Hello.

I'm Roger, Roger Rhythm.

Hello, I'm Violetta Vibrato but you can call me by Vi, hi!

And now we're going to take a look at and talk to a percussion ensemble on our symphonic safari adventure!

Lets go!

Lets do it Hello.

Hello, everyone.

So introduce yourselves and your instruments.

I'm Mike.

I'm playing bongos and glockenspiel.

I'm Ryan, and I'll be playing the snare drum and the tom tom.

I'm Zach and I will also be playing snare drum.

I'm Chris.

I'll be playing Maracas, Claves and suspended cymbal.

I'm Connor, and I will be playing this base drum.

I'm Nathan, and I will be playing tymponi It is so nice to meet all of you, and I'm so excited to be here with the percussion family, can you all tell me what it means to be part of the percussion family?

Well, the percussion instruments are our family because they're all played by being struck either with your hand or with some type of implement, like a stick or a mallet.

So it's a lot of banging?

Yes.

So what makes each of these instruments different and alike?

Well, we have some instruments that have heads like these drums here.

We have some instruments that are made of wood and metal, some instruments that you kind of beat together, some we strike with sticks.

But really, it's all just kind of about striking the instrument with something.

And we kind of have our own instrument, our own families of drums and keyboards and accessories and all kinds of fun stuff.

Well I'm excited to learn and to hear a piece that you all might play so I can hear all the instruments together.

Will you play a piece for us today?

Yes, we're going to play Toccata for percussion by Carlos Chavez.

Written in the good year of 1942.

Oh, that was amazballs, I loved it!

It was like being at a big food buffet with all these different kinds of foods and desserts.

And all my favorite things, it was loud and then soft and all these different hings that was so exciting, so much fun just to listen to.

Everything I was excited about was listening.

Then I was even more excited.

Awesome.

So I noticed that things got really loud and then they got really soft What is that called?

So when things are really loud in music they are typically marked fortissimo, which means as loud as possible, and that might be something like a bass drum.

But then it can also be marked pianissimo, which means as quiet as possible, like these little snare drums.

And it is working all together to make those sounds.

How is it?

I wanted to know how you blend all those sounds together to make that beautiful music like that.

Well, since we're mixing so many instruments together, we kind of have an idea of which instruments are really loud and which instruments are really soft.

So what we have to do is as a group is work together and kind of find that happy space right in the middle so we can all be heard at the same time with each other.

So it really is about balance.

Yes, absolutely.

That's notable.

And self control too, right?

Oh yes.

And you're listening to each other too correct?

Oh, yes, absolutely.

All the heads are nodding, thats good.

The ears are working.

Yes.

And what is it that you like playing with each other together?

What is that like?

Playing together is like speaking a language.

When you're all speaking the same language of music.

You connect with each other on a deeper level.

We're all musicians.

But even more than that, we're all percussionists, so we speak the language of percussion, which is rhythm.

And rhythm.

Just puts us on a different level of connection.

So there's a bond with the percussions.

I can see it.

It's like a bond with the beat.

It really does feel like a true family listening to you all when we talk about the percussion family.

You all feel like the family is listening to that.

That piece was just fantastic.

Thank you so much for joining us on our symphonic safari adventure.

It's been wonderful getting to know you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.