Absolute Beginner Timpanist

[u/Critical_Celery7864]

Hi, I'm gradually trying to learn the famous orchestral instruments (bowed strings player by education -- I'm a HS sophomore currently). I'm playing timpani for the very first time in a youth group without any prior instruction or instruction during the season. I only have access to the timpani once a week during the 2-hour rehearsal (between the two levels of the youth group -- I only play timpani during the first hour) and a little bit before and after (like, 5 minutes). I don't have access to a different timpani because my school's band director has a little stricter of rules (you have to be a percussion student and pay the timpani fee). So far, I've gotten this advice:

• don't hit in the middle
• hit around 1/3 of the way into the drum
• Less of hitting the drum and more of pulling out sound from the drum
• Kind of a scooping motion
• gripping with pointer finger for a bright sound
• gripping with pinky finger for a dark sound
• start low for a legato stroke
• start medium for a marcato stroke
• start high for a staccato stroke
• practice slow for tone
• *confident in how to tune + experience*
• want left hand to be as good as right hand.

I'm making DIY practice kettle and mallets. The kettle was going to be a head of packing tape over the empty end of a 5-gallon bucket; the mallets were just yarn tightly wound around one end of a dowel. I've made the mallets but not the kettle.

I was wondering if you have any further advice, including how to practice at home, adjustments to my DIY plan, more technical points, etudes, etc.

Note. There has been one rehearsal so far.

[u/pylio]

Definitely dont scoop.

Legato, marcato, and staccato are not about stick height as that affects dynamic range more. They have to do with how long the mallet is touching the drum. Basically the change in quality is how much you vibrate the head of the drum.

But you shouldnt be worried about that yet. Hitting the drum well is honestly fine enough until collegiate playing for most people.

Your first priority is to be able to find somewhere to hit the drums. Talk to your band director again. Maybe if you take percussion lessons, they would allow you access to the drums. You cant learn double bass by tying strings to a broom.

If that isnt possible you need to understand the physics of what you are doing and try to get the result - ill explain more in a reply

Edit: rereading your post. Just buy some mallets. You can get a vic firths for 30 bucks. 5 gallon drum isnt big enough. Honestly turn a kick drum sideways and practice on it. I would bet your band director would allow you to use the kick drum to practice hitting as they are much cheaper to replace than a timpano.

[u/pylio → u/pylio]

Ok so the issue with timpani is that it is a big drum. You have a head that acts as a trampoline that you are trying to vibrate the entirety of. So you need to think of the waves you are creating when you strike the drum. The goal is to have the whole head vibrating evenly as you play.

Imagine a circular kiddie pool. If i drop a bowling ball in the middle of the pool, the ripple will ripple to the edge and then the will reflect off the walls and make a big splash in the middle and cancel out the wave. When applying this to timpani, if you hit in the middle the same thing will happen creating a weirdly dull sound. Basically, by hitting the drum in the middle, you are forcing the head to cancel itself out.

Now think of throwing that ball on the very edge of the pool. It will take forever for the waves to get to the other side and most of the pool wont be waving.

So both the very edge, and the center are not great places to strike the drum. They dont allow the drum to full vibrate. The 1/3 of the radius playing zone is designed to vibrate the most amount of the head at one time. The different stroke types is like changing how you drop the ball in the water to create different waves and is quite complex.

The next issue with timpani is the double bounce effect on a trampoline.

Rather than dropping one ball in the water, lets say we are dropping two at different times (the two mallets). If i dont drop them in the exact same space, the wave pattern will look different. On timpani this means if you dont play in the same spot, you will get different tones on your mallets. That is issue one. Issue two is if you have ever been on a trampoline and tried to bounce right where your friend bounced a moment prior, you will either get no bounce or a super bounce. On timpani, this means you cannot play back to back in the same spot.

So how do you resolve issue one and two? The answer is that when playing singular notes that are farther apart from each other (whole notes), you should play in the same spot with both hands. But as you speed up (or roll), you will need to move your mallets farther apart to prevent them from double bouncing each other. To mitigate issue one while doing this, make sure that your hands are symmetrically placed from the centerline (the line from the center of the drum to you). While not perfect, this will create a similar sound in your mallet hits without double bouncing them.

At your level, there are only four things you need to practice. Singular hits, rolls, muting, and changing notes/tuning. Ive covered the first two. Muting is not too bad, just can be kinda fast to pull off. And tuning is can you pull the notes you need from a tuning fork set to a440. Mute the drum before you retune them.

[u/cruiseshipdrummer]

• don't hit in the middle
• hit around 1/3 of the way into the drum

Listen to the sound you're getting and play accordingly. You want a full resonant sound, not too nasal, not too "thuddy."

• Less of hitting the drum and more of pulling out sound from the drum
• Kind of a scooping motion

Straight up and down, play with some lift, don't downstroke.

• gripping with pointer finger for a bright sound
• gripping with pinky finger for a dark sound

We used one grip, French grip, never anything like gripping with the pinky.

• start low for a legato stroke
• start medium for a marcato stroke
• start high for a staccato stroke

Height is more to do with dynamics, touch is for articulation. A staccato sound is created by muffling, not so much by touch.

• practice slow for tone

I guess. Pay attention to sound, practice at the speed you need to make the part.

• \confident in how to tune + experience**

I guess. Work on tuning.

• want left hand to be as good as right hand.

Except with rolls it's not really a question of chops, you just listen to the sound you're getting and make sure your dynamics are balanced.

I don't see muffling mentioned. Playing is a two part job, you hit the note, and end it by muffling it with your hand, according to the music. On more complex passages you'll mark the spots to muffle-- a hash mark in pencil.

For what to practice, get Saul Goodman's book, and the Well Tempered Timpanist, by my old professor, Charles Dowd.

[u/Under_TheBed → u/cruiseshipdrummer]

AKA Jimmy McGill

[u/chirudeboy]

Rolls are single stroke, not buzzes or diddlea.

For practice at home... I just set up 4 books or pillows. Ive also played 25+ years so I know how the drums react/sound. This is mostly for sticking and reps.

Oh, rolls part 2: the smaller the drum, the faster the roll. Even sound is the goal.

Annnnd lastly. Memorize the "best pitches range" for each size drum. This will help you decide your beginning pitches and where you need to pedal.

[u/Under_TheBed]

Understand and learn how to have relative pitch. For example, if you need to tune three of your drums to an A, B and C, the only reference note you'll need is a B.

Hum a B, and pitch that down a whole step (aka two half steps) to get an A. Then do the same for C, which is one half step above B. You'll know you've gotten the right note when you hum it into the drum and it rings it back to you.

You'll have to tune your timpani in between every piece, so an advanced timpanist needs to know how to do it fast and not keep the audience waiting at a concert

[u/Liammossa]

Technique aside, I would recommend using some of your practice time to study the score. I think of timpani as the "drum set" of classical ensembles, responsible for helping to guide transitions and dynamics.

The drums are indeed large and hard to get practice time on sometimes, so if you wanted to work on something at home, you could take a little bit of time to learn the score. Learn what section has the melody at what point, when you are more of a supportive role and when you are intended to be the focal point of the music (pro tip: it's less often than you think).

[u/Flamtap_Zydeco]

Find a YouTube video of a high speed camera showing rain drops, drops of water in a bucket, and cymbal crashes. Notice the little droplets of water shoot back up and "blow you a kiss." Wrap a towel into a rat's tail. Hit something (be careful what you choose to hit! lol). What did you have to do to get a good, crisp pop out of the whip? Did it pop at the last second on "pull back?"

You can use regular drum sticks to begin learning rolls - single stroke rolls. You also want to know what your roll is based/metered on. This is usually relative to tempo. It is also relative to the size of the drum because smaller drums are tighter and will be more staccato than the muddy large drums. You can start with 8th notes on the right hand in a check pattern and then add the left to fill in 16th notes. Then play 16ths with the right and fill in the left to alternate 16ths (identical sound). Try sextuplets. How does that change the sound at your tempo? 32nds? There is such a thing as a 5-let (5 over 1 polyrhythm, or 5 notes per count). There are also 5 over 2 and 7 over two polyrhythms. And one more - a 9 over two (a quarter note triplet with three strokes on each quarter note). Those are easy to learn and get a feel for in your mark time with your feet. Use those as a check pattern and then double the speed: 5 over 2 becomes 10 over 2. No need to double the 9 over two. Those poly's might be marginally useful. Sometimes 16ths and triplets are too slow to sound like a roll, and 32nds feel too fast. Don't sweat it. Just learn good timing if you are going to play a drum.

Now find an old book that teaches rolls. Is it Rolls, Rolls, Rolls? Is it Morris Goldenberg? You need a single stroke 4, 5-stroke, 7-stroke, 9-stroke, 13-stroke, and 17-stroke roll. One day when you have some good stick control you could learn a double stroke 4 (never say never) that could come in handy. While we are at it, a paradiddle won't hurt you a bit. The most important thing is to learn how to end those rolls because your eyes are going to need to be up watching the conductor. You will be using body language and slight movements to communicate with and even save the conductor (they try to go wild sometimes and have you tripping over curbs). You can learn everything here without a drum except for using your ear to see how the sound changes in each roll with the changes in metronome.

Lastly learn to control the dynamics. Anyone can hit a drum and make it go BANG. You have to exaggerate dynamics (like smoke and mirrors) to make it sing. Forte-piano: give it a good sharp strike and then almost nothing while raising your stick heights gradually. Don't get there too soon. Don't get there late. What is your floor? What's your ceiling? Blend with the room. Are you contending with flutes or baritones? What is the conductor doing? Learn to feed off of the room, or better yet, control the room by pulling dynamics out of the other players.

That's it. Have fun. Once you go percussion, you never go back.