How to Play a Crescendo and a Diminuendo Tambourine Roll

Crescendo means to get louder and Diminuendo means to get softer. When you want to play a Crescendo Tambourine Roll start by playing your tambourine way down low and as soft as you can play. As you roll louder, raise the tambourine up high as you shake it more vigorously. When you want to play […]

How to Play a Thumb Roll and a Finger Roll on the Tambourine

A thumb roll is a wonderful technique to be able to perform when you need to play a quiet roll on a tambourine. The first thing you need to do is to get your tambourine a little sticky. I use bee’s wax, but you can use rosin or the Grover Roll Ring to make your […]

How to Perform Call and Response in Drum Circles

Drum circles are a lot of fun and great ways for musicians and non musicians alike to share a music making experience. What is Call and Response? In a drum circle you often have a facilitator who keeps the music going and moving forward. The “Call” is a rhythm played by the facilitator and the […]

How to Play Fast Rhythms on a Tambourine

Sometimes the rhythms that are written for the tambourine are just too fast to play with one hand, so the percussionist needs to learn a technique or three to play very fast rhythms. Take a look at this video for a step by step approach to playing fast rhythms on the tambourine Playing Fast Rhythms […]

How to Hand Drum on the Djembe: The Basics

Learning and practicing hand drumming is a valuable way for every percussionist to learn how to create wonderful sounds on every percussion instrument. When you play timpani, snare drum, or xylophone for example you always have a stick between you and the instrument, so it’s important to have some experience in making a good sound […]

How to Play Legato Drum Rolls on Timpani

Take a look this video about legato rolls from drum to drum and give it a try. In this exercise above practice moving from drum to drum while rolling. You’ll have to switch your lead hand during the roll so that you can move to the next drum smoothly. Practice playing a slow tempo with […]

Drum Rolling Exercises for 4 Timpani Drums

Here is another timpani roll exercise that involves moving between four drums instead of two. Left hand and Right Hand Lead Drum Rolls When you roll between drum and you’re looking for everything to sound smooth and legato you have to be able to switch from a RIGHT HAND LEAD drum roll to a LEFT […]