Orchestral Snare Drum tricks:
a) Many snare drums that are used can cause
some irritating problems. One of the biggest is when you are playing and
you are not producing a clean sharp sound, though instead it buzzes. There
are many ways to stop this. One of the easiest is to place a cloth or to
fold 5 tissues and tape them down, covering the top of the drum.
b) When in an orchestra and not playing you should always turn the snares off, as the constant vibration is quite annoying and can spoil the mood. This fixes the problem as the snares release from the skin, then leaving nothing to vibrate.
c) When playing an orchestral snare drum you should always have it slightly tilted towards the player so that when the stick comes down for the down strike a rim-shot is not put into action. A better and cleaner way to accomplish a rim shot is to hold on to one stick, raising it and resting the tip on the skin and you bring the other stick over and strike. This is a guaranteed rim-shot
Triangle tricks:
a) When playing a triangle you should always
strike it near the top on the opposite side in which the triangle opens
up and becomes two pieces of metal. By hitting in this spot you wont get
a awful and rusty sound, instead a bright sound.
b) Holding a triangle can also cause a lot of problems. For example if you are in an ensemble when you are playing more than one percussion instrument, and you don't have enough time to pick the triangle up. In this case you could buy a triangle holder for about $10. This can be put on a music stand.
c) Triangles are known as a soft peaceful instrument. Though many people when playing triangle don't hold it up in the air. A trick is to hold it up so the light sound can carry. Otherwise you will have to hit the triangle harder to get the same projection though the quality wouldn't be the same.
Timpani tricks:
a) When dampening timpani's there are many
things you need to take into account. I believe that when dampening you
should press lightly though in the right spot. This is around the area
in which you struck the note.
b) When replacing a head of a timpani many
people use candle wax to secure the new timp head.
This is a better way than sticky tape as
when changing notes on a timp the sticky tape makes a cracking noise.
c) As i have mentioned timpani mallets are expensive and they need to be taken care of. When finishing using timp mallets you should always put them back in their plastic bag. When timpani mallets do start to become fluffy it isn't a good idea to start giving it a hair cut. Inside gently, place the head in your hand and with the other hand turn the mallet around, by this the loose ends gather back on the stick.
d) A trick when tuning timpani's is if you arrant 100% happy with the first note you produce instead of sliding down or up you should drop the pedal to the bottom and work up the gauge in one stroke.
Mallet tricks:
a) When putting mallets in a stick bag you
should always have a cloth divider to separate the two main compartments.
This is so as if you have worn down drumsticks the fragments of wood can
rub against mallets and ware them down.
b) When buying mallets in such countries as Australia you can seriously get ripped off. So instead it pays to order through the USA.
