Timpani Exercises Part III: Floating the Pedal
+ a Notation Poll: I need your help!
Just when you thought it wasn’t possible to get more timpani content!
Recently, MikeDrop sat down with Ian Sullivan, timpanist of the New York City Ballet, for a wide-ranging discussi—- ok, ok, the conversation it was mostly focused on timpani playing, but it was still interesting!
During the show, Ian recommended a few exercises he did with his teacher Markus Rhoten. Here’s Markus destroying a practice pad:
I could watch that stroke all day!
Tuning
Ian described using the tuning exercises from the Friese-Lepak book with a few modifications.
Examples:
Rhoten asked his students to play the exercise 3 ways:
As written.
Cutting the written multi-measure rests in half (2 measures instead of 4 in the first example).
Removing all multi-measure rests.
With no rests, the timpanist moves quickly and intuitively between the pitches, focusing on developing a connection between ear and pedal.
Floating, Not Gloating
For these and other situations, Ian also described “floating the pedal,” where timpanists keep their pedals unlocked to allow for instantaneous pitch adjustment while playing. This practice helps timpanists ensure that pitch remains steady even when playing at the extremes of the range (loud at the bottom range, pitch goes up; loud at the top of the range, pitch goes down), as well as at the extremes of volume (loud → generally sharper, etc.). While standard among professional timpanists, it’s rarely practiced by students, particularly those accustomed to playing on balanced-action timpani. Give it a try with these exercises, and you might find your sense of pitch becoming more sensitive!
The exercises Ian suggested make a nice counterpart to the common-tone tuning exercise I shared in a previous post:
Try it pedals unlocked!
II. A Poll
I’m completing work on my snare drum book and have turned my eye towards engraving. I feel like I’m sitting in the optometrist’s chair, so I thought I’d ask the opinion of my expert readers. What’s your favorite of these options?
Example 1
Example 2
Please let me know what fixes you might suggest to maximize legibility for these.
III. Things I like this week
This GIANT pencil. Normally, I’m a Stabilo 88 person, but this incandescent green pencil checks all the boxes. Huge lead (1.3mm, far wider than my typical .9) for intentional marking, triangular shape (reminiscent of my grade school pencils and the good old Dr. Grip) for comfort, and cute, non-mechanical-pencil form factor.
Readers will know that I love Sandwiches of History. Here’s a kindred account: Cookin’ with Congress, whose progenitor draws upon primary sources to cook an entire day’s worth of meals that might have been eaten by US presidents, first ladies, and other notable politicians. The Taft edition goes HARD!
You all know I love maps, but I love MORE than maps is aerial photos of European cities. Cadiz 😍