drumline warmup packet

Keyboard Technique
GJHS Drumline 2009
Here are some simple guidelines for the keyboard technique that we will be using.
Knocking on the Door:
First, close your hand as if you were holding a mallet. Your thumb and first finger
(fulcrum) should be together with the tip of the thumb located on the second section of
the index finger. Your three remaining fingers should be wrapped like a fist, touching the
fat part of your palm. Without moving your forearm, knock on a flat surface such as a
table or door just as you would when knocking on a door. Your hand should be moving at
the wrist with a straight up and down motion. When the mallet is in motion, the back of
the mallet should carry the back fingers in and out of your palm. Keep them in contact
with the shaft of the mallet at all times, but don’t let them lock in the palm of your hand.
The Basketball Concept and Piston Stroke:
Playing keyboards should be just like bouncing a basketball. When you bounce a ball, you
start in the up position, flick your wrist toward the floor and catch the ball again in the up
position. You should have a straight up and down motion with your wrist and your hand
shouldn’t lock in the down position.
To perform the stroke, start in the up position, your dynamic will be determined by your
starting heights. Avoid using an even down-up motion where you spend an equal time at
the top and bottom of the stroke. Think of the correct motion as a downup stroke,
spending a majority of the time at the top of the stroke. Whatever you do, don’t start
down and use an up-down-up stroke or an up-down stroke. Remember, the ball doesn’t
start on the floor and come into your hand, like Harry Potter’s broom, when you start to
bounce it. And, hopefully, it doesn’t stick to the floor when you try to bounce it.
When a basketball hits the floor, it doesn’t immediately spring back up when it touches
the floor. It compresses, then it comes back up. You can think of this by imagining that
the ball stays round and part of it goes beneath the floor. The target that the force of the
ball carries has to be beneath the floor for the ball to bounce back. The same thing applies
to mallet keyboard playing. We really don’t get much rebound from a bar, but you have to
imagine that you are trying to play through to the bottom of the bar in order to get a good
sound. If you play off the top of the bar opposed to playing through the bar, you will get
all of the higher overtones of the bar and none of the fundamental pitch and the sound
will be thin. If you play too hard into the bar, you will get a nasty, harsh sound.