what is a good warm up?
TRANSCRIPT
What is a good warm up?
Warming up serves several purposes. First, it allows you to re-aquaint yourself with your instrument each day. As a timpanist, it helps to get your wrists and fingers loose. Start by setting your drums in a manner that allows freedom of movement. For most exercises, you should be seated with your elbows higher than the drum heads, and your feet able to reach each pedal.
But warming up is also for your ears and your mind as well. When playing long tones, listen to yourself (are your rolls even?), the players in front of you (are you blending in with bass voices?), and the ensemble (is your volume appropriately balanced to the other instruments?). Listen to the way your pitch matches others every time you play, and try to determine if your sound is lower, higher, or the same as others. If it's different, make a slight adjustment by pedaling up or dwon slightly while playing and see if that helps. If you're not sure which way to adjust, guess! Try adjusting one way - if that makes the pitch match better, it was correct; if it made it worse, you should adjust the other way. Listen for and pratice good attacks to each note, followed by clean releases (always dampening the drums), together with the ensemble.
A good warm up should include: Long tones (roll & finger warm up for timpanists) Slurs (as fourth and fifth tuning exercises) Key exercises (to help establish which drums to use in keys you'll be playing in) Chorales (for ensemble listening) Tuning (constant for a timpanist!)
Doing some form of the above combinations every time you to play will always result in a better practice session or performance, and will improve your playing!
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"LANDMARK" NOTES
Daily Warm-Ups for second-year bandGREAT BEGINNINGS
SECTION I - LONG TONES
LONG TONES 1
LONG TONES 2
LONG TONES 3
LONG TONES 4
Matching pitch - Start by setting the drum you'll use (indicated by D1, D2, D3, or D4, for smallest to largest drums), then listen to match the half step pitch drop in each measure. Keep track of how far you need to move the pedal for each half step. Note - many exercises will work with just two drums.
Different ways to vary this exercise include the following:
TIMPANI Steve Graves
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SLURS 1
SECTION 2 - SLURS
SLURS 2
SLURS 3
SECTION 3 - INTONATION EXERCISES
F INTONATION EXERCISE
Bb INTONATION EXERCISE
4
Intonation is about more than just matching one note. In the exercises below, quickly change the second drum pitch during the rest.
Remember that each measure is a half step lower.
Set your first two drums a fifth apart, then keep your feet on the pedals to change pitches.
On this exercise, the winds are playing a slightly different pattern than the timpani. Keep your feet on the pedals, and note that on the last measure, the pattern changes.
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SECTION 4 - KEY STUDIES
Bb MAJOR SCALE
SCALE ARTICULATION
SCALE INTERVAL STUDY - KEY OF Bb
RELATIVE MINOR - G HARMONIC MINOR
ACCIDENTAL EXERCISE - KEY OF Bb
Bb CHORALE
5
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SCALE INTERVAL STUDY - KEY OF F
RELATIVE MINOR - D HARMONIC MINOR
ACCIDENTAL EXERCISE - KEY OF F
F CHORALE
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SCALE INTERVAL STUDY - KEY OF Eb
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ACCIDENTAL EXERCISE - KEY OF Eb
Eb CHORALE
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RELATIVE MINOR - F HARMONIC MINOR
ACCIDENTAL EXERCISE - KEY OF Ab
F MINOR CHORALE
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SECTION 5 - CHROMATIC STUDIES
Bb CHROMATIC SCALE
F CHROMATIC SCALE
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SECTION 6 - EIGHT ESSENTIAL RHYTHMS10
q SUBDIVISION
e SUBDIVISION
x SUBDIVISION
PRACTICE LINES
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DRUM 4 - 32"
DRUM 3 - 29"
DRUM 2 - 26"
DRUM 1 - 23"
D to F
F to C
Bb to F
D to F
TIMPANI TUNING GUIDE
Below is the standard American set up for four timpani. Your drum sizes may vary slightly. If less than four drums are used, follow the placement for the drums you are using.
Below are suggested tuning ranges for each drum. While there may be ocassional variations required for specific works, these ranges will work well for most band literature.
