Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Tock but no Tick

Published on January 17, 2008 in Music. 0 Comments

The Basement is in some ways the island of misfit toys. Percussion toys, that is. Triangles, tambourines and the flavor of the week, the noble wood block.

I was hired to play that simple instrument in the Turangalila Symphony of Olivier Messiaen. It’s a big part. Not a concerto, but a feature. OK, it’s a massive and thickly orchestrated work that’s over an hour long and takes 10 percussionists but the wood block part is juicy and it CUTS. No hiding in the texture for me. AND I’m tagging along once again for the SLSO concerts in Carnegie Hall next month when they’re taking this show on the road.

UPDATE: I almost forgot. I’m working with a SLSO CD of Turangalila that I’m actually on. This is a very rare occurrence. So rare that it’s never happened to me before! It’s a live recording from 1999 under Hans Vonk, the maestro at the time. I played snare drum on that (another very rare occurrence) and I’m getting a kick out of practicing along with it.

Anyway, when I got the part it occurred to me that I didn’t have a wood block. I have some Jam Blocks and some temple blocks, but a basic wood block is not in my case. So as I often do, I took the opportunity to get my own lovely block of woody goodness. Like most of my stuff, I got it from Steve Weiss. I chose the Vaughncraft No. 3. (It has to be Vaughncraft, right? At least for my first one.) This beauty comes in maple and cherry. I chose the maple because I am fond of light woods. I don’t know why. Here’s a pic of the new tool in the Basement.
The Vaughcraft No. 3 in maple
By the way, this view is for the photo only. You’d never play the wood block with the sound hole facing you would you? No, of course not…

UPDATE: 1/30/08
The concert was last night at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. The Turangalila fans (few but faithful) were in attendance on a very cold, windy evening. There was a forty minute lecture demonstration with slides on the first half of the concert and then the piece was played through on the second half. That’s a lot of Messiaen brother! But it rocked. “Epic” was a quote I heard backstage.

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Published on January 2, 2008 in . 0 Comments

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The Amazing Timp Top Table

Published on January 2, 2008 in Other Stuff. 0 Comments

Hey all. I had some time to do a project that had to be done. There’s a finished room in the Basement where I have most of my stuff but there’s also an unfinished part that is where the laundry apparatus lives. My timps live there also and take up too much square footage for my liking. I’ve thought about a remedy for some time and this is what I came up with: a workbench/table that would go over the drums. It would be on casters so I could roll it around or even outside if I wanted.

I sketched out a few ideas and realized that I couldn’t have the legs go under the table edges. This is not ideal table design, since you’d lose a lot of strength but it couldn’t be helped. I sandwiched 2x4s together and created a sort of lap joint so the bulk of the weight rested on top of a board, rather than just on fasteners. That was important. Another thing I couldn’t do was have nice diagonal supports, at least on the front. Again, this would interfere with being able to roll the drummies in and out of their cubbyhole. I added strength to the joints by using 90 degree steel bracing under the table and steel strapping on the outside edges. I wouldn’t get up on top of it and do the watusi, but for basic tasks it should be just fine.

It’s not a thing of beauty, as I am a relative newbie with tools and handiness, but I’m very happy with it. Here’s the pic.

The Timp Table