Arranging for Pit/Battery

[Brad T.]

Alright, first, I must say that I know very little about percussion. My main area is brass. So this is an exercise in expanding my horizons...

I'm attempting to take a concert piece and turn it into a corps or marching band arrangement. The brass parts were a cakewalk for me, but then comes the part of the score I never like looking at because it usually gives me a headache: percussion. I can read percussion music, but barely play it, and often I find it difficult to concentrate on an individual part when multiple are thrown on one line.

The particular score I'm working from has Mallet I (Xylo, Chimes, Bells) and Mallet II (Marimba, Chimes, Bells), Timpani, Perc I (Snare, Bass, Triangle) and Perc II (Sys. Cym, Whip, Tambourine, Triangle, Guiro, Vibra slap, Cr. Cym. Gong, Mark tree and Finger Cym.)

The first step I took in my notation software was to expand each of these out into their own staves to 1. get proper playback and 2. easier see when who is playing what.

Now, going into this would have been impossible except for the wonderful people who made my software. As part of their tutorials, they included a tutorial on syncing a score to a video clip. The score and clip were the first minute of SCV's 2004 Scheherazade show. In that I noticed upwards of 10 pit parts: timpani, concert bass, xylophone, about 3 marimba parts and like 4 vibe parts, with all of the aux. percussion thrown in.

Now for my questions:

1. How many pieces of aux. percussion can a beginner/intermediate/advanced player handle per piece?

2. What is the shortest turn around between switching between mallets and aux. percussion, or between different pieces of aux? One measure? One phrase? Etc.

3. If the concert snare has an extended run, can/should that be doubled by battery snares? Or should there only be battery snares and no concert snare?

4. Same applies for the concert bass drum. Should it only be used for big hits, or everywhere it was originally written?

5. On average, how many separate parts are there in a pit ensemble? Does each performer have a custom piece or are there occasions where two or more players may be playing a generic "Marimba 1" part?

My DCA corps does not have a traditional pit this season, and my score thus far is geared more towards an open class DCI style corps. The music isn't particularly difficult, but there are things that electronics would be needed for to do on a field.

Thanks for any help!

[euphononium]

Alright, first, I must say that I know very little about percussion. My main area is brass. So this is an exercise in expanding my horizons...

I'm attempting to take a concert piece and turn it into a corps or marching band arrangement. The brass parts were a cakewalk for me, but then comes the part of the score I never like looking at because it usually gives me a headache: percussion. I can read percussion music, but barely play it, and often I find it difficult to concentrate on an individual part when multiple are thrown on one line.

The particular score I'm working from has Mallet I (Xylo, Chimes, Bells) and Mallet II (Marimba, Chimes, Bells), Timpani, Perc I (Snare, Bass, Triangle) and Perc II (Sys. Cym, Whip, Tambourine, Triangle, Guiro, Vibra slap, Cr. Cym. Gong, Mark tree and Finger Cym.)

The first step I took in my notation software was to expand each of these out into their own staves to 1. get proper playback and 2. easier see when who is playing what.

Now, going into this would have been impossible except for the wonderful people who made my software. As part of their tutorials, they included a tutorial on syncing a score to a video clip. The score and clip were the first minute of SCV's 2004 Scheherazade show. In that I noticed upwards of 10 pit parts: timpani, concert bass, xylophone, about 3 marimba parts and like 4 vibe parts, with all of the aux. percussion thrown in.

Now for my questions:

1. How many pieces of aux. percussion can a beginner/intermediate/advanced player handle per piece?

2. What is the shortest turn around between switching between mallets and aux. percussion, or between different pieces of aux? One measure? One phrase? Etc.

3. If the concert snare has an extended run, can/should that be doubled by battery snares? Or should there only be battery snares and no concert snare?

4. Same applies for the concert bass drum. Should it only be used for big hits, or everywhere it was originally written?

5. On average, how many separate parts are there in a pit ensemble? Does each performer have a custom piece or are there occasions where two or more players may be playing a generic "Marimba 1" part?

My DCA corps does not have a traditional pit this season, and my score thus far is geared more towards an open class DCI style corps. The music isn't particularly difficult, but there are things that electronics would be needed for to do on a field.

Thanks for any help!

1. I've written and taught pit parts for several intermediate groups..I think the average pit member in those groups could handle somewhere between 1 and 3 auxiliary instruments in addition to their own keyboard + a cymbal. Your best opportunity for accessories is in the rack players. I've been lucky enough to have had some wonderfully eager drumset players on rack in my experiences. The more stuff in front of them the better.

2. Transition time depends on several things. Obviously, the more you can mount on the keyboard, the more you can do in less time. I've played on a vibraphone that had a suspended cymbal, a splash cymbal, crotales, and a concert snare mounted to it. This would have been completely impossible without those being mounted to my board. If the chimes can't be played by an "accessory" person, then the mallet player would need at least two measures to get to the chimes and be ready with hammer(s). For "on board" accessories, only a few beats are required at the most.

3. Concert snare parts should almost never be doubled on the field. Timing and different timbres cause a lot of problems. One blaring exception would be Mahler's 2nd a la Phantom Regiment in 2006. Concert snares in the pit need to be like sprinkles on the cake..not even icing, JUST the sprinkles.

4. Generally concert bass drums aren't used very extensively for marching stuff. It can be used subtly, but the majority of its use will be for big hits.

5. You can write two ways - for the instrument, or for the player. I usually write for the instruments..it is a lot easier sometimes, but I haven't really written for groups that have large amounts of stuff at their disposal. I can see where having tons of stuff for one person to do would make it much easier to write a personal part, but to me it is just easier to write the instrument part and then figure out how to have it covered once I have all the parts done and the bodies there. Unlike the big DCI corps, personnel changes and holes are pretty common in DCA corps and marching bands.

6. Good luck!

Edited August 19, 2010 by euphononium

[HornsUp]

A. A lot of the stuff I see on the field is the same part for all 4 Marimbas, or all 4 Vibes. I see very little good layered writing.

B. Don't be afraid to write rests. Corps percussion writing has always been ridiculously dense.

C. When changing instruments, allow enough rest time for something to be dropped and retrieved.

[Brad T.]

Another one I forgot is chords. Each person can play up to four notes, doing that weird double sticking thing I can't figure out. What is range of each hand (5ths, octaves) and how often do intervals played change (example: a quarter note beat of 16th notes has a divisi. Top notes move stepwise, bottom four notes are a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 3rd lower than top notes. Is this easily accomplished? Or do intervals typically remain constant for an extended series of measures?

[pearlsnaredrummer77]

Overall, I'm getting the feeling that you are basically taking the concert music and trying to transcribe it into a marching percussion arrangement. You may want to reconsider re-imagining the piece for a field ensemble. Since percussion is not your specialty, try working with someone who is a percussionist (or at least a talented drummer in your line). That way you can see if the parts make sense to play. What I've found from a lot of printed concert music is that the parts are not all that well written in the first place and it digs a hole for your battery in particular.

[mgarside83]

I've been teaching competitive high school percussion sections for about 9 years now. Along the way I've learned a few things that I apply. In terms of battery, I would throw away the concert arrangement for them and work from scratch. Sometimes, I will "imitate" a concert percussion part if it was something I liked or was necessary to the piece. For the most part though, concert percussion parts don't translate over to battery very well. There are all kinds of things to consider when writing for a battery. Understanding bass line writing, what works well and what doesn't, is necessary. Usually with high school, I write to the talent of the line, and try to distribute parts by voicing and the talent level of the player on that particular drum. Bass 2 is usually where I put my most talented bass drummer, as this drum usually has a lot of off-beat parts and the top drums can contribute more rudimental music, where as the bottom is more for impact and body of sound. For tenors, you have to think about voicing and arm motion. I've seen many writers, many of them percussionists, who write what voicing they want to hear on tenors, but give no thought to arm motion around the drums and write impossible parts. Usually by being creative with sticking, you can accomplish any voicing you want from them. Marching snares are generally a more rudimental approach than concert percussion parts. Marching snare parts are usually much more dense than a concert snare would part would be. This is for many reasons, as far as I can tell. One being they are outside, so the resonance of a concert hall is gone completely, so to make up for the missing voice, the writing is more dense. Another would be to achieve high demand scores. Also, the tuning of a marching is snare is much more articulate, so playing more notes is much easier to hear and achieve. The rebound of the drum also makes it easier to control dense writing.

For the pit, I generally write no more than 3 keyboard parts at a time. If it is a louder section of the piece, where the keys need to have a big sound, I might only write one unison part for marimbas and vibes. Generally though, I write a marimba part and a vibe part. I only really use xylophone sparingly, same as bells and chimes, so I usually have one player cover all 3 of those parts. Then I usually have a Timpani player and 2 players that cover rack, concert bass drum, synth, and tam tam. The rack is a marimba frame we outfitted with whatever implements we want for that particular show. This year we have the rack set up with 8 different cymbals, a soprano snare, bongos, a break drum, 2 cowbells, windchimes, and 2 concert toms. Having all of these mounted to a marimba frame (without the marimba) makes it much easier to get all this stuff on and off the field. I also generally mount a cymbal to each keyboard, for the keyboard players to have access to for ensemble crescendos and intense impacts. Split cymbal choke parts throughout the pit section can create really cool stereophonic effects for you, and help color accented parts in the battery, or even the winds. When writing, I generally beef up a concert part if I like it, or sometimes I throw away the concert part and write from scratch.

My high school line has 2 marimba players, 2 vibes, 1 player covering xylo, chimes and bells, 1 timpani player, 1 full time rack player and 1 synth and rack player. Currently the battery is 2 snares, 2 tenors and 4 bass drums. My goal is to get 4 snares, 3 tenors and 5 bass drums next year, but keep the pit generally the same size it is now. I wouldn't mind having a 3rd marimba though. That would be my ideal high school section.

A lot goes into designing a good marching percussion section. I usually try to write for the players' talent level. Slightly above their heads so we have something to work for through the season, but achievable at the same time. This way they don't get bored, they improve their skills, and it help maximize their competitive success when they are maxing out their skills at the highest level of demand they can perform by the end fo the season. It's always a guess as to how good they will be at the end of the season. If things are clean at band camp, that's usually not a good thing. However, if they are not even readable, that's a bad thing too.

Hope this helps!

[gbass598]

Something to consider if you have multiple keyboard players.

if they are playing the same part in certain places in the music, try having them play in different octaves. I've used that with some success to help give the keyboard parts more of a presence when needed in the music. Don't double the entire part and octave up or down but if it effective when used correctly.

regarding the use of 4 mallets. A lot of that depends on the skill of the players. if they use Stevens Grip, an octave reach in one hand is possible but not always recommended, especially for inexperienced players. The interval of a 5th is usually the most confortable and if the player is able to handle it, they can easily change intervals using the grip. A lot of that depends on the speed of the music if they can change the interval quickly and comfortably.

[mgarside83]

Another one I forgot is chords. Each person can play up to four notes, doing that weird double sticking thing I can't figure out. What is range of each hand (5ths, octaves) and how often do intervals played change (example: a quarter note beat of 16th notes has a divisi. Top notes move stepwise, bottom four notes are a 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 3rd lower than top notes. Is this easily accomplished? Or do intervals typically remain constant for an extended series of measures?

Octaves are possible, but not comfortable, esp. for the average high school player. It's also hard to get much sound out of octaves. 3rds, 4ths, and 5ths are in a comfortable range. 6ths too. Generally in high school a lot of 3rds and 5ths are used. 2nds are achievable too, but these can be awkward for a younger player. I would try to keep them at the same intervals as much as possible, but if they are talented players, you can change intervals as much as they can handle while being able to produce a good quality of sound. You also want to make sure you are not writing overlapping parts for the right and left hands. Both hands should move up and down the keyboard together, generally speaking anyway. Talented players can do some pretty cool things, but you have to walk before you can run.

Indepentend 4 mallet strokes are fun to have, but if the players are not at a point where they can achieve this with good quality of sound, this isn't necessary. They can achieve a rolling sound by simply playing one hand at a time, each hand striking 2 notes simultaneously. Sure, independent strokes sound better, but it is much hard to achieve shaping a big sound with independent work.

For 4 mallet grip I use steven's grip for all 4 mallet parts on vibe or marimba. This makes technique easier to clean across the section and it is an easy grip for changing intervals. I don't see anything wrong with this. Some people I've heard argue that Burton grip is the grip of choice for vibes, but I disagree. The simpler the better. In my experience, high school players pick up steven's grip much faster and do it better than burton's grip. Then you only have to worry about one technique across the board, which I think looks better too. Makes life easier for you if you only have one technique to worry about.

Hope this helps!

[mgarside83]

Another thing to think about with the pit. I always try to visualize what it will look like whent hey are playing. This way you can map out who can move to other stations to play a different part. Mapping out instrument tranisitions can help you maximize the musical contribution every player can make. It's also a lot harder to figure this stuff out once it is already written, as you usually end up cutting someone off of a part that you really didn't want to when originally writing it.

[BanditKir]

I think the short answer for all of your questions is "depends on what kind of instruction they get..." but I'll go ahead and try and elaborate.

1. How many can they physically hold or how many can they get the technique down in a given season? For the first part, it really depends on what kind of equipment you have... If you have mallet bags hanging from the keyboard then they can keep some small toys in the bags. If they don't then you have to think about how hard is it going to be to move everything. Once you get parents involved, god bless them but believe me you'll have castanets and tambourines rolling down hills after every show if you don't have proper methods of transportation.

As far as technique goes it depends on what kind of percussion instruction the kids are getting... Since my kids have a dedicated pit instructor (me) I'll probably be giving them 2 or 3 aux stuff to the keyboard players (who I would put in the intermediate category) and I have one person, who is playing rack, who I will probably try to give as many things as I can fit. You should try and hazard a guess as to what technique the kids are familiar. For example, almost no ethnic percussion is taught in my school district so probably won't load them down with difficult conga, timbale parts.

These numbers can obviously range greatly. Last year I had a kid who was a special ed student who I pretty much only gave suspended cymbal and wind chime parts. He was a good kid and worked hard to learn where the parts went, but I had to give him things where rhythmic accuracy wouldn't be an issue.

2. Depends on what they are switching to and tempo of the piece. I would suggest just timing it for yourself. There aren't too many special techniques to learn to make the switch easier. There are certain ways you can cheat... i.e., it's possible to use xylo mallets on chimes, keep bell mallets on the outside of four mallet technique for switching between vibes and crotales, etc. In my experience high school kids will almost always complain that they don't have enough time, even if you give them all day. Often times they just need to practice it. It's common for beginner players to finish the phrase on one instrument and have to think about where they are going next... if there's no hesitation in their movement and they still can't make it then you can always just take some notes out. Trust me, this happens all the time.

Another thing to consider is how you want your pit to look... some consider it bad form to have your pit running to get to a bass drum/gong hit, though this is really just a stylistic preference. Long strides are usually adequate for getting from one place to another.

3. I'd advise against it... especially if you're in a circuit where there's no percussion judge on the field, the concert snare might end up making the battery on the field sound dirty, even if the players are perfectly together.

4. I say go crazy. Concert bass drum is good for all sorts of accents, especially when muffling is used, not just the big hits.

5. Not sure if this will answer your question but pretty much the standard for drum corps arranging is this (I grouped the parts that generally play the same exact thing):

Marimba 1 & 2 (your center two marimbas)

Marimba 3 & 4 (your outside marimbas, playing an octave below Marimba 1 & 2)

Vibes 1 & 2 (your vibes closest to the center/marimbas)

Vibes 3 & 4 (vibes on the outside, playing an octave below the marimbas)

Xylo (often playing or accenting what marimba 1 & 2 are playing)

Bells (often playing or accenting what vibes 1 & 2 are playing)

Timani

Auxilary stuff

Obviously there's lots of variations going on, but this is pretty much how parts are approached with the variations put in when needed. I.e., There should be a reason why marimbas 3 & 4 are playing something different from 1 & 2 or vibe 1 is playing a solo line.

Essentially, even though you see lots of players on the field, you're pretty much dealing with a marimba book, doubled, divided in octaves and doubled again, and vibe book, same deal.

And for your last question, it depends a little bit on what octave of the instrument they are in/what instrument they are on. In general, the hand naturally falls around a fourth to a fifth and gets less comfortable as you go either smaller or bigger. Doing double stops (both mallets at the same time) isn't effected as much going bigger or smaller but doing rotations is pretty restricted as you get smaller than a major third.

Things get a little difficult around a seventh and you might not want to venture into that territory if you're not familiar with 4 mallet technique yourself. You should probably find someone to check it out for you and tell you how comfortable it is. There's actually a position in Stevens grip (one of the two major 4 mallet grips) called an octave lock which "locks" the mallets in an octave position to make playing a little easier. However, this is an octave around the lower end of a marimba and more like a tenth in the upper end.

When writing rotations (playing consecutive notes) you're a lot more free since the players hands can move in between notes.

That's about all I got (without feeling like I'm blabbing on forever lol)... I hope this helps!