The Artist Timpanist.

Duncan Patton

General Info

Year: 2018
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Bachovich Music Publications
Cost: Book Cost - $30.00   |   Supplemental Books - $0.00

Chapters

Chapter I:
Chapter II:
Chapter III:
Chapter IV:
Chapter V:
Chapter VI:

Reviews

Student Reviews

Organization: An introduction, acknowledgements, and a dedication precede the table of contents, which is divided into three parts: Part I - Technical Study, Part II - Etudes, and Part III - Additional Information. Part I covers several fundamentals and some exercises to work on these fundamentals, Part II contains etudes which focus on tuning, classical and dance works, and contemporary “comprehensive” etudes, and Part III gives insight to mallet selection and timpani maintenance as well as information about the author.

Content: Much of Part I is advice the author is giving to the reader, such as issues they may run into and how to resolve them, with some examples being provided. I especially liked the “Matrix of Stroke Types” section as it provides a visual grid of how stroke types can be utilized to achieve certain ‘tone colors’ while playing and consist mainly of changing grips to allow the stick to move in different ways. Part II allows the reader to experiment with and develop their musicality in different ‘genres’ of orchestral music. Part III does not provide any brands or specific recommendations for mallets or drums but does suggest what types to have and how to replace synthetic timpani heads as well as calfskin heads.

Uses: This book would be a good resource for non-percussion educators and for use by college level students as some etudes presented later in this book may be too advanced for high school playing or even beginner college players.

Rating: Even though the author assumes the reader who decides to use this book has background knowledge and fundamentals on timpani, there is a decent coverage on fundamentals and basics on timpani in this book with Part I spanning nearly half of the book. The etude section provided are emphasized in a unique way that focuses on the musicality of the pieces and encourages readers to experiment with their technique in order to achieve desired sounds. I would like to study out of this book myself to see what fundamentals are not covered in Part I as well as how effective the etudes in Part II can be. 5/5. User:Hondogracias

Works for Percussion by this Author

Patton, Duncan. The Artist Timpanist. Bachovich Music Publications. 2018.