Lise Duarte Nuñez Choosing a triangle beater starts with a musical question: what should this sound contribute to the passage? An attack may need definition, a resonance may need room to continue, or a short note may need a carefully controlled ending. The beater belongs within that decision. To compare two options meaningfully, give them the same musical … Read more
A tambourine roll needs a beginning, a continuing sound and an ending that belong to the phrase. Choosing a technique means deciding how to produce those three things in the passage you are preparing. A familiar technique gives you a starting point. To decide whether it serves the music, listen beyond whether the jingles keep … Read more
A crash cymbal note has a beginning, a resonance and an end. In an orchestral passage, all three participate in the phrase. Charles Gounod’s Danse de Phryné, the final number of the ballet music from Faust, offers a useful starting point for thinking about that complete sound. Lise Duarte Nuñez’s Instagram excerpt from the closing … Read more
A flam can be clear without becoming an accent. That distinction is a useful starting point for Jacques Delécluse’s Étude No. 6 from Douze Études pour Caisse-Claire. The study brings rudimental detail into a musical phrase. The challenge is to hear the written rhythm and dynamic through the ornaments, while allowing the passage to develop … Read more
A practice recording becomes useful when you know what you want to hear in it. Before pressing record, choose a short passage and one question about the musical result. Does the last note continue the phrase? Can you hear the intended contrast in articulation? Does the resonance last as long as you imagined? The aim … Read more
Prepare an orchestral percussion entrance through score study, listening, sound intention and practical choices, with a worked practice example.
The five common drumstick tip shapes are round (ball), oval (olive), teardrop, acorn and barrel. Their profiles change the contact with a cymbal, influencing attack, stick definition and wash. Wood or nylon changes the contact material; it is a separate choice from the tip shape. The tip — or bead — is the part of … Read more
In percussion, technique is often described through movement: how to hold the stick, how to position the hand, how to move the wrist, how to produce a roll or how to strike an instrument. But what if we begin somewhere else? What if the first question is not “How should I move?” but “What sound … Read more