Gearing up for marching band season? Nothing is better than getting an early start on building your chops, writing your drums books, and finding new, innovative ways to teach your drum line and front ensemble/pit. We have compiled our best marching percussion resources to help get you started! From snare drum, tenor, and bass drum books, to warm-up guides, famous drum corps cadences, and complete front ensemble guides, there is something for everyone. We carry a full line of books and DVD videos that will help enhance all of your drum line’s skills. These incredible resources come from some of the top names in DCI and university percussion sections such as Bill Bachman, Thom Hannum, Jim Casella, Jim Ancona, John Wooton, and many more. Looking for new ways to challenge yourself or your students? We have also included a selection of modern rudimental and marching drum solo collections for those looking to raise their skills up to the next level.

Writing your own percussion arrangements? Be sure to check out Tapspace Virtual Drumline software. Featuring the world champion percussion section of the Santa Clara Vanguard, this incredible piece of software gives arrangers the most powerful sonic tools available to aid in their writing process. This collection of sounds has become the industry standard for marching and concert percussion sounds. Virtual Drumline works with both Finale and Sibelius software and templates for the newest versions of each are available from Tapspace.

When you’re finished checking out the marching percussion resource center, be sure to browse around our great selection of marching sticks, mallets, and practice pads as well! Get all the tools you need for a successful season right here at Steve Weiss Music.

Volume 2 of Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba is now in stock and available for purchase. Volume 2 features 12 more fantastic works for solo marimba written by a wonderful collection of composers including Dutch minimalist Louis Andriessen, Pat Metheny Group pianist Lyle Mays, and many more.

The 2-CD set of Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba contains recordings of all 24 pieces, played by 8 of the most famous marimbists in the world today, including – Nancy Zeltsman, Gordon Stout, William Moersch, Ivana Bilic, Beverly Johnston, Jack Van Geem, Thomas Burritt, and Jean Geoffrey. Each of these players not only recorded these pieces, but also premiered them at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival this past summer in Appleton, Wisconsin.

These new items will also be available for purchase at the Steve Weiss Music booth (# 743-45-47-49) at PASIC ’09. If you’re going to the convention, stop on by and check out these great new pieces!

Attending PASIC this year? Be sure to check out the Keyboard Clinic/Performance on Friday, November 13th at 2:00 PM. This special clinic, sponsored by Steve Weiss Music (and others), will feature a very special new publication called Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba.

Commissioned by the Zeltsman Marimba Festival and ZMF New Music, this new set of 2 publications features 24 new works for solo marimba, 16 commissioned by some very famous composers, as well as 8 winners of the ZMF New Music composition contest. Recognizing the need to fill a vast void in marimba literature, Zeltsman took it upon herself and her organization to take on this very important, extensive project. In today’s current solo marimba literature, it is very common to find lots of entry-level 2 and 4 mallet solos. Also, you will find that most of the substantial literature for solo marimba is extremely difficult, and not well suited for intermediate players. Each of the pieces in the 2 books are 3-6 six minutes long and feature a range of up to 5 octaves, designed SPECIFICALLY for the intermediate marimbist.

Think of them as solos written somewhere between Yellow After the Rain and Two Mexican Dances. Volume 1 features pieces from some very famous composers – most notably 12-time Grammy Award winner Paul Simon (remember Simon and Garfunkel?). Also included are pieces by Steven Mackey (who wrote See Ya Thursday) and Robert Livingston Aldridge (composer of From My Little Island), two very popular composers of solo marimba literature. Other composers of pieces from the book (volume 1) are: Carla Bley, Ed Haddad, Anders Hillborg, Darren Jones, Gaetano Lorandi, Osnat Netzer, Gunther Schuller, Alvina Tan, and Derek Tywoniuk. Volume 2 will be available right around the time of the PASIC 2009.

As part of the clinic at PASIC, 8 of the 24 pieces will be performed by the same people who premiered these works over the summer at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival (who are some of the greatest marimbists in the world today): Ivana Bilic, Thomas Burritt, Jean Geoffroy, Beverly Johnson, William Moersch, Gordon Stout, Jack Van Geem, as well as the person who started the whole project – Nancy Zeltsman.

What a concert that’s going to be! Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba Volume 1 is currently available here at Steve Weiss Music, and will also be available from the Steve Weiss Music booth at PASIC 2009.

A few of the recording artists (including Nancy Zeltsman) will be in our booth signing the CD and books on Friday from 3-4PM and on Saturday from 1-3PM. Please stop by Booth # 743-45-47-49 to say hello.

Several years ago, Pearl Drums introduced the Eliminator line of bass drum pedals that featured many adjustments and options that were not available on any pedal to that point. Today, they introduced the Pearl Demon Drive Bass Drum Pedal series that takes any pedal currently available to all new heights. Direct Drive, a first on any Pearl pedal, enables the foot board to act perfectly in sync with the players foot to eliminate the slight “hick-up” feel that a chain or belt drive produces after the beater strikes the head. Combine that with all of the other features that the new Pearl Demon Drive Bass Drum Pedal has, and you can literally adjust it to any feel and positioning you desire. Some would say that too many adjustments is a bad thing or that you will never need that many adjustments in your life. Having too many adjustments is not the point, and neither is the fact that you will most likely set-it-and-forget-it (ah….the long awaited Ron Popeil reference). The point is that you actually have the ability to set this pedal to whatever YOU want it to be; that is the beauty of it. If you never mess with it again, it has accomplished what it is designed to do, give you the player the ability to put your own feel and touch to it. This pedal will not be available until late April or early May, 2009. This is a bit of a drag and it is certainly not the least expensive pedal ever made. But, when it does hit, the wait and expense will be worth it.

   

When I started to put together a list of holiday music for the banner on the front page of our website, I thought it would be a fairly simple task. Looking back on it now, all I can say is “WOW”, was I completely wrong in that assumption. The list of holiday music is as diverse as the percussive world itself. Arrangements of classics holiday tunes are available for all types of instrumentations and grade levels. Arrangements by Chris Brooks, Lloyd Brooks and Murray Houllif will keep your beginning percussion ensembles content for the whole season. The great thing about many of these arrangements is the integration of non-pitched and pitched percussion sounds. Most of the arrangements take the classic melodies and intertwine them with great grooves and feels that most students will find fun and challenging. The thing that surprised me most was that the arrangements weren’t only for scholastic ensembles. There are many collections in the library that would be great for the working percussionist. Playing holiday solo gigs may be a way to generate extra work during the holiday season. Arrangements from Ludwig Albert, Zskowski, and Bruce Henczel would be great for this application. Most of the collections contain more than 10 holiday classics arranged for solo performance. To my surprise, I even found recordings of holiday music. The range of styles was truly impressive. You can listen to traditional xylophone recordings by Val Eddy, spicy Latin from Lalo Davila, and marimba choir arrangements from Ed Hartman. With the wide variety of music available, holiday percussion music can now fill your home when the family gathers for the season.