 | This article may be confusing or unclear to readers.(September 2012) |
A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of the drum with a drum stick.
| This article may be confusing or unclear to readers.(September 2012) |
A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of the drum with a drum stick.
The sound of rimshots can be described as "part normal snare and part loud, woody accent", [1] or "generally sharper, brighter and more cutting [than a standard accent]", [2] since the technique produces large amounts of overtones. [3]
The stroke is used on the snare in rock, pop, Jazz, and blues and on the tom-toms in Afro-Cuban music. The technique is also common in bossa nova, ska, reggae, and rocksteady. [2]
In marching percussion, there are three types of rimshots. The most common is the "normal" rimshot, which is played with the tip (bead) of the stick held about three inches (about 8 cm) from the rim. This produces a prominent, accented tone. The second is the "ping shot", where the bead is struck about one inch (2.5 cm) from the rim. This produces a high-pitched sound. The third is a "gock" (also spelled gawk), which is produced by hitting the bead of the drum stick at the center of the drum while the rim is percussed with the distal shaft of the stick (near the hand). This makes a lower sound.
In Latin percussion, timbales players use rimshots near the edge of the head, but these sound very different from gocks in marching percussion.
In orchestral percussion, a rimshot is performed by placing one drum stick with the stick head near the middle of the drumhead, and the shaft pressed against the rim, and striking with the other stick. This produces a less powerful sound, and is easier to execute than a typical rimshot. This variation is also known as a "stick shot".
The rimshot is often confused with the cross stick technique, in which the tip of a drum stick is placed on the head near one of the bearing edges and the shaft of the stick is struck against the rim opposite the tip, thus creating a dry, high-pitched "click" similar to a set of claves. [4] As a result, the stroke is frequently used in bossa nova to imitate the sound of claves; it is also used for ballads in rock, pop, and country music. [2]
The musical phrase played on percussion instruments used to punctuate jokes is known in percussion jargon as a sting. This is often called a rimshot, although some versions of it do not include a rimshot in the technical sense.
A rimshot when used to accent the punchline of a joke being told by a live comedian may or may not simultaneously be played with a small cymbal crash. This was popularized in standup comedy by comedians performing at the resorts in the Catskill Mountains region. Many of these comics were of Jewish heritage and were known as "Borscht Belt comics", after a vacation spot in the Catskills. Comedian Henny Youngman used a drummer to play rimshots after his fast-paced, one-liner type of jokes; his most famous line was "Take my wife… please!"
Sometimes, the comedian would react to the rimshot as if they did not expect it and in doing so, pass the reaction and responsibility for the rimshot on to the drummer, when in fact, the comedian had previously instructed the drummer when to use and when not to use the rimshot. Despite having previously been scripted into the routine by the comedian, these were designed to appear to be improvised by the drummer, so as to accentuate the joke. [5]
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The drummer typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks or special wire or nylon brushes; and uses their feet to operate hi-hat and bass drum pedals.
A hi-hat is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist of a matching pair of small to medium-sized cymbals mounted on a stand, with the two cymbals facing each other. The bottom cymbal is fixed and the top is mounted on a rod which moves the top cymbal toward the bottom one when the pedal is depressed.
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excluding zoomusicological instruments and the human voice, the percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments. In spite of being a very common term to designate instruments, and to relate them to their players, the percussionists, percussion is not a systematic classificatory category of instruments, as described by the scientific field of organology. It is shown below that percussion instruments may belong to the organological classes of idiophone, membranophone, aerophone and chordophone.
The snare drum is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, parades, drumlines, drum corps, and more. It is one of the central pieces in a drum set, a collection of percussion instruments designed to be played by a seated drummer and used in many genres of music. Because basic rhythms are very easy to learn to play on a snare drum even for children, the instrument is also suitable for the music education for young children and a rhythm band.
The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The heads may be made of calfskin or plastic and there is normally a means of adjusting the tension, either by threaded taps or by strings. Bass drums are built in a variety of sizes, but size does not dictate the volume produced by the drum. The pitch and the sound can vary much with different sizes, but the size is also chosen based on convenience and aesthetics. Bass drums are percussion instruments that vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished.
Timbales or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size. They were developed as an alternative to classical timpani in Cuba in the early 20th century and later spread across Latin America and the United States.
Snare technique is the technique used to play a snare drum.
The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto, tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). Congas were originally used in Afro-Cuban music genres such as conga and rumba, where each drummer would play a single drum. Following numerous innovations in conga drumming and construction during the mid-20th century, as well as its internationalization, it became increasingly common for drummers to play two or three drums. Congas have become a popular instrument in many forms of Latin music such as son, descarga, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, songo, merengue and Latin rock.
A drum roll is a technique used by percussionists to produce a sustained sound for the duration of a written note.
All drum figures are based upon three fundamental beats, technically called roll, single stroke, and flam...Sustentation is accomplished upon wind instruments by blowing into the instrument; it is accomplished upon the violin and the allied instruments by drawing the bow across the string; it is accomplished upon the drum and allied percussion instruments by the roll.
THE SNARE DRUM ROLL.
The roll consists of an even reiteration of beats sufficiently rapid to prohibit rhythmic analysis. To produce an impression of sustentation, these beats must be absolutely even both in power and in sequence. Uneven beats in a roll destroy the impression of sustentation. Evenness is then the primary quality to strive for in roll; speed is the secondary quality to strive for.
There are two possible ways of producing an absolutely even sequence: (1) hand alternation of single stroke and (2) hand alternation of double strokes...The snare drum roll is produced by hand alternation of double strokes.
The "open roll" is produced by [initially] slow hand alternation. Two strokes in each hand alternately are produced by wrist movement and each beat should follow its predecessor in clock-like precision.
A percussion mallet or beater is an object used to strike or beat a percussion instrument to produce its sound.
Marching percussion instruments are percussion instruments specially designed to be played while moving. This is achieved by attaching the drum(s) to a special harness worn by the drummer, although not all marching bands use such harnesses and instead use traditional baldrics to sling their drums.
A tamborim is a small round Brazilian frame drum, developed from other similar percussive instruments brought by the Portuguese.
A tenor drum is a membranophone without a snare. There are several types of tenor drums.
A sting is a short drum sequence played by a drummer to punctuate a joke, especially an obvious one. A sting is often used as accompaniment during cabaret- and circus-style shows. Sometimes the sound of the sting is written ba dum tsh, ba-dum cha, ba-dum ching, ba dum tiss and occasionally ba dum tis. In British English, boom boom is used, for example in "Ha ha ha! Boom! Boom!", the catchphrase of the children's television character, Basil Brush. An abbreviation used in chats is //*. When a full orchestra flourish is to be indicated as a sting, it sometimes is written or spoken as, ta da! or ta da— as an interjection.
Orchestral percussion refers to the various percussion instruments used in an orchestral setting. It may also refer to the act of playing such instruments in an orchestral style. Many music schools and conservatories offer training for musicians interested in developing their skills as orchestral percussionists. Typically, an orchestral percussionist does not specialize in one particular instrument. Although there is no exhaustive list of all instruments that an orchestral percussionist must be able to play, there are particular instruments that are frequently used in the orchestral repertoire. This includes timpani, snare drum, bass drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, triangle, and tambourine.
Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz fusion and 1980s-era Latin jazz. The techniques and instrumentation of this type of performance have evolved over several periods, influenced by jazz at large and the individual drummers within it. Stylistically, this aspect of performance was shaped by its starting place, New Orleans, as well as numerous other regions of the world, including other parts of the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa.
A drum stick is a type of percussion mallet used particularly for playing snare drum, drum kit, and some other percussion instruments, and particularly for playing unpitched percussion.
In music, notably in jazz, a ghost note is a musical note with a rhythmic value, but no discernible pitch when played. In musical notation, this is represented by an "X" for a note head instead of an oval, or parentheses around the note head. It should not be confused with the X-shaped notation that raises a note to a double sharp.
In music, a drum stroke is a movement which produces a single or multiple notes on drums or other percussion instruments such as cymbals. There are several types of strokes: five basic single strokes, double strokes, and other multiple strokes such as triples, quadruples, or buzzes of indeterminate number.
A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat.