Percussion: the pit set up

December 9, 2008

Simple answer:

Do your homework!


As most of you already know, I am a percussionist by trade. I am part of the percussion faculty at Marian College along with my colleague Braham Dembar, principal percussionist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Being more of a full time conductor these days, I don't have time to do much else, especially play percussion as much as I'd like. I bring this up because I recently was asked to play percussion for the Indianapolis Civic Theatre's upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz. I recently did sub on drum set for that show, but it was a one time thing, just to help out a friend. Long story short, I was asked to come back as the percussionist for The Wizard of Oz. First, let me publicly say (I suppose this is considered public if anyone actually reads this) thank you to the contractor of the Indianapolis Civic Theatre for letting me play, I am deeply honored to be in the company of such talented musicians.

Well, I bring this all up because the music calls for quite the set up. 3 differently pitched anvils, large gong, 2 timp (but really 4), chimes, wind chimes, bell tree, xylo, bells, vibes, triangle, susp, cr cym, siren, "spooky noises", temple blocks, cow bell, wood block, tamb,...I think that might be all of it. A set up like that clearly is too much for a pit. None-the-less, it is our responsibility as professionals to simply make it happen. So, as you read earlier, the short and simple answer is to do your homework. Spend the time looking through each page and truly choreographing your moves. Spend that time before hand to find out what works and what doesn't. Play through it before your first rehearsal starts. Some people will tell you that you will really know what will work or not once rehearsals start, but don't rely on that. Don't rely on trial and error. Yes, inevitably, you will come across a method or movement that will work best in a different location, but come into your first rehearsal prepared. You only get one shot at a first impression. If you want to keep your job, be on top of your game. Will it require some extra work? Definitely, but your playing and professionalism represent you, so do your job well.

For this large set up, I only had about 24 hours notice of the first rehearsal with me as percussionist and looking through the percussion book. If you've played in any type of a pit before, you know all too well that there isn't much room down there in the first place. I've seen the pit before and knew that all of this equipment would not fit. So, I immediately go into plan B, plan A being the full ideal setup, and I start trying to narrow down as to the bare essentials that will fit down there. From 4 timp, we go down to 2, from vibes, xylo, and bells, now just to bells and xylo, vibe stuff now being played with much softer mallets on the lower register of the bells doing my best to give it some justice with impromptu vibrato. Perhaps now getting rid of the crash cymbals and now only using the susp with a harder mallet, and getting a slightly larger cymbal for warm rolls and larger crisp crashes. Now, I do not like doing this, I would much rather have as much of acoustic sound as possible, with VERY minimal amplification unless absolutely necessary. The composer, or arranger, wrote those sounds for a reason! None-the-less, you have to make the end product work, END OF STORY. I can't tell you how many times I have to say that to my percussionists when they are one person short in the section "make it work". I stand completely behind that statement. Yes, it challenges you, but it makes you a much better musician. And frankly, it can make you the musician that gets the job is gets asked back. Who would you hire? The person who whines on how hard it is or the person who finds a way to make it happen? Be that second person.

So, back to the set up. The drummer shows me this machine that he typically uses when there is not a percussionist in the pit. If I recall correctly, it is the Roland Hand Sonic. A series of pads intended for use with your hands. I assume that it was originally designed to imitate hand drums, but it also has a wide array of percussive sounds. So, the drummer had already programmed the machine to give me whatever sounds of timpani or anvils or chimes, etc. It took me quite a while to figure it out, and very embarrassing during the first rehearsal to figure out this machine, but it works! It takes some getting used to, but it helped me, to the best of the ability of the space situation, to get the job done. Check it out!

Until next time, keep on practicing-you won't regret the extra time and discipline you put into it. That's the first step to getting or keeping a job.