Timpani

Started by Mozart, May 20, 2007, 09:09:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Mozart

How hard is it to play the timpani? I would love my life if my job was being a timpanist. Almost no one would know what the hell that was! Also what do musicians get paid on average?

mahlertitan

Quote from: Mozart on May 20, 2007, 09:09:15 PM
How hard is it to play the timpani? I would love my life if my job was being a timpanist. Almost no one would know what the hell that was! Also what do musicians get paid on average?


I would imagine that you need years of training, for it is a far more difficult instrument than the violin, or the piano.

why don't you take an easier instrument, say, the cowbell?

12tone.

Cowbells don't cool your friends the same way an instrument like this does. 




pjme

Quote from: Mozart on May 20, 2007, 09:09:15 PM
How hard is it to play the timpani? I would love my life if my job was being a timpanist. Almost no one would know what the hell that was! Also what do musicians get paid on average?

TAKE THE SCORES OF / ALL Mahler symphonies, Stravinsky's rite of spring, Varèse's Amériques and Arcana, all Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner symphonies, most Haydn and Mozart symphonies, all orchestral works by Martinu, Honegger, roy Harris, William Schuman,Chostakovitch and Gubaidulina,add a few studies for timpani solo by Elliott Carter, a few percussion concertos , study the difference between baroque timpani, classical and contemporary timpani .....You may need a teacher.
I wish you good luck!!

Black Knight

Quote from: 12tone. on May 20, 2007, 11:37:47 PM
Cowbells don't cool your friends the same way an instrument like this does. 





A plumming flute?

greg

Quote from: pjme on May 21, 2007, 01:53:16 AM
TAKE THE SCORES OF / ALL Mahler symphonies, Stravinsky's rite of spring, Varèse's Amériques and Arcana, all Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner symphonies, most Haydn and Mozart symphonies, all orchestral works by Martinu, Honegger, roy Harris, William Schuman,Chostakovitch and Gubaidulina,add a few studies for timpani solo by Elliott Carter, a few percussion concertos , study the difference between baroque timpani, classical and contemporary timpani .....You may need a teacher.
I wish you good luck!!

but he just wants to play Mozart, so it won't work for him.

now getting him to study the Rite of Spring score, i don't know how that would ever happen....

mahlertitan

Quote from: greg on May 21, 2007, 06:53:53 AM
but he just wants to play Mozart, so it won't work for him.

now getting him to study the Rite of Spring score, i don't know how that would ever happen....
even if it was only for mozart, Timpani is still extremely difficult to play, I'd rather take a string instrument, it's only takes a musical genius to be able to play the timpani well.

Steve

Quote from: Mozart on May 20, 2007, 09:09:15 PM
How hard is it to play the timpani? I would love my life if my job was being a timpanist. Almost no one would know what the hell that was! Also what do musicians get paid on average?

I'd, of course, begin with locating a decent instructor. That's probably going to be difficult, given the Timpani's status as a specialist's instrument. Much great music for this instrument was composed in the late Romantic and what we now refer to as the contemporary period. I'd say a proclivity for the music of these composers is a must.

Now, time for a Stranvinky adventure...  :)

Mozart

Hehehe I really wouldnt play the timpani, the violin is my instrument. Im going to begin lessons on it in the fall. But really I think the timpani should be one of the easier instruments no? Whats difficult about it?

hornteacher

Quote from: Mozart on May 21, 2007, 12:35:49 PM
Hehehe I really wouldnt play the timpani, the violin is my instrument. Im going to begin lessons on it in the fall. But really I think the timpani should be one of the easier instruments no? Whats difficult about it?

It's like golf, easy to play, very difficult to master.

Novi

A great timp player is awesome to watch.
Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

Maciek

#11
Quote from: MahlerTitan on May 20, 2007, 10:03:49 PM

why don't you take an easier instrument, say, the cowbell?

Yes, that can get you far. Just think how famous Blue Öyster Cult is. ;)

btpaul674

As limited training as I have had with the timpani in high school in college as a jazz percussion major for a time, it is a very fun instrument to play and yes very difficult to master. If you have good aural skills in pitch intervals and finding members of chords, the timpani become easier. I wouldn't say it is harder than a violin, piano, etc. but it takes other necessary skills to execute properly. Much like any other instrument, it also depends on the quality of the instrument, its heads, and the mallets, etc. It was my favorite classical instrument to play. I found the marimba far more complicated to master, as there is much more room for error. All fun times.

greg

Quote from: Mozart on May 21, 2007, 12:35:49 PM
Hehehe I really wouldnt play the timpani, the violin is my instrument. Im going to begin lessons on it in the fall. But really I think the timpani should be one of the easier instruments no? Whats difficult about it?
you'll still have to play something other than Mozart.
HAH!

karlhenning

Quote from: Mozart on May 21, 2007, 12:35:49 PM
Hehehe I really wouldnt play the timpani, the violin is my instrument.

No, that's true; striking the timpani heads with a violin yields results which are not considered uniformly successful!  ;D

Cato

Quote from: Mozart on May 21, 2007, 12:35:49 PM
Hehehe I really wouldn't play the timpani, the violin is my instrument. Im going to begin lessons on it in the fall. But really I think the timpani should be one of the easier instruments no? What's difficult about it?

Carpal tunnel! 

Depending on the work, you might need Ritalin to pay attention to where the orchestra is for 20 minutes before you play something.

Timpanists don't pass the hat down in the subways!   :-[
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Mozart

Quote from: greg on May 22, 2007, 05:45:02 AM
you'll still have to play something other than Mozart.
HAH!


Luckily, Im quite fond of beethoven's violin sonatas. So  :P :P :P :P If I become good I can make my own string quartet and play nothing but Mozart  ;D ;D Ahhh

Mozart

k.498    1786    Vienna     Trio for Piano, Clarinet & Viola       E Flat Major

? ???

karlhenning

You're thinking, arrange it for timpani, clarinet & viola?

Perhaps you're right at that  8)

Szykneij

Quote from: karlhenning on May 22, 2007, 05:48:49 AM
No, that's true; striking the timpani heads with a violin yields results which are not considered uniformly successful!  ;D

Ah, but using a viola would be extremely satisfying, at least therapeutically.

:o

(Just kidding  ;)  )
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige