the Marimbist

(A quick note to my family and friends:  This blog is intended to be a professional blog.  This post if the first of what will be MOST of my content–information and ideas for percussionists.  You’re welcome to read it, but it might be a bit boring if you’re not a percussionist.  You’ve been warned)

The concept of non-pitched instruments is a bit of a misnomer.  Snare drums and bass drums have pitches.  The beautiful sound of a fine triangle consists of many high-frequency pitches clashing together.  All instruments (pianos, violins, clarinets, etc.) consist of a combination of higher-frequency tones that we call overtones.  The difference between a violin (for instance) and non-pitched percussion instruments is that the ratio between the fundamental (lowest pitch) and the overtones (those higher-frequency parts of the tone) on the violin are small whole numbers (at least for the lower and more audible overtones).  This is beginning to be a departure from what I wanted to talk about here, but I want to include this brief discussion to illustrate the point that non-pitched percussion instruments DO have pitches, we just choose to ignore them because they are a different kind of pitch than that produced by the other instruments in (for instance) an orchestra.

When I was first experimenting with composing for drums, I didn’t know any of the information in that first paragraph.  I was extremely puzzled by the fact that when I composed for two drums one or the other of them sounded like a “final” pitch.  There were absolutely (harmonic-sounding) cadences between the drums, and I was mesmerized by the fact that if I ended a line on one particular drum the line would sound incomplete (like a half cadence—although I didn’t know the term at the time).  I would use that half cadence to create a “question” phrase, then end the subsequent “answer” phrase on the other drum.  All of my music theory knowledge at that point was subconscious (except rhythmic theory) and I didn’t even know the term “period” to use as a name for these antecedent-consequent phrases, but the subconscious knowledge was giving me hints and it was working to make my compositions sound “correct.”

I think the best way to use this information is to let your ear do its work.  Compose MELODIES with your drums and make those melodies sound good to your ear—allow them to have a shape and to question/answer each other.  Listen to great melodic composers (Those who inspire me most are: Beethoven, Stravinsky, Bartok, Tchaikovsky, and Shostakovich) and analogize what they did with pitches into what you are doing with “pseudo-pitches!”  Too many percussion pieces rely on simple repetition to generate content and it is my firm belief that we need to think more long-term-melodically when we are composing.  I like Minimalism.  Its ease-of-use has its place (and I’ve used it myself), but it is not the only way to compose for percussion.   Too many times it has represented the “easy way out” for percussion composers that haven’t yet struggled with the concept of melody for non-pitched instruments.  It’s time for us to wrestle this issue to the ground and to escape from the tyranny of repetition in our compositions!

Now to get off my soapbox and to move on with a more pragmatic note:  In the previous paragraph, I said “let your ear do its work,” but (to supplement your ear) here is some helpful information that I’ve picked up from studying/teaching music theory.  If you have two drums where the primary pitches are a half-step apart, then the top one will be your tonic (final, release, closing, answering tone) and the lower one will be your dominant (leading-tone, tension, opening, questioning tone).  If the tones are a whole-step apart, then your bottom note will be the tonic and the upper one will serve as a dominant-ish note.  Major and minor third intervals act as a tonic and a motion away from that tonic (but without changing chords).  Fourths and fifths are tonic and dominant by default (and you’d probably better match them to the key if you’re playing with pitched instruments).  Tritones will sound like the third and seventh of a dominant chord and they should be treated carefully for that reason.  Larger intervals can work, but you’ll need to use your ear on them and they don’t make for very good melodic writing.

The interesting thing is that these “tones” are so different from the pitches of other instruments that they (in all except the strongest cases) can function alongside regular music theory in whatever key the other instruments are playing.

Have fun and COMPOSE!  Melodically.  Please.

Bonus Link:  At the time of writing, there were NO returns in google for this link’s search…

Bonus Link II.

Tags: composition, drums, melody, melody for non-pitched percussion, minimalism, non-pitched percussion, percussion

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 2:22 am and is filed under Percussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.