The 4 Main Ingredients of a Great Cymbal Crash

Hello Everyone!

I hope you had a great end of your summer and are not going too crazy with the start of fall. At least here in Philly we are starting to get some cooler weather, which is beyond exciting.

This is my second video exploring the world of orchestral percussion. After making my first about the triangle, the logical next step was cymbals; which are my favorite percussion instruments. If you have not already checked out the one about the triangle, scroll down and have a look. There are many fine details that go into playing a great cymbal crash, and it takes a life time for a percussionist to master them. Focusing on 4 of these details will hopefully help anyone understand what goes into making a great sound out of hitting 2 metal plates together.

This video is a bit longer than my previous one, and my intention was to (subtly) split the video into 2 halves. The first half should provide someone who is interested in a general overview of the cymbals with enough information to “get it”. The second half provides a few specific musical examples for those who want to dig in further or are a budding percussionist themselves. I opted for this form of presentation, rather than creating a “Part 1 & 2”, so that I would have all of the information about cymbals in one place. My goal was to make the entire (16 minute) video face-paced enough that it would be of interest to a wide variety of experience levels; including non-musicians.

Thanks for checking out my videos and if you have any comments or questions I would be very glad to hear them! If you liked this video I would also greatly appreciate it if you liked, commented, and/or subscribed to this video and my channel on YouTube. Stay tuned for some more videos coming your way which will hopefully be released in the next few weeks.

-Dave

What You Should Know About Playing Orchestral Triangle

It's more than just a "DING!" Take a dive with me into the world of orchestral percussion. Playing the triangle in an orchestra can be quite tricky, and here are a few reasons why.

This is the first in a series of videos I have planned that will dive deeper into various aspects of orchestral percussion. I figured the triangle was the easiest entry point into this world because of the different types of attention it gets, even in popular culture. My hope is that people who are already interested in classical music, and might not know that much about percussion or the triangle, will gain a certain level of deeper understanding through watching this. I also think back to when I was getting deeper into this world during the last couple years of high school, and was hungry for more information. I had this period of my life in mind when I made this video, and hopefully any other budding percussionists will find it useful for the beginning stages of their percussion education. For those who are already experienced musicians or seasoned professionals, perhaps this could be used as a tool to help answer the question of “What do you even do as an orchestral percussionist?” In any case, if you enjoy the video please help me out by doing the usual actions of liking the video and subscribing to my channel on YouTube. Better yet, if you know someone who you think this would be useful for (students, family members, non-musician friends, etc.), I would be very honored if you shared this with them! If you have any thoughts or additional points about this I would also be glad to hear them.

Thanks for watching!

Reverse Paradiddle in Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

This video is for any beginning percussionists and drummers who are learning about rudiments for the first time. It is important to remember that rudiments come up in real life situations of all styles of music, including orchestral music. If you know how to play a paradiddle, then this example of a reverse paradiddle in Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is a really exciting moment to check out.