The Gold vinyl Graphics feature both Original and Native American designs.

Model 4G-HBRN-329, Dec. 4, 2009

Fun and Easy to Play, Enjoy!

Click here to visit the eBay auction for this Tunable Steel tongue Hand Drum.

Thank You

With Christmas right around the corner, here is a MILLTONE Tunable Steel Tongue Hand Drum that will look great with your Christmas decorations and under your tree. Hammered Silver with Snow White Snowflakes this instrument will certainly add to your Holiday cheer.

Model 4G-HSLV-328, Dec. 3, 2009

Giant Snowflake inside

Fun and easy to play,

Click here to visit the eBay auction for this New, Tunable, Steel Tongue Hand Drum.

Happy Holidays!

Thank You

Ben Moll Percussion Recital

Ben Moll is a colleague of mine teaching at Clark College in Vancouver, WA is performing a percussion recital on Saturday, December 13th at 7pm at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Vancouver.

I will be playing the trap set on some jazz standards and perhaps some Bach Inventions at the end.

Ben is also premiering a new percussion & soprano duet by Fred Strong.

Among we percussionists, the following musicians will be accompanying Mr. Moll:

• Kathy Charles – Piano
  Clark College Piano Faculty

• April Duvic – Soprano
  Clark College Music Faculty

• Eva Richey – Violin
  Concertmaster, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Donations accepted for St. Luke’s Church.

Ben Moll will be playing on a Rosebush Marimba

I have several students now playing advanced marimba repertoire and though I’ve been playing since college, my repertoire is not as extensive as it could be so I’ve picked up this collection of works by Keiko Abe and am overjoyed with my purchase.

The book contains 5 compositions written for 4 mallets on a 5.0 octave marimba with “alterative suggestions” for a 4.3 octave cousin making this edition a great purchase for most high school band students.  The advancing technical progression between pieces is well designed to give the student new tools to master.

Whether Keiko Abe intended it or not, this collection is an excellent path for those early advanced marimba students.  Purchase it here.

What a great day! We just had delivered, 6 brand new, beautifully hand-crafted, Ellis Stompboxes!

They are now all available online.

These stomp boxes are made some from stunning timbers including Jarrah, Campher Laurel, Pink Silky Oak, Tasmanian Blackwood and Marri.

Stomp boxes are such as cool way to add some serious groove to your didgeridoo playing.

Click here to check out the stompboxes online.

This new MILLTONE Tunable Steel Tongue Hand drums feature Native American graphics in a vivid Blue vinyl. This is the first appearance of this color as well as the Sun designs on the tongues.

Model 4G-CLR-327, Dec. 1, 2009

Weaving Pattern on sides

Model 4G-HCPR-326, Nov. 30, 2009

New Fish Lizard Graphic

Bear Claws on Tongues and Lizard/Fish Inside

This Tunable Steel tongue Hand Drum is Easy and Fun to Play, Enjoy!

Click here to visit the eBay auction for this Hand Crafted Steel Tongue instrument.

Thank You

Have you ever heard of her?  No?  That’s fantastic, that means I can tell you about her.

Emily Wells, as a musician, is mold-breaking, and that’s something I love about what she does.

Emily Wells is a musician that plays a staggering array of instruments, but I particularly recall her playing the violin.  About a year or so ago, I stumbled upon a video of her in a recording studio playing Symphony 1 in the Barrel of a Gun.  I remember that in this video she played the violin, and used one of those echoey big plastic toy microphones and added that and her voice to a looping track.

Sounds uncreative?  That’s only because you haven’t heard it.

Truthfully, I think she’s going to be big.  She is described to being similar to CocoRosie, and that in itself is honorable by award or medal, or something.  I mean, CocoRosie is so out there that it seems like they’ve gone and created their own genre with a very elaborate sign saying: “No Entrance, Losers”.  But, somehow, Emily Wells awesome’d herself past that sign, and through those gates and into the untouchably awesome genre.

That in itself should have you running to check out some of her music, but wait!  I’ve got something fantastic for you.  Do you remember that video I mentioned?  Barrel of a Gun, recording studio, big plastic microphone?  Yeah, you know the one.  I’ve got that video right here for you.  Doesn’t that just making you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside?

Yeah, you’re welcome.

w / LP Classic Accents Congas, LP and LP Karl Perazzo Timbales Caxixi – recorded @ Jungle Sound, Milan – 7 September … leo di angilla Latin Percussion congas timbales solo left right Mogar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BpuP55mw6Y&hl=en

Continuing with Native American designs this tunable steel tongue hand drum by MILLTONE features some of the great traditional Native American symbols.

*Click here for more Native American symbol information.

The Hand. Representing the presence of man. His work, his achievements & his history.*

Dragonfly Forms. The graphics are an abstraction of the dragonfly, which can be used as a talisman, especially with the Southern Pueblo Indians. At Isleta it became a double armed cross. This was worn as a symbol of both Catholic conversion and respect for older traditions.*

Weaving Pattern. Navajo Storm Style. Many of the Navajo patterns are followed closely by weaving families, while other designs are created fresh each time. A few designs are similar to designs seen in Plains Beadwork and paintings.*

Model 4G-HGLD-325, Nov. 27, 2009

Native American Weaving Pattern

Dragonfly Symbols on Tongues

Fun and Easy to Play, Enjoy!

Click here to visit the International eBay auction for Steel Tongue Hand Drum.

Thank You

done

Mehr können wir nicht hizufügen: WE ROCKED THE PRINZREGENTENTHEATER!!!!

DANKE AN ALLE!!!!!

This new tunable steel tongue instrument was made by request. It is Clear Coated Steel with Purple MILLTONE lettering and a Purple Sri Yantra graphic inside. If there is a design you would like just let me know.

Model 4G-CLR-322, Nov. 24, 2009

Purple vinyl Sri Yantra inside

Fun and Easy to Play, Enjoy this short demo.

Click here to visit the eBay auction for this tunable Steel Tongue Hand Drum.

Thank You

There’s a story up on the Wall Street Journal about the recent(ish) trend in classical concert percussion pieces, including Philip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Tan Dun’s Concerto for Water Percussion. It mostly covers the growing corps of soloists and the number of new music composers that are growing the repertoire, but it also asks the question of why it is so popular.

And yet the extramusical elements may be the reason percussion music is so popular with audiences, and often draws crowds that are substantially younger than average. Sometimes it bridges the divide between classical music and rock: Mr. Yamashta remains an icon in alternative rock circles; a percussion concerto by Stewart Copeland, the former drummer of The Police, will be given its premiere next year by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps most intriguing is the fact that percussion music is in such demand despite its association with contemporary music—usually considered toxic for ticket sales.

“I think that concert presenters still scratch their heads and don’t understand why this phenomenon is occurring,” says Mr. Haas. “They don’t want to recognize the fact that drums, which not so long ago were considered to not be a concert instrument, have now taken over as the predominant attraction of new audiences.

I think I have an answer to this.

In a sense, rhythm is the last holdout of variety through geographic isolation. Throughout the history of Western classical music it has been possible to track rhythms (especially in dances) from their origin in folk and foreign traditions and the way that they spread around the continent. For example, the sarabande came to Spain from Central America in the middle of the 16th century, then became a staple of French dance suites a century later after it had been banned in Spain due its “obscenity.” With the internet, greater interest in world music, and a globalization fueled interest in cultural pluralism, Western music audiences of the 20th century have the ability to hear the music of any culture on earth.

It was a rhythmic century. Rock and Roll. Funk. Disco. Hip Hop. Jazz. And I think audience interest in percussion oriented pieces reflects a desire to hear concert music that is of its time. In other words, to have music written in the 21st century that ignores the experiments and sounds of percussion specialists like Aphex Twin, or the syncopation and rhythmic variety of a master MC is ignoring the sounds of their time.

There have been periods in music history characterized by growth in complexity of counterpoint, or changes in instrument building and orchestration, or innovations in form. I think this century is going to see a lot of experimentation in the rhythmic content of concert music.

Now that we make our own vinyl graphics, we are beginning to design our own unique graphics. This is the first MILLTONE tunable steel tongue hand drum with graphics that were not made from any picture or image. They began as a doodle on Larry’s scrap paper.

Model 4G-HCPR-321, Nov. 23, 2009

New Original Graphics

Fun and Easy to Play, Enjoy!

Click here to visit the eBay auction for this new MILLTONE tunable Steel Tongue Hand Drum.

Thank You.

Heritage of Percussion

“Laris Bu..?”, kataku ketika melihat es cendol yang terlihat habis tuntas tas di depanku

“Iya pak, sudah tiga kali balik ke rumah untuk ngambil lagi, tetapi habis terus”, kata sang penjual es cendol yang kukenal sebagai salah satu aktifis kegiatan TDA Bekasi. Ada tulisan Kupat Tahu Bandung di kaos sang penjual dan akupun yakin pasti ada sentuhan pak Ato di kedai es cendol ini.

Kekecewaanku gagal minum es cendol ini akhirnya terobati oleh minuman teh rosela yang dijual di Warung Mas Gun, yang kukenal sebagai aktifis kelompok Mastermind Cikarang 1 [MMC1]. Teh ini terasa lain di lidah, tetapi setelah diminum rasa enaknya mulai terasa di tenggorokan.

Kucoba rasa soto ayam di warung mas Gun ini. Wah rasanya bener-bener makknyoss, lebih maknyus dari soto yang sering kumakan di wilayah Cikarang ini. Aku nggak sanggup lagi nyobain soto yang lain, karena satu soto ini saja sudah membuatku kelimpungan.

Mas Gun senyum-senyum saja melihat tingkahku yang seperti tiga tahun tidak ketemu makanan soto. Rupanya tingkahku ini membuat pembeli lain tertarik untuk membeli soto yang sama dengan yang kubeli.

“Ini enak mbak, yakin deh…”, kataku meyakinkan sang calon pembeli itu.

Aku langsung berdiri setelah selesai makan soto dan sang calon pembelipun akhirnya jadi beli dan duduk di kursi yang kududuki tadi.

Begitu gambaran beberapa stand TDA yang mengikuti acara Heritage of Percusion [HoP]. Akrab dan kualitas dijamin, sehingga para pembeli tidak ragu untuk menyantap apa saja yang dihidangkan oleh teman-teman TDA.

Bakmi Semar yang siang ini ditungguin oleh pak Wawan juga memperoleh pemasukan yang lumayan [berdasar info status Fisbuk dari mbak Win pemilik Warung Bakmi Semar yang juga nggota MMC1].

Sayang aku tidak sempat berjumpa dengan pak DD, ketua Kelompok Mastermind Poksa XI yang ikut membidani munculnya Bakmi Pelangi. Perutku yang sudah full penuh juga membuatku tidak berani mampir di Mie Pelangi. Takut ditawarin dan terpaksa mau [karena susah mencari orang yang sanggup menghindari tawaran makan Mie Perto kalau sudah pernah mengetahui rasanya].

Semua wisata kuliner ini baru bisa kunikmati setelah aku dipuaskan oleh penampilan beberapa pekerja seni yang mengisi acara HoP ini. Dari pagi menjelang siang, kita memang dipuaskan oleh suguhan berbagai macam atraksi, baik dari negara kita maupun dari negara tetangga [India, Korea, Jepang maupun China].

Acara resmi dimulai dengan penampilan dari Marching band [MB] SMA Cikarang Selatan. Sebuah penampilan yang sempurna. Ini wajar mengingat mereka memang sudah beberapa kali menggondol piala kejuaraan MB tingkat nasional.

Salut patut disampaikan kepada pelatih MB ini. Aransemen yang begitu rinci dan padu membuat semua orang merasa penting dalam memunculkan harmonisasi yang luar biasa.

Tidak hanya pemain musiknya, rombongan penaripun punya andil dalam membuat decak kagum penonton. Pasti koreografernya jempolan juga, sehingga mampu memadukan gerak dan lagu dalam paduan MB yang dinamis dan penuh semangat.

Namun jangan salah, karena ternyata lagu “Hening” dari Chrisyepun mereka lahap dengan aransemen yang lembut dan apik. Kegarangan MB sirna dalam lagu itu, yang muncul adalah suasana yang sendu merayu dan mengharu biru.

Penampilan yang tidak kalah seru adalah penampilan permainan angklung bersama. Dalam permainan ini semua penonton diberi sebuah angklung untuk dimainkan bersama-sama dengan mengikuti aba-aba dari instruktur yang ada di atas panggung.

Meski acara angklung ini sukses, namun kalau dirubah sedikit saja mungkin akan lebih sukses lagi, bahkan bisa lebih sukses dibanding acara MB yang begitu rancak dan mengundang decak kagum semua penonton. Lilo yang tidur saat acara belum dimulai terbangun ketika mendengar suara MB dan akhirnya bahkan ikut menari mengikuti irama MB spektakuler itu.

Masukan agar permainan angklung lebih memikat ada beberapa hal, yaitu :
1. Instruktur perlu lebih dekat dengan penonton yang notabene adalah pemain angklung “dadakan” yang harus mengikuti komando simbol-simbol gerakan tangan instruktur. Jauhnya instruktur ini membuat beberapa hadirin tidak bisa mengikuti kode tangan yang disampaikan oleh instruktur.
2. Rombongan anak muda yang dipersiapkan untuk menjadi pelopor permainan angklung ini terlihat kurang bergairah dan bingung dengan aturan yang diterapkan. Mereka tidak tahu dengan pasti harus menghadap kemana dan terlihat serba salah. Sampai-sampai sang instruktur sempat bertanya pada mereka, “Are U there?”. Sebaiknya anak muda ini berbaur saja dengan penonton, sehingga saling bersinergi dan bisa saling memberi semangat.
3. Biasanya setiap nada angklung mewakili sebuah kata yang bermakna, tapi dalam hal ini diwakili dengan not angka, jadi nilai-nilai kebersamaan yang ditunjukkan dalam permainan ini kurang menonjol. Hal ini mungkin karena ditakutkan penonton tidak segera “tune in” dengan permainan angklung, sehingga dibuat jalan mudahnya saja.

Pertunjukan lain masih banyak dan masih beragam, sehingga penonton tidak juga beranjak dari tempat duduknya menyaksikan parade acara yang selalu punya keunikan sendiri-sendiri.

Pak Bupati maupun para petinggi lainnya yang mungkin punya acara lain memang terlihat meninggalkan acara sebelum semua rangkaian acara berakhir, tapi bukan berarti kalau ditinggal pak Bupati acara terus langsung menurun kualitasnya.

Di penghujung acara masih tampil MB dari UI yang sudah punya pengalaman internasional. Hanya beberapa orang saja yang tampil di panggung, tapi permainan MB UI ini sudah cukup memukau penonton. Ketrampilan prima dan pengalaman yang sudah begitu banyak membuat MB UI ini terlihat santai dalam penampilan dan tetap berkarakter. Penonton tanpa undanganpun makin terlihat menyemut di sekitar lokasi acara.

Perut yang keronconganlah yang membuat aku akhirnya meninggalkan kursiku dan menuju ke lokasi teman-teman TDA menjajakan kepiawaiannya dalam berbisnis kuliner.

Yang kutuju pertama kali adalah es cendol dan ternyata tak ada setetespun es cendol yang bisa kuminum. Laris manis deh es cendol di stand KTB pak Ato.

Sukses buat acara HoP, semoga tahun depan diadakan lagi dengan mempergunakan EO yang lebih berpengalaman, sehingga gaungnya lebih jauh dan wisata kuliner yang diadakan bisa lebih ramai dikunjungi pengunjung, minimal mirip dengan kegiatan Komunitas Bangomania, dimana aku menjadi salah satu koordinatornya di wilayah Bekasi bagian Cikarang ini [walah malah narsis, sori ya Wak Radit].

BRAVO Bekasi, “Aku Cinta Bekasi!”

Everyone once in a while we get to be involved in some really cool projects here at Yamaha. Not that every day is not fun of course.. as it is. We do get a “Case of Mondays” just like everyone else. Sometime it’s a job, other times it’s an overload of fun. We have paperwork; budgets to prepare; plans to write; and stuff follow through on of course. That is the gig but we are very happy to be involved in something we love to do. It is not hard to lose site of the fact that not everyone in this world is fortunate enough do what they love to do every day of the year. All of us here on the percussion team are lucky to part of part of a strong brand and great products all the while working with extremely talented people and artists. But these extra projects are like gravy and make it seem all worthwhile. This one is neat.

Yamaha and Disneyland have this corporate relationship going back three to four years now. Yamaha is the official musical instrument supplier of Disneyland in Anaheim, California…. the “Happiest Place on Earth.” There have been cross-promotions that have worked well over this since we started this relationship.

What is really special is when we get to help the folks over at Disney put a new act into the park. Their production folks and Imagineers will have an idea for some new musical production and they come to Yamaha asking if this can be done from an instrument perspective. We always try to find a way to make it happen.

So we’ve been working with the folks over in music production as they prep for their Holiday celebrations. They have a Holiday Brass Band that will be rooming the park playing holiday music for all the guests. It’s a brass quintet of sorts except with a sax player and a drummer. The drummer needed room to walk round the park, hold some sleigh bells and perhaps a triangle, some cymbals, snare drum and whatever else they carry.

Our idea was simple: use existing products and adapt as best we can to make it work. Here’s what we did.

We took a Stage Custom Birch drum set snare drum and made it so we could mount a marching snare drum carrier to it using an ET-CLIP. This adapter is used on the Field-Corps marching snare drum. Then we took three floor tom mounts, the RK-FT, and mounted those to the front of the snare drum.

Now here is gets really cool. The woodwinds department has this fantastic Atelier located in our Buena Park office. It’s kind of like a skunk works for wind instruments. These folks have the ability to make any fine tuning adjustments for mostly professionals players either in LA of when they come through LA. They have the same sort of office in New York on 5th Avenue. So went to them to see if they can help and they were more than happy to lend a hand.

It’s fairly basic. All we needed was to just drill the drums. The percussion team just had no tools to do these ourselves. Hey were just percussion guys and not familiar with your ways of tools and drills and stuff. They have everything. Jeff Peterson, a sort of Benjamin Franklin master craftsman for wind instruments, helped me out. It no time we had the ET-CLIP and the three mounts on the drum. The mounts are to hold a very short cymbal arms and maybe woodblock or jam block. And the drummer can carry it around the park with no issue.

If you happen to go to the park this holiday season and see this group, let me know what you think.

Not just two blog posts in one week, but the second is a video blog post at that. Enjoy this mini-documentary of a component of our activities in Baltimore last week.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break and a few days of travel. This will be the last MILLTONE instrument listed this week. This tunable steel tongue hand drum features a Hammered Light Green coating, inside and out. A Sri Yantra on the inside, MILLTONE lettering  and Chakra symbols on the outside are all custom cut White vinyl.

Model 4G-HLGRN-320, Nov. 17, 2009

Chakras and Sri Yantra

Fun and Easy to Play, Enjoy!

Click here to visit the eBay auction for this MILLTONE steel tongue hand drum.

Thank You

I’ve had this poem by A. A. Milne (creator of Winnie the Pooh) going round my head for days now, so you may as well share in the fun:

The King’s Breakfast

The King asked
The Queen, and
The Queen asked
The Dairymaid:
“Could we have some butter for
The Royal slice of bread?”

The Queen asked the Dairymaid,
The Dairymaid
Said, “Certainly,
I’ll go and tell the cow
Now
Before she goes to bed.”

The Dairymaid
She curtsied,
And went and told the Alderney:
“Don’t forget the butter for
The Royal slice of bread.”

The Alderney said sleepily:
“You’d better tell
His Majesty
That many people nowadays
Like marmalade
Instead.”

The Dairymaid
Said “Fancy!”
And went to
Her Majesty.
She curtsied to the Queen
and
She turned a little red:
“Excuse me,
Your Majesty,
For taking of
The liberty,
But marmalade is tasty, if
It’s very
Thickly
Spread.”

The Queen said
“Oh!”
And went to his Majesty:
“Talking of the butter for
The royal slice of bread,
Many people
Think that
Marmalade
Is nicer.
Would you like to try a little
Marmalade
Instead?”

The King said,
“Bother!”
And then he said,
“Oh, deary me!”
The King sobbed, “Oh, deary me!”
And went back to bed.
“Nobody,”
He whimpered,
“Could call me
A fussy man;
I only want
A little bit
Of butter for
My bread!”

The Queen said,
“There, there!”
And went to
The Dairymaid.
The Dairymaid
Said, “There, there!”
And went to the shed.
The cow said,
“There, there!
I didn’t really
Mean it;
Here’s milk for his porringer
And butter for his bread.”

The queen took the butter
And brought it to
His Majesty.
The King said
“Butter, eh?”
And bounced out of bed.
“Nobody,” he said,
As he kissed her
Tenderly,
“Nobody,” he said,
As he slid down
The banisters,
“Nobody,
My darling,
Could call me
A fussy man -
BUT
I do like a little bit of butter to my bread!“

( A. A. Milne)

Wonderfully rhythmic! The last line is the killer, although i always remember it as: “I do like a little bit of butter on my bread”. Say it out loud and hear the percussiveness:

“I do like uh litt-uhl bit-uhf butt-uh to my bread.”

You have a rhythm created through the shwa vowel sound (uh) and another created through the repetition of the consonant ‘b’. The doubling of  short “i” in “little bit of” causes you to instinctively read that part more quickly creating an internal half-rhyme; and then finally you have the contrast between those two short “i” sounds and the wider, heavier vowel sounds that remain.

The magic of Children’s verse! Actually, it’s even better with pictures – something all Children’s literature should have in my opinion. There’s a page with what look like they could be the original illustrations here, although it’s been too long since i saw them for me to be sure. To be honest, i’d forgotten the poem itself till i ran out of soya milk:

I do like a little drop of soya milk on my muesli.

No. Doesn’t really work, does it.