makinao
Silver Member
In this day and age of recordings and sound reinforcement, I often feel that too few people have a chance to hear acoustic musical instruments without electronic intervention. So I decided to bring two of my cymbals (a new 16" Stagg Traditionals China, and a 70's 16" A. Zildjian Thin Crash) to my college Art Studies 1 class (Humanities 1 in most other local universities) for a lecture on timbre. I chose cymbals because I felt they are grossly misunderstood. Their subtleties are hard to record and amplify, and much of popular music does not call for them.
First, I showed my students the three main parts of a cymbal. Then I played each part using mallets, cool rods, brushes, and drumsticks, in a full range of dynamics from pianisimo to fortissimo (mostly soft however, in deference to the classes next door). Each cymbal part/beater/playing force combination not only produced a variety of broad spectra and dynamics, but a few discrete pitches as well. Then I explained how I chose each of them from the same set of models which were available in the store at the time. Finally, I explained to them each cymbal has a unique timbre, and that each musician will select a particular cymbal based on his/her own timbral preferences. I gave my age-old story that some of my drummer friends can actually tell these particular cymbals are mine just by hearing them.
I don't know exactly how my students reacted to the demonstration, so I am waiting to find out if any of them will write about it in their weekly free-for-all-topic reflection papers. But I personally enjoyed demonstrating many of the delicate nuances of cymbals, which often gets lost in electronically amplified, processed, and recorded music.
First, I showed my students the three main parts of a cymbal. Then I played each part using mallets, cool rods, brushes, and drumsticks, in a full range of dynamics from pianisimo to fortissimo (mostly soft however, in deference to the classes next door). Each cymbal part/beater/playing force combination not only produced a variety of broad spectra and dynamics, but a few discrete pitches as well. Then I explained how I chose each of them from the same set of models which were available in the store at the time. Finally, I explained to them each cymbal has a unique timbre, and that each musician will select a particular cymbal based on his/her own timbral preferences. I gave my age-old story that some of my drummer friends can actually tell these particular cymbals are mine just by hearing them.
I don't know exactly how my students reacted to the demonstration, so I am waiting to find out if any of them will write about it in their weekly free-for-all-topic reflection papers. But I personally enjoyed demonstrating many of the delicate nuances of cymbals, which often gets lost in electronically amplified, processed, and recorded music.