OK, I know that percussionists aren't exactly the most common musicians, but there must be SOME around! How come 'Viva Percussion' has so few topics compared to all the other 'Viva' things?! So anyway, due to this fact, I decided to start a new topic, mainly just to see where all the percussionists in the world have gone! I can't believe that I'm the only one on this forum who is slightly obsessed with percussion!!! Is there anyone out there???

Yes, but despite this, my sixth post, making my contribution to the two extant threads on this forum 50%, I'm only a very occasional percussionist (see below), all my public performances on percussion being long in the past. We were warned some time ago that the administrators would terminate Viva Percussion if it didn't get used.

As a composer, I'm interested in all instruments, and the Viva section helps me to learn what people find difficult.

I think occasional percussionists definitely count as percussionists! I've never had a percussion lesson, but I think I can probably still count as a percussionist! Despite this, I sometimes feel like a bit of a fraud due to the lack of lessons! I'm not sure whether this is correct or not!

I hope that Viva percussion isn't terminated - it just seems wrong to have a whole section of an orchestra not included in the 'Viva' section.

If they (quite properly IMHO) rolled Viva Piano into this forum then that might solve the problem... Mods?

I'm not sure whether that's a good idea or not; I think it's better to keep them separate. Then again, it would be better to roll them into one than not to have a percussion section!

I'm not doing much percussion these days but I was in a Christmas gig (known to its participants as the Cheesefest) last night and played timpani, tambourine, bongos and a golden plastic egg in place of a casaba(which no one had brought). I also got some advice from the drummer about writing kit parts since I'm going to have to do that in the next few weeks.

I did a Christmas concert a couple of weeks ago, and ended up playing the most ridiculous number of instruments. But, of course, the most vital were the sleigh bells! The golden plastic egg certainly sounds interesting, though.
I still can't get over the lack of percussionists on this forum!!!

There wasn't so much as a hint of a sleigh bell in the one I was at. I'd never encountered the golden plastic egg but I was assured they're available in all good drum shops. If you had one in each hand you'd have something like a small and very ineffective set of maracas. One learns something new every day.

Sometimes I drum on the table with my fingers

That's a start, I suppose! lol... Then again, I'm constantly drumming on the table or anything else in my reach, for that matter!

Well there are two percussionists in our household. Eldest is working towards Grade 4 Kit but also does Orchestral Percussion and is one of the two main players in our local Youth Orchestra. She plays both tuned and untuned percussion amungst other things. She also plays Bodhran in a the Irish Folk group.

Youngest enjoys Orchestral Percussion lessons but doesn't get a chance to play in the band or Orchestra as she is one of two Oboes in Orchestra and is facing having to stop playing Flute in concert band as there are no Oboists. She loves drums and has a collection of African and bongos as well as various other percussion instruments and is looking forward ot learning to play Timps next term.

I have a persussionist in the family too! Grade 3 Drumkit and Grade 4 Percussion. And Grade 8 Banging and Stamping while he's playing computer games... Is this normal?

Must be a terrible teen like mine!

I'm only joining this thread as an organist, as I wouldn't want the percussion forum to die out.

Qualifications: a lot of tapping with fingers, much to other's annoyance.

My older sprog got drumsticks for Christmas .

But at the moment it's a case of 256 bars' rest.....

Said sprog hasn't upturned the kitchen pans yet then?

Don't give him ideas!
He has toyed with the idea of using various bits of furniture, but thankfully not his sister's head....yet. What was Santa thinking of, I'd like to know?

I am reminded of Buddy Rich on the Muppet Show, playing the theatre.

Ah, yes, hurrah for the Muppet Show - and I'm staying on-topic with this because Animal was the hero of the percussion department in our school orchestra!

My daughter got sticks (needed them for a dance she said), somehow pushed herself to the top of the waiting list to get drum lessons at school and then found someone selling a flats kit for £100. I stopped her doing drums in July as she's now in year 10 and can't afford to miss too many lessons. About 4 weeks into term she had conned her percussion teacher into starting them again.

Look out!!

Not my business to comment on the general situation, but learning kit could prove to be very useful. There's always going to be a demand for good kit players.

I can play the triangle...And i once played the cymbals for God Save the Queen in our School Orchestra...

"Play" the triangle or hit it with a stick at the right moment? I venture to suggest that there is a difference

She plays kit in the Youth Orchestra along with timps and tuned percussion and Bodhran in an Irish folk group. I don't mind her playing at all especially as she really enjoys it! She also acquired a Piano a couple of years ago that my youngest daughters Primary school were re-homing!

Just warning anacrusis what might be instore!

I used to play drums (tenor and snare) in a marching band... does that count? I even played the bass drum one rainy Rememberance Sunday when I was young, I could only just play and walk and I couldn't see over the top.
I now tinker on the kit- I teach myself when there is no-one in our church building (beautiful acoustics)
Also, I love the angel glocks we used to play at school....

I doubt very much we'd ever find again a kit/piano/keyboard/marimba once they got up into his room, though . It's too full of computer/cables/gizmos to link to computer/old socks....

You can hit it different places to get a different sound! But okay - i can hit a triangle, musically!

Impressive stuff! Few people notice that there is actually a correct place to hit a triangle!

well thank you very much Drumkat for acknowledging my triangle playing abilities - you're right, only the elite know where to hit a triangle!

Sold my drumkit recently to finance my new flute which i am now not going to buy and getting laser eye treatment instead

play in a samba band though

That still leaves open the question of which part of the beater to hit it with

Ah, percussion - so many endless searches.

Well, hitting it with the right part of the beater is the show of the TRUE percussionist!

My triangle (I own my own ) came with its own special beater, and its just a metal stick so i didn't think it mattered, except maybe from one end and the other end near your hand, this couold either make a bright clear ringing note or I suppose a not so sparkly note?

*weeps uncontrollably*

Surely culture is not yet dead in Banchory? Say it ain't so.

Of course not! I'm just a part time banchoryite to you're alright there...!

Basically, you just have to hit the triangle near the tip of the 'metal stick' as you call it! And of COURSE it matters! lol... I don't actually use proper triangle beaters, anyway; I use long nails, which I think sound better.

Ok, I'll bear that in mind for my next triangle recital...

You do that! lol...

At school a while ago, I was joking about doing a diploma on the triangle. One of my friends heard and exclaimed, "I didn't know you could do that on the associated board"! Oh dear...

One of my freinds when I was at school got her music scholarship by playing the triangle - she enjoyed telling people this, but the details were that in order to receive a scholarship she had to play in the school orchestra but at the time there was no room for clarinet or flute - her two main instruments, but they said she could play the triangle and that would count - and so she got through playing the triangle!

Huzzah! <opens celebratory can of Irn Bru>

I find that very logical. After becoming proficient on flute or clarinet playing solos and studies, you still have to learn several new skills to play well in an orchestra: finding a seating (or standing) position that lets you see the conductor, setting the stand so that you can see your part as well as the beat, coordinating your attack with the rest of the group, doing your best to balance dynamics, and counting bars rest. You can practise all these just as well (the last rather more) on triangle as on any other instrument.

Ah yes. I often think that playing percussion consists of counting bars rest and packing up afterwards.

Another point is that the triangle makes the most piercing sound of any instrument in the orchestra, so getting it wrong is about as obvious as making a fortissimo cymbal clash in the wrong place.

(Observation noted during a performance of Noyes Fludde some time ago: a triangle hit with a wooden stick is almost inaudible to the player, but can dominate the entire sound from the point of view of a listener at the back of the hall.)

If I may say so, I think kenm's points are all excellent, and reinforce my belief that being a musician is equally "difficult" on any instrument regardless of the technicalities of playing it.

I play tuned percussion, timpani and kit.

I am a bit small to play timps and last time in Thunder and Lightning I played them very loud!! It has been the best part I have had so far.

I play in a percussion ensemble. My teacher writes all our music which is excelent, I have lots of fun with my friends there. Our teacher has shown us the triangle thing and I have tried it but need to practise it. I can only do it slowly.

What other pieces do you like?

The Malcolm Arnold Little Suites (there are two of them) for orchestra have wonderful timp and percussion parts. So does the Vaughan Williams Folk Song Suite (I hope I have the right name there) - I once had to play all the percussion parts myself, which kept me very busy. At one point I had one quaver rest to switch from side drum to triangle. I had the triangle beater in my shirt pocket ready for a quick draw!

In an orchestra I'm in, there is a piece we're playing that needs 10 percussionists, but we only have 4! At one point, I was standing there with a bass drum beater, a snare drum stick and a tambourine, looking INCREDIBLY confused!

What are you playing? My favourite is Sleigh Ride when I've had to juggle different sticks and bells.

Gazebo dances. I've done Sleigh Ride, but it didn't require as many percussionists, so I survived that one!

Strange, isn't it? A lot of the fun of percussion seems to come from having to play lots of different instruments in the same piece. Maybe it's because it gives us a chance to show off