Care and Feeding


Percussionists play a large number of instruments, and have to know something about a lot of things, including what to do to keep the instruments in top playing condition. If your drums, keyboards, timpani or whatever you are playing isn’t in top working condition, you won’t sound as good as you want, and the music will suffer as a result. I am currently working with a local college to replace timpani heads and get the drums in proper working order. All of the drums were out of tune and the pedal mechanisms were out of adjustment, making it impossible for the students to correctly execute some tuning changes and glissandi in a piece to be played for the final concert of the semester. What a disappointment. It really pays to keep up with your instruments’ playing condition, and to make sure that they all do what you need and want them to do.

Comments are closed.