Dances for Five Drums

Jan Bradley

General Info

Year:
Duration: 00:06:00
Difficulty: Advanced
Publisher:
Cost: £15.00

Instrumentation

Bongos
3 Tom Toms

Program Notes

Dance for 5 drums is a 5 – 6 minute solo percussion work. Use any 5 drums you think will work. It did used to be called “Dance for tom toms and boo bams”, but I ditched this years ago after I realised
a) that’s not a very snappy title.
b) almost no one has access to boo bams.
Since the name change it has gone on to be one of my more popular pieces.

Performance Tips

Try to play it from memory. If you have worked on it hard enough to perform it, there is a good chance you can do without the dots. If you find you need the music, try to set it up so you are not erecting a wall between you and your audience. Tempo is something people ask me about quite often with this one. I don’t want to be too prescriptive, because I think performers should make the piece their own. However I think it is important that you pick a tempo that works for the whole piece. Definitely don’t play the first bits so fast you have to slow down later on!

Dynamics

In the opening section there should be 3 distinct dynamics happening at the same time
1) The repeated notes on the high bongo
2) The “tune” on the other drums
3) The bongo Accents

Recent Performances

To submit a performance please join the TEK Percussion Database

Works for Percussion by this Composer

Dance for 5 Drums
Play Some Time
Crossover
For Timps and Tape
Supersonic
Chieba
Piece for Claves and Tom-toms
In-Line
Stretch
Prague
No!
Line-In