The Legato Stroke as a Universal Approach to Playing Percussion:

A Method for non-percussionists to help Percussionists

The Legato Stroke: A method of playing percussion with a connected feeling in the stroke that achieves a fluidity of movement.

Benefits:Tone: The Legato Stroke requires a relaxed approach to be executed correctly.

This relaxation allows the playing implement (stick or mallet) to vibrate freely thus letting the instrument being struck to vibrate freely as well.

Transferable: It is possible to easily execute the Legato Stroke on nearly all of the major instruments in the percussion family. There are numerous artists that extol the Legato approach for these major instruments. The methods of these artists are standard in the instructional pedagogy for percussionists. For more information explore the following sources:

1. Concert Snare Drum: Bill Meligari, “The Gladstone Technique,” Modern Percussionist (August/September 1979): 42-43.

2. Mallets: Stevens, Leigh Howard, Method of Movement for Marimba, Asbury Park: Keyboard Percussion Publications, 1990.

3. Timpani: Hinger, Fred, Techniques for the Virtuoso Tympanist, Hackensack: Jerona Music Corporation, 1975.

4. Marching Percussion: Bachman, Bill, Rudimental Logic 3.0: A Guide to the Art of Rudimental Drumming, Nashville: Row-Loff Productions, 2006.

The Stroke:

The Stroke should be considered as Down-Up

Basic Stroke Shape (Stevens 17)Copyright © Jered Sherrill 2008

Home Base: Starting above the instrument and returning to that height, it’s best to begin with one hand at a time using the rebound to return the stick to Home Base using only the wrist.

Home Base on Snare Drum Home Base on Mallets Home Base on Timpani

The Ball: Envisioning bouncing a ball to achieve the fluidity of the stroke is a common technique. (Hinger 2, Meligari 42) Again focusing on using the wrist only.

Removing the back fingers to let the stick or mallet swing freely is also a to show the action of the rebound and apply the action of the ball. This shows the student that fingers are not needed to achieve a good rebound as well as forcing them to be aware of the effects of gravity on the legato stroke.

*A special consideration for mallets: Due to the lack of rebound on mallet instruments one must “manufacture” the rebound. The principal of returning to home base still applies.

The String: Stretching a string over the instrument at the level of the chosen home base is a good way to check the consistency of stroke height.

Wrist and Arm: Two responsibilities1. Wrist: Vertical Movement (Up and Down)2. Arm: Horizontal Movement (Side to Side)

Shifting on Mallets Shifting on Timpani

*A Word About Marching Percussion: Contrary to popular belief these concepts explained from the “concert percussion” perspective all work very well on marching percussion. Only one major adjustment needs to be made: For uniformity and visual appeal, the wrist does not rise when a succession of notes comes to an end or a single stroke is played. (See Bachman’s discussion of “Down/Up Stroke and the “Full Stroke, Down-Stroke, and Up-Stroke” pg. 16-18. The important language is “the wrist does not rise” as opposed to “hold the stick down” to retain the needed relaxation.

Identifying the Problems:

Most problems will arise from not executing the “Down-Up” stroke (stopping the wrist down) and getting the fingers too involved.

Problem: Exchange: One mallet stopping down while the other is up when alternating.

Solution: Using Home Base, The String, Playing the Stroke Slow.

Problem: Half-Rise: The stick rebounds but the wrist stays down or, on a mallet instrument, the stroke does not rise fully back to home base.

Half-Rise Rebound Half-Rise Mallets (Stevens 17)

Solution: Full wrist stroke, checking neutral wrist, Home-Base

Sticks on Surface to Neutral Wrists Adjust Wrist

Problem: Finger Acceleration: This applies to the full stroke on drums and on mallets. It occurs when the fingers accelerate the stick or mallet to the surface rather than the wrist.

Solution: Move wrist and hand with the stick and keep the fingers next to the hand.