eric Ewazen (for it's variety).
• I also often enjoy many of Anders Elten's arrangements of classical music for Marimba,
• And arrangements of Impressionist style music for marimba (Debussy & Ravel).

tl;dr I'm looking for a solo with:

• Difficulty > Nothern Lights, but < Etude in E Minor
• Has potential for lots of musical shaping
• And has lots of variety in it's skillset.

Thank you for reading all this if you have!

Edit for additional info: My school has a 5 Octave Marimba and I'm preferably looking for a 4 mallet solo

https://preview.redd.it/diwm7p29wxjh1.png?width=765&format=png&auto=webp&s=a70465c155c570f9bd601aac17011cc0a6e2a39c

I’ve been asked to teach a “jump start” percussion class for beginning 5th & 6th graders. I’ll have about an hour. The assistant high school band director normally does the class but he’s not available.

I’m a classically trained percussionist with a college degree in music education. Thing is, for the last 20 years I’ve taught elementary general music, choir, and theatre. Not what I ever expected but I love it.

So while I have some ideas for what to hit (haha), what concepts and activities can you recommend?

EDIT: Oops, I left out the fact that this is a single-day thing. I have quite literally one hour.

hi yg 😪 i wld say ive become an intermediate like level or somethign percussionist and i problem i realize whenver i practice is that i lwk have no idea how to structure my practice sessions. I don't think its because of a lack of material, I have a lot of method books actually. I'm not sure what in specific I have to practice to become better, and I also don't want to waste the time I spend practicing. Could anyone give me some advice? Also, I'm not sure how to split my practice sessions between snare drum, kit, bells/keyboard (i have a glockenspeil), and (least important as of now) auxilaraly.

For reference here are all the books I have:

• Modern School for Snare Drum
• Alfred's Drum Method Book 1 (Completed this for the most part)
• stick control
• the delecluse douze etudes book.
• Kjos Music Standard of Excellence Book 3 ("borrowed" from my band director long long ago)
• 14 modern contest solos for snare drum by big man pratt
• Ultimate Realstic Rock by carmine appice.

I'm currently looking to buy some orchestral bells with pedal and the KM-EPS-F1F4-442 looks appealing because it isn't as bulky as other options.

Lefima uses some kind of Aluminium? alloy for their bars instead of steel though so I'm wondering if anyone has experience with how it sound and how it compares to "normal" bells with steel bars. Is the material similar to the one Sonor uses for the KGl30?

Hey music lovers!

I’m an intermediate-level drummer and looking to connect with **vocalists, acoustic guitarists, and other musicians** around HSR Layout who’d be up for some casual jamming sessions.

Nothing too serious — just good music, good vibes, and hopefully a bunch of new people to play with.

I’m really excited to get this going!

Any suggestions for found percussion/auxiliary rep. I want sort of "weird" pieces. Maybe something in the vein of casey cangelosi, or cage. But I don't want backing tracks, seemed like a lot of them did.