Day 73

Date: July 26, 2011

Time: 11:57pm (CST)

Playing on iTunes: "Let Your Love Grow Tall" by Pasion Pit

Location: Edmond, OK

Recent Trip: 220 miles

Welcome to Oklahoma, again!! We're back and ready to take charge! This blog today is going to be an introduction to some technique that is required of us mallet players in the Cadets pit, as well as any other "4-mallet playing" with any percussion music.

This technique is called "4-mallet" technique. There are different types of 4-mallet technique as there are different types of cars like manual and automatic transmission. With a manual transmission you have to approach it differently than an automatic transmission, and it feels and drives different than an automatic transmission. But nonetheless, you get to the same place and you're doing the same thing. Well this type of 4-mallet technique is called "Stevens Technique". Stevens technique was adapted from a man by the name of Leigh Howard Stevens (LHS). He took the old "traditional" 4-mallet grip and altered it in order to get more "versatility in the hands", as he likes to put it. With Stevens technique, LHS says that you can do more and is more comfortable than traditional technique, but he's not trying to get rid of traditional grip because traditional grip does have it's pros.

Method of Movement by Leigh Howard Stevens

Below you see a picture of two hands and four mallets. The point of four mallets is so that you can play more than two notes at one time. Many more possibilities are available with four mallets than with two. This (below) is what a typical 4-mallet Stevens grip would look like.

Now to break down the grip for you a little bit...

Above is a picture of a hand and labeled is all the different positions of the hand you need to know to get through the Method of Movement and learn the Stevens technique. Below you can see that I have executed the Stevens grip in my left hand. The key things about what you can see in this picture that you always need to be aware of when using Stevens grip is that your thumbs always parallel to the keyboard (or facing directly up) and your inside mallet (in this case the one on the right) is slightly longer than the outside (left) mallet.

 

Here are the mechanics of the grip:

1) [pictured below left] The end of the inside mallet's shaft is place directly into the middle of your palm and then held similarly as a drum stick but with your middle finger controlling the end of the stick. 

2) [pictured below right] The outside mallet had to be in between your middle and ring finger, and your ring and pinky finger curled around the end of the shaft to support it. Make sure that the outside mallet is only sticking out of your palm about 1/8 - 1/4".

3) And here's your finished product (below) from an under-the-hood view.

There is much more to go along with this technique but as you can see it can get a little complicated. I spent an entire year in percussion lessons trying to figure out how to successfully approach this technique and it still needs a lot of work. The Cadets pit, along with every other drum corps, uses four mallets for the majority of show. There are a lot of chord parts especially written for 4-mallets. Come to think about it, I have four mallets in my hand the majority of show. Hope you learned a little something about The Stevens Four-Mallet Techqnie and can see the basics of the technique.

Now onto a different topics... The corps did amazing tonight! I personally did not have one of my best shows at all. But the corps as a whole worked hard all day to fix some huge problems that were keeping us from first place. And after lots of work in rehearsal on those specific things...

DCI Oklahoma
1) The Cadets - 91.65
2) The Cavaliers - 91.25
3) Santa Clara Vanguard - 87.00
4) Bluecoats - 86.95
5) The Academy - 86.95

All that hard work paid off! Now is the time to leave a show like tonight feeling great, and bringing that energy to the next rehearsal day and getting much better. Let's do this Cadets!!

The line outside the souvenir booth for the Cadets after
our victory.

CPit Spotlight 2011

Next on the list we have a man by the name of Mr. Nathan Kim from Wrentham, MA. Of Korean decent, Nate is a 19-year old sophomore at UMass Amherst studying mechanical engineering. Throughout high school, Nate was a part of the marching band playing in the pit for all four years as well as being a part of the symphony band. During his summers her marched at the Spartans from Nashua, NH in 2007 and 2008, then he continued on to the Cadets this summer. Nate's decision to come to the Cadets was sparked from him seeing their 2005 performance when they won DCI Championships. He talked to everyone who had done it before and in hearing about how much fun they said it was, it made him want to do it more and more. Not to mention, the Cadets were his favorite drum corps throughout high school. On a different note, if Nate had to choose a favorite restaurant, he'd pick Red Robin and he would order a chili burger. Although Nate is a little reserved, he definitely is full of energy when playing the vibraphone at the Cadets. Check out Nate playing the church bells when you come see our next performance!!

Thought of the Day: "To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be dead."