This is a xylo rag composed by George Hamilton Green in the 1920s, when (believe it or not) xylophone music was a huge fad. I believe this one is called 'Log Cabin Blues'. Most percussion majors will get to do a couple of these in college (but with marimba accompaniment instead of bass) and they are very fun.

*promote percussion

*newyork

Tags for this video have been changed from 'drums' to 'drums, percussion, ice, sculpt, art, frozen, drums, sculpture' - edited by Zonbie

Tags for this video have been changed from 'mario, drums, percussion, music, beats, improvisation, Andrea Vadrucci' to 'mario, drums, percussion, music, beats, improvisation, Andrea Vadrucci, Vadrum' - edited by residue

That's some frogging good steel drum playing! Don't know who it is, though... Among the others I recognize Randy Brecker on trumpet, Don Alias on percussion and Peter Erskine (with what looks like a ferret beneath his nose) on drums. I don't think I've seen eagle nose on sax before.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
I'd love to see Rock Band/Guitar Hero give you the option to use music notation instead of the scrolling guitar neck thing.

Absolutely...that would be an awesome feature. My wife is a band director, and her specialty is percussion. Yeah, shes a drummer! And she can go from reading notation to playing Rock Band without missing a beat (pun intended).

On the other hand, a friend of mine who is also a band director and whose specialty is percussion, can barely play songs on medium level. Its an odd thing. He just cant relate the colors on screen to the colored drums. But put him on a real set and he's rockin.

re the missing chaps - I guess percussion or bass would be a bit redundant with that lot banging away

I'll second DFT's recommendation on Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The percussion parts are amazing there.

This is interesting but as mentioned above this may not be a good example of precision timpani playing, not an easy arrangement I'd assume.

^the pitch control device is often found in most ethnic drums in any typical drum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabla
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janggo

In any rate, timpani gives the image that it's unnecessarily big and doesn't pack enough punch for its size

Unless i get to see a really well made timpani playing.

coincidentally enough, the ones you've just mentioned happens to be my favorites.

Perhaps that's the reason why i like Classic military marches so much. Lots of percussion, loud and rapid booms.

>> ^legacy0100:
timpani isn't a very well constructed instrument now that I think about it. 3rd world drums play a much clearer, louder, deeper sounds than these behemoths. These bulbous cauldrons sound way too flat to say the least.
Perhaps because western orchestra's always been about the strings and the winds, and not so much on the percussions.


This isn't an example of a good timpani sound, or a particularly wise orchestration. It looks like a college recital, performed by a student who is still learning, so I wouldn't base your judgment of this instrument on one video.

There are many cool sounding low pitched ethnic drums, but none of them allow you to tune to a particular pitch on the fly. If you look closely, you'll see the performer adjusting a pedal - which tightens or loosens the head - at the base of these drums. A nice set of drums, played by a skilled player will give you a huge, clear awesome sound.

I'd recommend you check out a good recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Orff's Carmina Burana or Holst's Planets for a good idea of how Timpani are supposed to sound. You hear it quite a bit in film music too.

Percussion was underused in Western art music up until the 20th Century, so while most of the classical chestnuts only have a bit of perc here and there, you see quite a bit in music written over the last 100 years.

I arranged Bach's Passacaglia in Cm for Vibes, Marimba and Bass (with low C extention) for my junior recital, and it worked really well. I should dig that out and do it again somewhere.

1. Baptized Catholic.

2. Named after a relative who was killed in the Civil War, fighting for the North.

3. Ronald McDonald was my godfather.

4. Was in many musicals, commercials, radio spots, TV shows as a kid and had a small but visible part in a well known feature film. Notable non-imdb-able credit: You can hear me singing and laughing with other kids during the credits to Poltergeist. Shannon Doherty and Chad Allen were two of my childhood friends (no, I don't keep in touch).

5. Was elected president of my elementary school. My only presidential duty was to raise the flag every morning, which I passed off to my veep.

6. Used to write 'Weird Al' style parody songs. Unfortunately, the tape on which I recorded all of these songs was lost long ago.

7. Have wide feet.

8. My first car was a used 1988 Toyota truck which I kept until 2007. It was twice broken into and thrice stolen.

9. Studied percussion and composition at USC.

10. Was in the Disneyland Christmas Toy Soldier band for two holiday seasons.

11. Did not try drugs or alcohol until I was 20.

12. Used to sell my sperm for extra income.

13. Though atheist since high school, I've twice participated in a nude pagan ritual with strippers on an isolated beach under a full moon.

14. Sleep disorders. I get night terror when I'm extremely stressed. I also occasionally sleepwalk, talk in my sleep and get sleep paralysis.

15. Hiked to the top of Half-Dome in Yosemite twice.

16. Own a fully signed Mr. Bungle New Years 2000 poster.

17. Play Theremin.

18. I've performed at Carnagie Hall, Disney Hall, The Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, among other famous venues.

19. Went to the Cannes Film Festival in 2003 with a film that I scored.

20. Scored my first (and hopefully not last) commercial feature film in 2007.

21. Played in the pit for over 100 musicals. (wonder if I've worked with guessandcheck?)

22. Haven't had cable or shopped at a Wal*Mart in a decade.

23. If I had billions of dollars, I would design video games and theme parks.

24. VS is the only online community I've ever become a part of.

25. Six inches, but girthy.

timpani isn't a very well constructed instrument now that I think about it. 3rd world drums play a much clearer, louder, deeper sounds than these behemoths. These bulbous cauldrons sound way too flat to say the least.

Perhaps because western orchestra's always been about the strings and the winds, and not so much on the percussions.

Awesome! That is Marilyn Mazur on percussion, btw.

EDIT - Actually, instead of just listing it, I'll copy out my descriptions of them too since I already wrote this up for another forum:


1. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | Instrumental | 4.5/5

Simply put, a seamless, sweeping epic of genres that dabbles in everything from sombre piano ballads, to upbeat flamenco, caustic electronica, serene ambience, rhythmic percussive tribal drum sections and haunting string sections, imposing every possible emotion on the listener. If anything, the sole weakness is that the rough 2-3 minute length of each of the 31 songs means they don't work so effectively as standalone compositions but as verses in a protracted poem, making the idea of listening to the entirety of it a tad daunting.


2. Protest The Hero - Fortress | Progressive Metal | 4.5/5

Metal that while relatively intricate yet melodic enough and hell, catchy enough to avoid divulging into incomprehensible technical wankery. Lyrics abound with references to goddesses and dethroned kings but it's decidedly tongue in cheek. Perhaps the biggest weaknesses resides in a lack of coherence, a tendency for the album to mesh together as a string of riffs, with little sense of a recurring chorus or verses within songs, but then you can take that as a plus depending on how you look at it. Besides that and a couple of immensely obnoxious vocal lines it's a pretty solid effort all around.


3. Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema | Instrumental Trip-hop | 4.5/5

One of the least expected surprises this year for me, partly because I generally despise anything that relates in any way to hip-hop or remixes yet I was sold on first listen. It’s just such a supremely chilled out but simultaneously melodically multilayered album which weaves hip-hop/trip-hop styling with a fairly significant utilisation of violins, trumpets, keyboards and an organ, capping it off with a distinct jazz tinge.


4. In Mourning - Shrowded Divine | Melodic Death Metal | 4/5

Genre-wise they’re probably best described as melodic death metal based but with progressive and doom influenced sections, reminiscent of Opeth, but not exactly the same. I initially junked this when I first picked it up but it’s grown on me immensely since then. There’s nothing immediately about them that sticks out as particularly impressive, the riffs aren’t all too complex, the melody isn’t overly diverse. If anything the drumming is quite good and both the harsh and clean vocals are solid. Nevertheless they clearly have a knack for creating memorable melody lines, and many minor touches such as the use juxtaposed clean and harsh vocals of essentially the same lines, coupled with a number of sexy breakdowns and a consistently bleak and permeating tone really make this album memorable in some indescribable way.


5. Transcending Bizarre? - The Serpent's Manifolds | Avant-Garde Black Metal | 4/5

Typical black metal brain mashing, but nicely broken up by violin sections to prevent migraines! Again it really feels like this band just clicks, but that not to say they can’t put out some impressively melodic riffs, and solos or bring it intensity-wise. In terms of criticism, there’s probably too much reliance on violin for a metal album, but that’s a very subjective disparagement, also a select few sections drag a bit ... oh and the intro is obnoxious and highly skipable. Oh and keyboards, oh the humanity! Run for the hills!


6. Thrice - The Alchemy Index - Vol.3 & 4 Air & Earth | Experimental Rock | 4/5

Partially successful but suffers from issues strangely distinct from the first two volumes. Whereas the first two could perhaps be argued to have taken the element concepts too literally both melodically and lyric-wise, this time around there are fairly tentative connections to the elements. With Air there’s simply a heavy use of reverb and echo to create the impression of an expansive soundscape, among a number of other tricks; whereas Earth is merely embodied by heavy use of stripped back and stark acoustic guitar with an American folk grounding. In all, neither really captures the concept as effectively as the haphazard, chaotic, distorting Fire; and if anything the biggest weakness of Air is it doesn’t distance it enough from the seeping smoothness that characterised Water to offer anything particularly distinctive. All in all it still remains an intriguing unconventional attempt with a number of standout songs, particularly the sonnets that outro each of the volumes oddly enough, led by consistently strong vocals.


7. Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer The Book of Angels - Vol. 10 | Jazz | 4/5

I'm not really qualified to comment on or critique jazz as I'm very much a neophyte to it, but this is some excellent stuff.


8. Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide | Post Rock | 4/5

To me the main element any post rock effort needs to really be effective is a pervasive, consistent atmosphere, which this album abounds with. It doesn't fall into clichés such as blasting you into submission by badgering you with volume changes, or an over reliance on monotonous arpeggios, but builds upon subtle layers of sound to create a vast, rich soundscape of echoing guitars, staccato electronica beats and fleeting vocals.


9. Opeth - Watershed | Progressive Death Metal | 4/5

Disappointingly inconsistent by their standards, but still a pretty solid album all around. Some songs definitely drag massively, and certain parts sound technically overindulging and tiresome particularly the outro to Burden. On the other hand in my humble opinion it also has some of the best songs they have written, the way the progressive acoustic guitar section fades in and out in Porcelain Heart for example is seamlessly mesmerising, Hessian Peel is almost equally memorable. Regardless this is no Blackwater Park unfortunately.


10. Mutyumu - Ilya | Post Rock | 4/5

Post rock doesn't really give this band justice. It's like an odd mix of opera and hardcore Japanese vocals, with heavily piano reliant post rock grounding. Awesome? Somewhat. Half the time its carried by stirring complex but seemingly effortless piano and string sections unfolding at a blistering pace coupled with occasional strangely effective hushed murmurs, yet the other half of the time it cascades into almost unbearable droning repetition. Now given that, Prayer is damn well one of the best post rock songs I have ever heard and it really is a pity that the rest of the album wasn’t equally brilliant. I probably overrate this a tad too but well ... goshdarnit it’s all gotta be about job creation and shoring up our economy.

Wow, how percussive it sounds.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'didgeridoo, body percussion, stomping, hand claps' to 'mouth harp, body percussion, stomping, hand claps' - edited by Ornthoron