Percussion instrument

Steel drum music has the ability to move an audience like no other type of music. From the first note, the songs exude a happiness from within each pannist. Even with the slower pieces, you can close your eyes and imagine yourself in a tropical surrounding. The AISD concert, conducted by CJ Menge, which took place April 14, 2012 certainly did not disappoint. The concert was performed in Austin, Texas and featured steel drum bands from seven middle and high schools in the area. The first piece,…

Memory loss is a very stressful thing to face. While the brain in struggling to remember lost memories of family and friends, a person with dementia can become angry, sad, or even depressed. This is why music therapy is so helpful to them. Music is known to calm the brain from stresses. According to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, the best music to play for a person with dementia is music from they listened to from the ages eighteen to twenty-five. In-addition to familiar music, music…

After completing my first semester at Ohio State, I can already tell I am part of something very special. Granted, when I was accepted and when I made my decision to attend, I started to get the feeling that this would be the case. Growing up, I didn’t really think that this would be my case or story, but looking back on it, I am so happy it is. I was born in 1998 in Toledo, Ohio. Toledo as always been the place I call home, and I have spent most of my time in Ohio as well. I know the…

Before my meeting, I prepared five questions for my music history professor. I was aware prior she was a performing percussionist and I’ve noticed her passion for music and teaching throughout the month that I’ve attended her class. I based the majority of my five questions on this knowledge and subsequently recorded her responses with my phone. The first of those five being, when did you realize that music held significance in your life? Her response was, “music has been a part of my life for…

In the 1800s young boys did not have a very long childhood. At a certain age they would be sent off to war to fight for their country and people. In this story I will tell about a drummer boy on the night before the “Battle of Shiloh”. It was on April 6, 1862 near a church. More than 23,000 soldiers died those two days. In the story a moth brushed across his face but it was a blossom, it symbolised that the boys can shave their faces meaning that if they couldn't fell the blossoms then their…

The drum set is unique among musical other instruments. It has many individual parts originated from all over the world for over thousands of years. Percussion and drums can be defined as an instrument that must be hit with a mallet or shaken to make a sound. The surface can be made of animal hide, wood, metal, or really anything that produces sound. The mallet is used to produce the sound that includes a human hand. Drums include a variety of instruments that make similar sounds to a piano such…

In comparison to how early percussion was performed and how musicians of the percussive arts are viewed upon today is almost an opposite perspective. In the medieval era of music, percussionists and parts were most definitely not used as much as which the other instruments were written for. The use of percussion back in this era were only written if the composer felt the percussion parts were a necessity for a piece, and if they were included in a piece, the parts were normally improvised. With…

The marimba, a popular percussion instrument, has not only a rich sound, but a rich history. The instrument, which has a name that means “wood sounder” in African languages and “the goddess” in Guatemalan creates it’s sound with wooden bars and metal resonators. The first idea for marimbas came from Africa.“The xylophone was taken to Latin America by African slaves…”(“Marimba”, Encyclopedia Britannica) Calabashes, or a type of gourd, were replaced in Latin America by resonators made of metal.…

development of percussion throughout centuries has been a long evolution of varied instruments that have greatly affected the way people hear and understand music. Since time began, humans have used percussion instruments to accompany their music, dances, and rituals. In the West, percussion in the orchestra gradually evolved and grew over time into a powerful section of the group, with an imposing range of tools and roles at its disposal (Gagné). In recent times, non-Western percussion has…

for me. Just as my eyes were closing, the drums became dissonance. The music then returned to a slow pace. By the end of the performance, all the sounds were running together in my head. I could not tell the difference between horns, violins or percussions. All in all, the concert was a great experience. Would I have gone if it were not for an assignment? Probably not. Will I go back on my own enjoyment? Probably not unless it is an opera. I would love to experience that. This was something…