Playing the Bones of the Xylophone

Playing the Bones of the Xylophone
By Victor Epand

The xylophone was first created in Indonesia and is a member of the percussion family. The instrument has a set of different sized bars that are made out of wood and are each made to make a particular note when struck. The different bars are struck with wooden, rubber or plastic mallets to make different sounds. This particular percussion instrument has been around for thousands of years. This has been proven by artifacts found from as far back as 2000 BC. Throughout history, there have also been other variations of xylophones made, including ones that were made and used by ancient temples in China.

It must also be noted that xylophones are not always created in a single row of low notes to high notes. There have been xylophones found that have the bars hanging, where the musician will strike the vertical bars with the mallet. Michael Gusikov played a xylophone that had three rows of the bars situated in the shape of a triangle. It would appear that like many other instruments, the xylophone went through a number of changes and modifications over time.

While it is uncertain when exactly the xylophone made it to Europe, it is suggested that it could have arrived there sometime during the 1500s. Though, it wasn't until the early 1800s that people in the west were becoming familiar with the xylophone. Michael Josef Gusikov can be credited with making the instrument known. He had an interest in the instrument and performed with the xylophone around Europe on tours. It was not long before this musician became known for his music and gained some decent recognition for it. In fact, there were other well-known musicians who spoke well of the Michael Gusikov's performances, including Frederic Chopin, who was a fairly well-known pianist.

When most people think about playing an instrument, few will immediately think of the xylophone; instead, many will think about taking up guitar, piano, or saxophone before thinking of playing something like the xylophone. Xylophones are not an overly common instrument in the western world and are forgotten as a result, though this is not to say that no one plays it. Many people play the xylophone because they enjoy the sound and they are aware of the unique and natural sound it has. The xylophone is perhaps best known by the sharp and bright tone the bars have when struck with the mallet, especially the modern xylophones that have been created with resonating tubes placed under the wooden bars to enhance the sound of each note. The frames of the xylophone are made of wood or steal tubing and the more expensive, higher end models have the ability to have their height adjusted to fit the musician.

The higher quality xylophones also have more stability, while the cheaper ones don't have as much stability. Musicians who are serious about playing the xylophone in concerts and other performances will most likely spend more money on the higher quality instruments, while younger students who are simply looking to try it out will go for the cheaper, used xylophones.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used CDs, autographed CDs, and used musical instruments. You can find the best marketplace for used CDs, autographed CDs, and used musical instruments at these sites for used xylophone CDs, autographed xylophone CDs, and used xylophones.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Epand
http://EzineArticles.com/?Playing-the-Bones-of-the-Xylophone&id=1120747

Chinese Musical Instruments

Chinese Musical Instruments
By Peter Emerson

Like every country has its own traditional music and musical instruments, China also has traditional musical instruments that have been developed over the centuries. Traditionally, Chinese musical instruments have been classified according to the materials they are made up of. These materials are namely, stone, silk, gourd, metal, bamboo, clay, skin, and wood. Among these, the stone and wood instruments have become outdated. Chinese musical instruments may also be classified into string, wind, or percussion instruments. String instruments may be classified into plucked string instruments and bowed string instruments. The older instruments consist of long zithers, panpipes, flutes, the sheng, or mouth organ, and percussion instruments, such as clappers, gongs, and drums. Various lutes and fiddles were introduced later to China from Central Asia.

Erhu is a type of bowed string instrument. It is a two-stringed fiddle and is one of the most popular Chinese instruments in the Hu-qin family. Gao-hu is another bowed string instrument. Gao-Hu is mostly used for high-pitched tunes that Erhu cannot play and frequently used for performing vivid and brisk rhythms. Gao-Hu has louder volume yet brighter tones, and thus it serves as both a solo and leading instrument in performing Cantonese operas and folk melodies.

Pipa is a type of plucked string instrument and belongs to the Lute family. It is a four-stringed lute with 30 frets and pear-shaped body. The Pipa is to be held upright by the instrumentalist and played with five small plectra attached to each finger of the right hand. This musical instrument has a remarkable expressive power and an extremely dynamic range. Yueqin, a plucked string instrument, is a moon shaped lute with shorter neck and four strings. Gugin is another important plucked string instrument, which is like a seven-stringed zither.

Wind musical instruments are very popular in China. A Dizi, traditionally made of bamboo, is the simplest wind instrument. This instrument is especially popular, as it is a low cost instrument and is relatively easy to learn.

Musical Instruments provides detailed information on Musical Instrument, Musical Instrument Stores, Musical Instrument Dealers, Pictures Of Musical Instruments and more. Musical Instruments is affiliated with Rock Music Code.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Emerson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Chinese-Musical-Instruments&id=407559

Drumming Technique – 2 Golden Rules to Improve Any Drummers Performance When Playing Drums

Are you a student taking drum lessons or are you a drum teacher of music lessons? Playing drums can be fun and you can learn (or teach) drums in a short while, or be a much better drummer, by following two (2) golden rules of drumming. If you want to learn drums more effectively and efficiently, then this article is for you.
So, what are the two (2) golden rules? They are:

1. Technique
2. Stick Heights

The first golden rule is Technique. In drumming, this is how you hold your drumsticks or keyboard mallets while playing a pattern of sticking that is suitable for a particular drumming exercise or drum music. The way that you hold the stick is called grip. There are two types of grip in drumming. They are:

• Match Grip
• Traditional Grip

Each grip is really a matter of preference. Sometimes, the type of percussion instrument you play will determine the type of grip you should use. In many cases it is good to know how to play drums with both types of grips. This will allow for you to always be prepared no matter the situation.

If you are beginning drummer, recommendations are to begin with the match grip. Match grip is exactly what the word match describes; the hands are holding the drumsticks exactly the same. It is kind of like holding bicycle handle bars with a few adjustments to angle and thumbs. This grip is generally held by many concert percussionists, jazz drum kit players, rock band drummers and by marching percussions tenor drummers and bass drummers. See a hand example of how to hold a drumstick using the match grip by clicking here.

The next grip, traditional grip, is a technical drumming hold that if done properly, can approve your drumming abilities in terms of speed, endurance, accuracy, finger and hand agility and overall aesthetics. When teaching drum lessons, drum teachers should instruct their students to include door knob turning as part of their daily exercise. The reason for this is because the motion that the forearm performs is the same turn that that is used when playing drums with a traditional grip. Furthermore, the fingers are place properly on to the stick. Two fundamental notes to having better control of the stick when playing with the traditional grip:

• Never release the thumb from the index finger
• Keep the pinky and the ring finger together working as one (this can be accomplished by taping the two fingers together)

Traditional grip is often used in marching percussion by snare players. Many jazz drummers, like Buddy Rich performs with the traditional grip as well as Drum Corps drummers like the Concord Blue Devils. There are also many drum videos and drum DVD’s that portray the traditional grip. A great example can be seen at Drumex.com, where the drum video shows a snare drummer auditioning for the UCLA Drumline.

A hand illustration of the traditional grip can be seen by clicking here.

The second golden of drumming is stick heights. In marching drumlins and percussion ensembles, the focus is on uniformity. Meaning everyone needs to look the same including their hand positions (grip) and levels of heights. There are two types of stick heights that should be required for anyone playing drums, especially when playing snare drum rudiments. They are:

• Accents
• Taps

There is a distinct difference between the two. Bottom line is accents are played higher than taps. Drum teachers usually explain this by saying taps are all the inside notes, the low notes. Accents are taught to be played vertically. The common misconception is that accents and taps is just for marching drumlines, but it can also be played by drum kit drummers too. The benefit to playing drum music with proper stick heights is that it sounds and it looks good. One of the best books that could teach you how to play proper stick heights is Accents and Rebounds by George Lawrence Stone. Stone is well-known for his first book, Stick Control.

The two golden rules, technique and stick heights will improve your drumming abilities. Pay close attention to each of the two in detail when playing drums. You get the most benefit of your drum lessons by practicing and researching. Review drum videos and watch a lot of Buddy Rich and Mike Portnoy to better your drumming. Good luck and don’t use drum tabs, read drum music.

Choosing The Right Musical Instrument For You

Choosing The Right Musical Instrument For You
By Susan Jan

If music is your middle name, then musical instruments are sure to adorn your room. Music is an excellent way to get rid of the blues. And if you are the creative type, then you can compose your own songs with musical instruments.

Musical instruments are mainly categorized by the way they generate sound. All musical instruments fall under one of the following – string, wind, percussion and keyboard, though there may be further divisions and sub-divisions. Examples of string instruments include guitars, violins, ukuleles and cellos. Wind instruments include pipes, sax, clarinet, flute and such other types. Drums, bongos, cymbals and bells fall under the percussions category. And keyboard instruments include pianos, harpsichords, organs and accordions. Over 1000 musical instruments are available across the world, including folk instruments.

If you want to play on your own, then it is better to start with a musical instrument you like, and then gradually master the instrument by joining music classes. If you like music in general and are not interested in specializing in any particular type of instrument then a keyboard can be the perfect choice. Electronic keyboards nowadays can produce all sorts of sound ranging from guitar tunes to drum beats. A variety of DJ equipments are also available on the market nowadays, which provide creative sound mixing options for the wannabe DJs as well as for the experienced disc jockeys.

On the other hand, if you were thinking of organizing a band then you would need different types of musical instruments. A band normally includes a couple of string instruments, percussions and preferably a wind instrument.

You can purchase your musical instruments online. Choose your favorite instrument from the various websites that you will find on the internet. They often offer discounts if you buy their package deals, which include various types of musical instruments. This can be your best option if you are planning a band with your friends.

Musical instruments can be a costly affair, especially if you are planning to buy the best available on the market. These can set you back by anything from $100 to over $10000. A good Yamaha or Roland electronic keyboard may cost almost $2500. Used musical instruments are often a good choice, especially if you are learning to play a new instrument. For beginners it is advisable to invest in musical instruments in the lower price range.

Musical instruments can also be made at home with items of daily use. Homemade musical instruments mainly fall under the category of percussion instruments. You can make almost anything, from shakers and jingle bracelets to drums and tambourines. You can also make wind instruments such as comb harmonica or kazoo. These help your child to be creative and can keep them busy. And you can now have your own band at home.

If you're thinking of buying an accordion or an ukulele, come visit Susan's sites All About Accordions and All About Ukuleles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susan_Jan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Choosing-The-Right-Musical-Instrument-For-You&id=187453

Creating A Drum

By Taisha Grant

Drums are one of the world’s oldest known and simplest instruments. Unlike most other instruments, they can be created using regular items and there sound can be recreated using many different kinds of items. The traditional drum form is a “membrane” stretch over a hollow shell. This membrane can be made of many different kinds of materials but were originally made from animal skin.

The animal skin is typically wet when it is first stretched over the drum. The skin is easier to work with when it has been wet and becomes increasingly difficult to handle and manipulate as it dries. The wetness of the skin is particularly important as this will allow the skin to be stretched, thus creating the tension necessary to create resonance in the drum. It is also important that the work area is very clean when the skin is dry so that dirt and debris do not get caught up in the skin and damage it. The skin that goes on the drumhead is traditionally soaked and stretched twice. The first stretch is employed in order to shape the skin to the head of the dream while the second stretch serves to make the skin taut enough to create an effective musical instrument.

Drum skins can be purchased from a variety of different locations. One website, http://www.soundsofclay.com has drum heads available in a variety of different patterns and styles. These drum heads are made from goat skins and some deer skins. They are also offered with or without hair and in patterns such as tie-dye and fluorescent tie-dye.

Still other sites, such as http://www.janm.org offer long descriptions and detailed instructions on how to make a Taiko Drum. Taiko means “drum” in Japanese and are drums used traditionally in Japanese classical and musical traditions. The drums are large and beautiful and resemble large barrels.

Typically, drums that are played with sticks use thicker skins while drums played with the hand use thinner skins. The animals skins used for making drum heads are almost always rawhide, which is exceptionally strong and flexible and has the added bonus of stretching when wet and tightening when dry. Most commonly the drum head is made out of goat or cow. Skins used for drums cannot be flawed and can be checked for flaws by holding them up to the light. To find out further information on drums, log on to the Internet.

About the Author: Taisha Grant writes about Musical Coupons,Music123 coupon codes and Guitar Traders coupon

Source: www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=103059&ca=Entertainment

Ideas To Help With Percussion In The Beginner Band

Ideas To Help With Percussion In The Beginner Band
By Kevin Tuck

The beginner band is a big challenge, you have an entire band of students who are just starting to learn their instruments, and you are trying to both educate and inspire them to play.

Getting the percussion section to work effectively can be one of the biggest challenges, particularly if you don't know a lot about percussion.

Don't let them be "drummers" only - be "percussionists" instead

This is the most important thing to realize - that band students are often attracted to percussion so that they can play the drum set. The drum set (or drum kit) is often used in the school band, and often is very important, so students feel that if they are not playing it they have to sit there and wait.

The band director has to find a way around this situation - if you only have one drummer, then great! They can play the drum kit and away you go.

The issue can happen when you have multiple drummers in the band, sometimes two, four, eight or ten! One way that works very effectively and has been used for many years is to have one player playing snare drum, one playing bass drum, and one cymbal player, even if you have a "drum kit" part written out. If you have this type of band I recommend having this setup at all times, and making the students stand up to play the snare drum. You then have the cymbals and concert bass drum, and its designed to be played by three players all the time.

Have an Auxilliary Percussion Table - and make them stand up to play at all times

There is nothing worse than vaguely hearing a shaker or tambourine in a school band, and struggling to see the person sitting on a chair behind the drummer!

When playing tambourine, triangle or shaker - these instruments are often more critical to the sound of the band than the snare drum or drum set, so therefore they must be taken really seriously.. by the band director as well as by the players.

So always have a "traps" table with everything in easy reach. Its not too expensive to make one or buy one of the available professional ones.

The players must always stand up to play, and have their music stand set up so that they can look immediately over it at the band conductor.

Warming up - please don't ignore us!

I've been a percussionist in a school band... there is nothing more frustrating that spending your time sitting in the school band room while you wait for the wind players to tune up and warm up. Often the band director will spend up to half an hour warming the players up - and expect the percussionists to remain quiet during that time.

How to deal with it?

- If you're going to warm up for half an hour.... Tell the percussion section to arrive later than the rest! - it makes no difference to you and its better than them being a distraction!

- Why not send them into a different room for their own section rehearsal during this time? Get a specialist teacher or assistant to work with them on their parts

- Use predefined warm-up routines that go along with what you are doing with the wind players. (doesn't always work, but can do depending on the materials you have)

Be prepared to supplement the band book

When I helped out with beginner bands I found it necessary to supplement the band books that the students were using with additional materials - often the materials are not interesting or they don't have enough variety to keep the students engaged in the materials.

They'll need lots of work on basic rudiments and rolls - often the band books don't address those things early enough. So therefore you may be able to supplement it with other material which is available online and in books.

Everyone playing mallets?

I'm going to leave this up to you - it depends on the different personalities in each of the bands you have. One popular series of band books the "standard of excellence" has snare drum/bass drum on the left hand pages of the book, and mallet percussion on the right. Another type the "essential elements" has one snare drum and one mallet percussion book.

I think that percussionists should rotate and do as much as possible, and if that means that they each need two books, whereas every other member of the band needs only one.. then that's the way it should be!

There are no quick fixes to make percussion better in the beginner band, but hopefully this article can give you one or two ideas that will help!

Kevin Tuck is a percussion composer and educator, who now works full time on the internet publishing his own works and helping others publish theirs. For more ideas on how to make percussion enjoyable in schools please visit kevins percussion blog

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Tuck
http://EzineArticles.com/?Ideas-To-Help-With-Percussion-In-The-Beginner-Band&id=1141870

Musical Instrument Stores

Musical Instrument Stores
By Peter Emerson

Musical instruments are as old as music and there are some traditional instruments that date back to centuries before. Every country has its own kinds of music and musical instruments that are unique to its culture.

Most classical singers still use traditionally designed instruments for traditional songs. The craftsmen who make these instruments are also different, having inherited the art from their ancestors. However, there are also newer manufacturers of musical instruments who make them for commercial sale. Most of them sell the instruments directly or through dealers and music stores. The main categories of musical instruments are chordophones (strings), aerophones (woodwinds and brasses), idiophones (percussion), and membranophones (drums).

Musical instrument stores today are almost superstores. They host several kinds of musical instruments that can be chosen by brand name, by the make, or by the price. They house top brands like AKG, Auralex, CBI, Conquest, DiMarzio, Elixir, Ernie Ball, Furman, GHS, Hosa, Monster Cable, Proco, Proel, Rolls, SKB, and Whirlwind. Musical instruments stores also sell recording equipment, DJ equipment, and live sound equipment, along with the other accessories like guitar amps, keyboard controllers, computer music hardware, stands and footstools, cables and cable accessories, speakers, straps and strap locks, microphone accessories, studio furniture, racks and cases, acoustic foam, headphones and headphone amps, covers, power supplies and batteries, and more.

There are discount musical instrument stores, as well, that offer attractive discounts, lowest prices, free-financing options, and easy return policies. Some give discounts up to even eighty percent. They also give away some accessories for free with the instruments. These offers can be found in advertisements in newspapers. The Internet is also a very good source for knowing about the latest offers, as well as for viewing and comparing products and products deals online. The instruments can also be ordered online.

Musical Instruments provides detailed information on Musical Instrument, Musical Instrument Stores, Musical Instrument Dealers, Pictures Of Musical Instruments and more. Musical Instruments is affiliated with Rock Music Code.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Emerson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Musical-Instrument-Stores&id=202183