While composers and percussionists are working more closely than ever with one another, there are few resources that address this collaborative relationship in depth. Samuel Z. Solomon, himself a percussionist and teacher, offers How to Write for Percussion to fill this longstanding need. The first edition, self-published in 2004, provided musicians and music programs the world over with practical and indispensible information about issues of notation, concert production, and much more. This new edition expands the survey of behind-the-scenes processes-from instrument choice and notation to logistics, execution, and concert production-to uncover the tools a composer needs to comfortably create innovative and skilled percussion composition. Featuring an extensive Online Video Companion containing over nine hours of videos with demonstrations, performances, interviews, and analysis, How to Write for Percussion is sure to appeal to a wide swath of musicians and composers. Those familiar with the first edition will welcome the upgrade, and those who have yet to benefit from Solomon's perspective will find his insights illuminating. Book jacket.

(Meredith Music Percussion). Confused with the growing list of percussion instruments and terms? This new Meredith publication provides both definitions and an artistic interpretation of how each term is applied to the literature. A great source for conductors, composers, performers and students.

The Encyclopedia of Percussion is an extensive guide to percussion instruments, organized for research as well as general knowledge. Focusing on idiophones and membranophones, it covers in detail both Western and non-Western percussive instruments. These include not only instruments whose usual sound is produced percussively (like snare drums and triangles), but those whose usual sound is produced concussively (like castanets and claves) or by friction (like the cuíca and the lion’s roar). The expertise of contributors have been used to produce a wide-ranging list of percussion topics. The volume includes: (1) an alphabetical listing of percussion instruments and terms from around the world; (2) an extensive section of illustrations of percussion instruments; (3) thirty-five articles covering topics from Basel drumming to the xylophone; (4) a list of percussion symbols; (5) a table of percussion instruments and terms in English, French, German, and Italian; and (6) an updated section of published writings on methods for percussion.

This guide, containing the Percussive Arts Society's 40 International Drum Rudiments, begins by addressing the seven essential rudiments necessary to perform all the other rudiments, and continues by covering roll, diddle, flam and drag rudiment categories with variations of each. Also included are practice patterns and rudimental snare drum solos.

For many years, James Blades's famous book has been referred to as the percussionist's bible. It is established as the definitive reference work on the subject. Last updated by the author in 2005 and now back in print, this extended edition includes two additional chapters. The first covers the rise of the solo percussionist by the world's leading practitioner, Dame Evelyn Glennie who also contributes a new Foreword, while recent developments in orchestral percussion are covered by Neil Percy, Head of Timpani and Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music and Principal Percussionist of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Finally, a book no percussionist should be without! This unique guide to world percussion covers 28 different instruments with descriptions and performance techniques. Exercises and traditional rhythms are illustrated in both traditional music notation and time-box notation. With information on several different cultures and six unique compositions, Drum Circle: A Guide to World Percussion is the definitive guide to getting you started with your own drum circle.

Revised and expanded, A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth Century Music is a comprehensive reference guide for students and professional musicians. The book contains useful material on vocal and choral music and style; instrumentation; performance practice; ornamentation, tuning, temperament; meter and tempo; basso continuo; dance; theatrical production; and much more. The volume includes new chapters on the violin, the violoncello and violone, and the trombone—as well as updated and expanded reference materials, internet resources, and other newly available material. This highly accessible handbook will prove a welcome reference for any musician or singer interested in historically informed performance.

In The Musical Instrument Desk Reference, Michael Pagliaro, musical instrument authority extraordinaire, provides the one-stop shop for those in need of a quick, visually-rich reference guide to band and orchestral instruments. Descriptions and illustrations of everything from the physics of sound to detailed discussions of each orchestra and band instrument make this work the ideal desktop reference tool for the working musician. Through its Quick Start and In Depth features, readers can quickly decide how deeply they want to delve into the instrument at hand. Following a contemporary format designed to facilitate what any musician or music instructor needs to know, The Musical Instrument Desk Reference eliminates the need to leaf through multiple method books or trawl through websites to find information. The Musical Instrument Desk Reference includes general information on fingering, the anatomy of musical instruments, sound production, amplification, and control, as well as the science of sound. Readers will find individual chapters on woodwinds, brass instruments, non-fretted string instruments, and percussion instruments. In each category, Pagliaro delves deeper, describing for woodwinds such things as tuning, key systems, fingerings, sound production, tone holes, assembly, materials, embouchures, and reed use; for brass instruments such matters as valve systems, fingering patterns, French horn types, mouthpiece selection, and intonation; for non-fretted string instruments such issues as tuning and fingering, playing position, bowing technique, instrument parts, and materials; and for percussion instruments such elements as instrument types and their classifications, tuning procedures, and accessories. The Musical Instrument Desk Reference is the perfect guide for anyone interested in or responsible for working with varieties of instruments and their players. Teachers, students, teachers in training, music instructors, instrument technicians, and musicians can quickly locate any specific detail related to any band or orchestral instrument.