Hello.

Now we're going to meet three percussionist, and they are going to tell us about unpitched percussion instruments on our symphonic safari adventure.

Shall we.

hello.

Hello.

Hi, I'm Roger.

Roger Rhythm and you are, Ryan, Mike, Nathan, great.

Tell us a little bit more about yourselves.

I am a doctoral student here at Florida State University studying percussion.

Yes, I am also a doctoral student here at Florida State University studying percussion.

And I teach at Brevard College in Brevard North Carolina, and I'm also a freelancer across the Southeast.

All right.

Tell me, first of all, what does unpitched mean?

So with pitched instruments like a trumpet or an oboe, you normally hear a tone like an mmm But with us for unpitched instruments, you just hear a boom or a tsss or a kuh or a pshhh, it's more like sound effects than like a like a tune.

So some striking is going on here.

Absolutely.

Oh, wonderful.

And you have so many unpitched instruments.

Here you have percussions.

Let's go down the line and tell us more about it.

So, for example, tell us what it is and then give us a bit of a demonstration, if you could.

Absolutely.

So we'll start here with the bass drum, always a very large instrument, a very, very large drum.

We use a big mallet as well.

We just kind of strike this with it, and we look for a big boom.

If we want faster rhythms, we can take two mallets and make a nice kind of thunder thundering roar.

Amazing.

Oh, and this is called the bass drum bass drum.

Let's continue.

This is called a snare drum and it's called a snare drum because it has these wires underneath it.

Oh, and these wires touch the head on the bottom and they make a buzzing sound.

So if I play it before I turn those wires on.

But if I turn the wires on, we get the true snare drum sound.

Amazing, like a march.

A lot like March.

Oh, let's go continue.

So these are collectively cymbals and we have two different versions of them.

We have a suspended cymbal because it's suspended on a stand and then you have the crash cymbal which we have straps that you hold.

And then you actually crash them together like this.

Wow.

And when do they use these in an orchestra piece at really big moments when everybody is about to hit a big note You're going to take these.

You're going to play big moment.

Then if you want to lead up to that big moment, yes, then you take this instrument It's really slow, like soft and then it gets louder and louder.

It's a huge wash, I like it!

More, So here we have the tambourine, which we normally see kind of play like this.

In rock music or pop music, but here in the orchestra we have, we kind of play on this head.

You do a lot of shake rolls and all kinds of fun stuff with this.

Woah Do that again.

Did you get that?

Amazing.

Thank you.

Next, we'll look at a triangle and a triangle is a triangle.

It's a piece of metal in the shape of a triangle and you strike it and let it ring.

Or you can play a role.

And do you play that a lot in orchestra pieces?

Triangle shows up a lot in orchestral pieces.

You'll get a lot of kind of open moments where triangle follows along.

Oh, nice.

Thank you.

And what is that little contraption there?

So these are called castanets.

Castanets like cast a nets.

Yes.

Castanets, you don't throw them exactly like a net.

You don't want to let them out of your hands.

Yes.

Castanets originally were held in your hand.

They didn't have these handles.

You hold them in your hands and then you just click them together.

Oh, and dancers would actually use them as part of their routine.

Okay.

Now we have handles and the handles let us do a lot of interesting things.

Oh, there's a lot of rhythm here.

Oh, yes.

And what else do we have?

We have the claves, which you'll hear a lot in Latin music, especially, you hear this kind of like a three and then two.

Oh, and it's called a clave?

Clave The clave is the key.

Oh, Allow me to take you back here to this instrument.

And this is called Tam Tam.

Tam Tam?

It's called a tam Tam.

You might think it's called a gong, but the difference between a gong and a tam tam is that a gong actually is pitched.

It has a definite note that it sings, whereas a tam tam is part of the unpitched percussion family and it does not have a definite note.

It sounds like this.

Oh, I love it.

Awesome.

What's next?

Now you probably recognize this.

The people have asked for more of it.

So here it is.

This is a cowbell and a cowbell has a lot of uses.

This particular one is very often used in Latin music.

Now, normally people just play on the end.

But you can also use different sounds and then put them together.

And get actual rhythms and different sounds out of one small instrument.

So you took one instrument and created a variety of sounds for them.

They're very versatile.

Oh, I hope the cows appreciate what they're wearing.

Next.

Yes, so here we have the ratchet, it looks very small and timid.

But once you start playing it, Oh yes.

So its just this wood kind of sliding back and forth, and it's creating a really obnoxious noise ah, very loud moments in the orchestra.

And next, these are bongos which you see a lot you play with your hands.

I'm going to demonstrate some with the sticks.

So with all of these instruments, did we leave out, any of them?

maracas.

So these are maracas and they come from South America, these particular ones.

They look like you hold the handles and you play them like this.

Actually, you hold them like this.

Oh.

And you could do a lot of different sounds extraordinary.

So tell me this.

I want to hear each of you to play your passion piece something that you love, pick any of the instruments.

And just do it.

I'll start.

I love this instrument, the tambourine.

Why?

It's just it's so versatile.

It's so simple.

And it's just fun to shake around.

Go for it.

My favorite passion piece would have to be Carnival Overture sounds something like.

Oh, Bravo.

Wonderful.

Next, I'll come over here and I'll play the snare drum again.

Snare drum is kind of the bread and butter for percussion, so that's kind of the go to one of the first things that you learn.

And so it's always just been one of my favorite things.

So I'll play the beginning of a popular atude from a composer named Jaques Delecluse.

Yes.

Thank you.

And so I love the crasg cymbals because they cannot be ignored.

When you hear them, you know what they are.

So I have a piece that I love.

It's called Scheherazade, and it tells a very interesting story, but at the very end of it, the very powerful part of it that goes Bom bom bom.

Bum, bum, bum and you've got cymbals going bum bum bum I love it because it's so full of tension and gritty and angry, wonderful.

There's so many instruments we don't have enough time to go back into them and hear everything, but just one of you tell me why percussion is for you.

Everything can be a percussion instrument.

We are never done learning about different things to play and different toys to play with and make sounds with.

I have to agree with Nathan.

It never gets boring having this many toys to play around with.

Oh, and if there's one piece of advice you could give to a youngster who's thinking about percussions, what would you tell them?

Practice, practice, practice, practice.

And when you don't practice, listen to music, listen to lots of music, listen to all different kinds of music.

Awesome.

You have done a fantastic job and thank you all.

Thank you, and thank you for joining us on our Symphonic Safari Adventure.