bit of a rant with front ensemble technican teacher...

rivenoak said:
Is there a Director of the band? Is he/she aware that you are frustrated with the tech?

Something we've been saying a lot at work lately when someone is frustrating us with their (poor) communication is, "Help me help you." That is, give me the information I need so that I can give you what you want.

That was a good suggestion for the tech to show you how to strike with the mallets. Are there other things that if the tech showed you, you could reproduce to his satisfaction (like height from which to strike for this part, then from here for that one, etc)?

My guess is that the tech doesn't have the language to explain, nor the education/experience to teach. So maybe if there is a director, the three of you could have a conversation about what feedback you need from the tech to succeed.

Of course, this requires you to make extra effort. But, as the tech doesn't seem to be making any, to resolve it will probably mean it's up to you.

I hope this makes some sense.

(It makes me think of if I tried to teach someone to ride a horse. I am not a natural teacher. I am a fairly natural rider; I know what to do instinctively. I can do something, but I can't necessarily explain to someone else what it is that I do so that they can then do it. This is one of the reasons I don't teach riding; I would frustrate myself as much as many students.

My riding instructor is a great teacher; she can explain something seventy million different ways, breaking down each part of what you need to do. But, in addition to a lot of riding experience, she has a Masters in Education & knows *how* to teach and is also gifted at it.)
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Part of the reason of what makes me really frustrated with the communication with him is that he had me for 4 years in the Centerville Band program as a mallet player. I played the vibraphone my first season as a freshman then my last 7 seasons with the Centerville Jazz band and Centerville 'World' Drumline I was on the marimba for 3 1/2 years. And during those 4 years he would've made the effort to learn LITTLE sign for me to be able to understand him. I'm not asking for much, just the ABCs to get him started and i would be happy with that, nothing big like signing the word elephant or signing "i went to the bookstore". just fingerspelling. And i have kind of dropped in hints and tried to encourage him to use sign but he doesn't want to learn sign. Most of my fellow front ensemble members have met me half way and have made the effort to sign for me in case i am in need of help. Usually I'll look at one of them and they'll sign to me what i am suppose to be doing. They are doing well with it, not perfect signing but doing well.
 
I am a mallet percussionist too, so here are my tips:

1. Try softer mallets. If you have a heavy touch, you may need to use mallets that are softer to compensate. I like my yarn xylophone mallets, but sometimes need to go with the soft rubber ones to get the right sound.

2. Know that you don't really need a downward swing to play piano or mezzo-piano. You probably won't move more than your wrist to strike at that dynamic level. I would guess that you probably prefer to play something you can hear, so you are probably tending to be way too loud. You just need to find a physical hook to know what piano-mezzo-forte-fortissimo FEEL like.

3. Okay, so this next suggestion is probably really bad, but you could have another pit player, assuming you are not there alone, to show you the difference. Or your band teacher. If you can't hear the difference in volume, have them thump you on the back or leg or some other not-too-sensitive place so you can feel the difference. I would only do this briefly, you don't want mallet-shaped bruises. It could be another way for you to physically appreciate the difference in force.
 
I followed the link someone posted somewhere on this forum to a hearing loss simulator (from Univ. of Wisconsin Whitewater, which is not far from me, actually). They had a link to a different site with a CI simulator, and it has several samples of speech through different CI channels and a sample of music and how that sounds through a CI, CI with FM, and the original music. That link is Simulations

You may want to play that for your leader. (The original music by the way is the opening of the Nutcracker, a song that is used in lots of ads and played a lot around the holidays so it is a piece that he will recognize.) The first sample I could GUESS by the rhythm what the piece was but could not discern ANY melody or pitch, just the beats, like if you tried to tap out a song all on one note. The second I could hear melody but still not really identify what instruments there were playing, or any of the tones, but the general up and down of pitch was there.

I had no idea CI's worked like that, actually. I got the general concept, and know it isn't like "normal" hearing, and it isn't a "cure" but didn't realize how limited the information they convey is, especially for things other speech in an otherwise quiet environment. It was kind of cool.
 
kellycat said:
I am a mallet percussionist too, so here are my tips:

1. Try softer mallets. If you have a heavy touch, you may need to use mallets that are softer to compensate. I like my yarn xylophone mallets, but sometimes need to go with the soft rubber ones to get the right sound.

2. Know that you don't really need a downward swing to play piano or mezzo-piano. You probably won't move more than your wrist to strike at that dynamic level. I would guess that you probably prefer to play something you can hear, so you are probably tending to be way too loud. You just need to find a physical hook to know what piano-mezzo-forte-fortissimo FEEL like.

3. Okay, so this next suggestion is probably really bad, but you could have another pit player, assuming you are not there alone, to show you the difference. Or your band teacher. If you can't hear the difference in volume, have them thump you on the back or leg or some other not-too-sensitive place so you can feel the difference. I would only do this briefly, you don't want mallet-shaped bruises. It could be another way for you to physically appreciate the difference in force.
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My pit tech kept saying alot that I have to bring the heights of my mallets lower to the keys on the board. Like metro to mezzo piano loud. And every time i do that he thinks its too loud and i honestly cannot hear the difference in that. so I spent an hour on my free weekend about 2 weekends ago rehearsing by myself in my basement with the marimba trying to get the dynamics right. I have no mirror to watch myself what i'm doing with the mallets with the heights of it, so thats a little bit more difficult. I have to figure out a way to find some room to put a mirror down there.

Some of my band friends have tried to help me, they tried showing me on their board with the heights. And I attempt to mimic them with the heights, its either a little or way too much. Personally, theres a guy in the pit whose in the marimba line, a sophmore, everytime my pit tech is wondering who keeps messing up the music the sophmore in my line blames it on me every single time because i'm deaf. That's also another rant that is happening in the front ensemble. UGH!
 
I have a few additional suggestions (I played in various orchestras for years, taught privately and have been a musical instrument repair tech for almost 17 years. My sister is also a public school orff, choir and band teacher).

It sounds like what you really need to do is memorize the feel of the dynamics (pianissimo, to piano, to mezzo-piano, forte, etc etc) One of the best ways for you to do this might be to get a Db meter and use it to gauge how hard you are hitting. Another way is to ask a hearing friend to listen and tell you when you are first "audible" (meaning pp/ppp) and then monitor you as you increase in volume.

For you it's going to be a FEEL thing ... feel the tension in your arms and hands, feel the vibration, the impact, and look at how the bars rebound.

Also if there are more than one of you playing the same instrument - if they're beside you ask if you can work together privately to not only match volumes, but set up private cues which you can see that indicate you need to play softer, or louder (it could be something as simple as them tilting their head up (for more volume) and down (for less volume).

Also - since you have a set up at home, consider setting it up so you are facing a corner (so your face it pointed at the < of the walls and within 3 or 4 feet) ... this really helps bounce the sound bask towards you so you can better hear volume.


Hope some of this helps :)

If you want to bounce ideas of someone, feel free to PM me (I don't check the music section much)



BTW, for anyone interested in common dynamic ranges & their abbreviations here's the list from loudest to softest:"mezzo" is Italian for "medium" or "moderate"


fff ---- louder than ff
ff ----- fortissimo ------ louder than f
f ------ forte -------------- loudly
mf --- mezzo-forte ------ moderately loud
mp -- mezzo-piano ----- moderately soft
p ----- piano -------------- softly
pp --- pianissimo ------ softer than p
ppp - softer than pp
 
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