A new instrument called the PIPER BASS
just got this email from John Piper. He was experimenting with making bass sounds on the marimba and look what he came up with!!! What's going on in that brain of his!!
I'm doing a percussion ensemble project with a fellow texas marimba player named Larry Lawless. It's called the Lawless Percussion Ensemble and we're doing a piece of mine called the BRainforest. I'm required to write the music for ALL PERCUSSION - no bass player so I've been experimenting with bass on the marimba. I came up with an excellent bass sound that uses wax paper weaved between the marimba bars - over and under and then over and under in opposite direction to make sure all notes have wax paper both above and below the notes. It gives it the percussiveness and slight distortion that is usually missing from marimba bass. Really cool. I don't care for it on the vibe though.
I'm doing a percussion ensemble project with a fellow texas marimba player named Larry Lawless. It's called the Lawless Percussion Ensemble and we're doing a piece of mine called the BRainforest. I'm required to write the music for ALL PERCUSSION - no bass player so I've been experimenting with bass on the marimba. I came up with an excellent bass sound that uses wax paper weaved between the marimba bars - over and under and then over and under in opposite direction to make sure all notes have wax paper both above and below the notes. It gives it the percussiveness and slight distortion that is usually missing from marimba bass. Really cool. I don't care for it on the vibe though.
posted by Tony at
7:18 AM
2 Comments:
Here's a post John Piper was trying to put up. I'm trying to get him set up on this blog meanwhile I'll post for him.
I wouldn't qualify this as a new instrument or a but it is a twist of new ideas for the marimba sound.
One of the problems I've had with this piece I'm re-working (The BRainforest) is that the percussion ensembles always lack excitement in the performance - especially the marimba parts. Almost like a singer who only sings vowels and this piece requires a lot of "consonants".
I started thinking of the sound when a piece of paper is laying over the bars and you strike the paper. Then I started experimenting with different types of paper. The sound I like best (so far) is using a piece of wax paper, rolled up to the length of the bar and secured across the top of each bar using a rubber band at each node point. This allows you to play very percussively with a “fst” sounding consonant at the attack of each note. It also gently mutes each note to become sort of a “Paul McCartney/Hofner” bass sound on the low end and offers a slight buzz to the sustain similar to the marimbas of Guatemala. It's really fun to play softly between notes and get only the “fst” sound kind of like a guitar player muting the strings and strumming or a bass player picking but muting or better yet a flute player with a wind attack. Very interesting sound and very exciting sound with lots of improvisational options.
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Tony, at 6:12 AM
John had emailed me also as he was working on this idea. I would try what he was suggesting. At first, the wax paper was too loose and would have too much sustain and buzzing, but with more experimentation, the sound was indeed very much like a "pop" from a funk bass player.
I've seen a preliminary score on John's piece "BRainforest", and I think it has the makings of a classic. We wil be recording our CD this summer at University of Colorado with Doug Walter, Bart Elliott, and Rich MacDonald, with release scheduled for Sept-Oct 2006.
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Anonymous, at 4:20 AM
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