Greetings friends! I’m so happy to be bringing you the next installment of Percussion Talk, and today we are beginning a multi part series on Timpani Fundamentals. This first part will cover gear and maintenance basics. You’ll refresh your memory on drum sizes and ranges, as well as what to do when your pedals won’t stay where you want them! In a future posts, we will cover how to change a timpani head in depth, beginning sound concepts, and tuning tips. Stay tuned for those future posts! Let’s get into today’s post:
There can be a lot of things to remember when teaching timpani, but I’m going to distill it down into three categories: Gear, Maintenance, and Lift. I’ll break down each of these concepts one by one.
Gear
Sizes – 32”, 29”, 26” 23” on a standard set. 20” drum if necessary.
Just remember 32 and the rest are in 3” intervals
Set up - Lowest drum on the left, similar to the range of a piano. Arrange drums surrounding the player, and adjust to the player.
Standard Ranges -
Maintenance
Heads - Plastic heads should be changed regularly. How often the heads need to be replaced depends on the amount of use the drums get, but a good rule of thumb is every year or two if used frequently. Stay tuned for a detailed explanation on the blog about changing timpani heads!
Pedal Problems
What do you do if a pedal does not stay down? There’s an easy solution for that, but first you need to understand how tension works on balanced action timpani. Balanced Action drums are most likely what your school owns. It just simply means you do not have to lock the pedal in place after you tune the drum.
There are TWO places of tension on balanced action timpani:
1. Head Tension
2. Pedal Tension
Both places of tension need to be in the correct range, or else the timpani will not function properly. Always check the head first to make sure the drum is in the correct range. Refer to the ranges listed above to tune the drum to the correct range with a timpani tuning key.
If you are sure the head is in range and the pedals are still slipping, it is time to adjust the balanced action spring. The balanced action spring is adjusted by a knob or other adjustment typically near the pedal. On Ludwig and Adams drums, there’s a large knob above the pedal. On Yamaha timpani, its adjusted with a timpani tuning key underneath the pedal.
Once you locate the adjustment mechanism, diagnose your issue:
If the pedal will not stay all the way up, you need to tighten the spring.
If the pedal will not stay on the bottom of the range, you need to loosen the spring.
Adjust in small increments checking the pedal between adjustments until your pedals do not move anymore.
As a reminder, you can always find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I like to post about percussion, education, coffee, and my dogs on my instagram profile. When we went through the weeklong snowstorm in Texas, my dog Pumpkin was trying everything to stay warm!
Thanks for stopping by this installment of Percussion Talk! I’ll see you in the next one!