I once played a song with a whole lot of percussion instruments. There were three of us. And 17 instruments that needed to be played. My part in particular, was really difficult. I had 7 instruments. Bells, vibraphone, sus symbol, shaker, triangle(had to be held by hand), tom toms, and gong… that was fun…
One of my favorite musical theatre pit experiences was playing aux percussion for Les Miserables. I didn’t have a lot of space, but I did have bells, a small xylophone mounted underneath, a single timpani, and a dozen smaller instruments either mounted or set up on trays. I was regularly using 4 mallet grips but with 2 or 3 different types of mallets.
And then, of course, there was the “rest page.” It was actually 1 1/2 pages filled with rests and rehearsal marks. 16 bars of rest then letter A. 8 bars of rest. Letter B, 16 bars rest. Letter C, 15 bars of rest, whole rest with fermata. On and on. Rest rest rest ritardando… rest rest cessura… rest rest rest over a vamp… Good times.
I once played a song with a whole lot of percussion instruments. There were three of us. And 17 instruments that needed to be played. My part in particular, was really difficult. I had 7 instruments. Bells, vibraphone, sus symbol, shaker, triangle(had to be held by hand), tom toms, and gong… that was fun…
You know, I found a case of Conductor 1: Rest Counting. And as soon as I did, it reminded me of this video. Love the content
One of my favorite musical theatre pit experiences was playing aux percussion for Les Miserables. I didn’t have a lot of space, but I did have bells, a small xylophone mounted underneath, a single timpani, and a dozen smaller instruments either mounted or set up on trays. I was regularly using 4 mallet grips but with 2 or 3 different types of mallets.
And then, of course, there was the “rest page.” It was actually 1 1/2 pages filled with rests and rehearsal marks. 16 bars of rest then letter A. 8 bars of rest. Letter B, 16 bars rest. Letter C, 15 bars of rest, whole rest with fermata. On and on. Rest rest rest ritardando… rest rest cessura… rest rest rest over a vamp… Good times.