Pit Instruments

[hiccups05]

What are the necessary peices of equipment for a young pit...

What instrument should they have and how many octives and all that other info...

any info will help

[hiccups05]

ne 1???

[bdpit2000]

Asking what is necessary, is a very hard question to determine. It's a very case by case basis and there are probably a wide variety of opinions. What instruments you use would be determined by:

1) your show; basically what kind of timbres you want to get out of that specific field show, like are you going to want to use more metallic sounds vs. wood sounds;

2) your finances; what can you afford; this will always take precedence over everything else.

Most of the top drum corps pits of today have 8-10 players with at least 3 marimbas, 3 vibes, 1 glock, and 1 xylo. Many have 4 or 5 marimbas/vibes w/ 1-2 xylos/glocks. Then there are chimes, crotales, timpani, and all the auxiliary percussion.

In regard to number of octaves, the standards for these pits are usually:

>marimba: 4-5 octaves, 4 1/3 being the most common

>vibes: 3 octaves (very rarely more)

>xylos: about 3 1/2 octaves (I can't remember), sometimes smaller ones mounted on the marimbas are used

>glocks: vary pretty greatly, but a common one would be maybe 2 1/2 octaves

It's pretty much impossible to determine what is "necessary" for a young pit. It's pretty much whatever you can afford. If you can afford it, get a drum corps size pit. If you can't, try to get at least 1-2 of everything so the kids can have experience with the various mallet instruments and such.

Edited May 5, 2004 by bdpit2000

[hiccups05]

Thanks for your info...

[Professor]

Even though it’s a total semantics issue … most people I know, when referring to a “glock” (or “glockenspiel”), are talking about a bell lyra (which, years ago, had a harsher sound than bells because of the way the bars were molded). I think you will find the more common term for the type of “gloc” that Stan is referring to is “bells” (or “orchestra bells”). That’s how the manufacturers usually refer to them.

If I recall correctly, in the literal translation, any sort of bell that is struck by a mallet is called a glockenspiel, even a clock tower or chimes. In fact, I think in German, the act of playing the bells is called glockenspiel. Anyway, like I said … semantics.

God I’m anal.