New & Improved Website

My new and improved website is now online!

Check it out and grab the free music downloads

www.marksheltonmusic.com

Worship Musician Article Big Tasty Tom-Tom

My article on playing the floor tom in worship music is in the July 2017 issue of Worship Musician.

Click on the link and go to page 41 and read it--for FREE!

www.worshipmusician.com/

Set-Up of the Month September 2017

Marlon Lewis sent some sweet-lookin' shots of his percussion set-up. Marlon plays percussion for Capital Community Church in Ashburn, VA.

Check out the shells on the congas and bongos. Oh, yeah!

Silent Partners

The congas pattern is ending on beat three of the verse’s last measure and you need to dive into the chorus with shake tambourine cookin’ on the opening downbeat. Can you make the switch with only fractions of a second?

How about that moment when the music director stops the band in rehearsal and asks you to play a specific part on the bongos during the bridge of the song? The leader simply sings the rhythm and you play it back with supreme confidence on the next    run-thru. Will you remember that lick when the worship set starts in forty-five minutes?

Both of these real-life percussion challenges can be eased with the help of some “silent partners.” None of these items contribute anything sonically to the music, but these soundless supporters have assisted me in many rehearsals, worship services, and performances.

In Easy Reach

A trap table “lives” in my gig van so that it is always handy. Whether playing in a jazz ensemble, worship band, symphony orchestra, or folk group, a trap table has gotten me through many tight logistical situations. This soundless sidekick provides a central location for sticks, mallets, and hand-held instruments such as tambourines, shakers, claves, and cabasa (and you can park your coffee mug on it). The lightly padded surface of this silent partner assists you in transitioning instruments without extraneous sound. 

A music stand with the desk parallel to the floor IS NOT a trap table. There is too little space and too much potential for a cacophonous spill.

You have a choice of either commercially available trap tables or you can design and build your own (like I do). My first tables were built from plans found in Sound Designs: A Handbook of Musical Instrument Building by Scoville & Banek. Over the years, I have experimented my way into a personal version that is simple to construct and easy to carry. Just grab a staple gun along with the basic ingredients of plywood, light padding, and black cloth and you cook up a table top fairly quickly. Toss your creation on a keyboard X stand and you will soon wonder how you ever lived your percussive life without a trap table.

Get A Grip--Quickly

While the addition of a trap table to your set-up is a major help, most of your hand percussion will be resting flat on the surface of the table. Some instruments like the tambourine and shaker are a bit troublesome to pick up quickly and quietly with one hand when the items are flush with the table. Enter the launching pad--it takes seconds to make, weighs next to nothing, and can really smooth out a challenging changeover. Resting on the trap table, this inaudible ally allows you to prop up a portion of an instrument or implement (shaker, tambourine, mallet, or stick) and create a space under the object. That small gap provides enough room to slide a hand under the thingamajig and bring it into playing position without extraneous sound. The launching pad is a simple solution that’s simple to construct. My personal design calls for a strip of foam rubber folded lengthwise and taped into place. 



Better Than Your Memory

Keeping a music manuscript book nearby (or a few sheets of staff paper) makes it easy to jot down notes and rhythms. This quiet companion can come to the rescue in the rehearsal situation described earlier and it provides a place to capture your own bursts of creativity. Great licks and catchy tunes have grown from flashes of brilliance scribbled in a composer’s sketchbook. I like to keep a few sheets of unlined paper for taking notes in my mallet case along with the staff paper. 

Of course, you are going to need a pencil--with an eraser. It’s still low-tech and low-priced, yet many musicians do not make effective use of this hushed helper during practices and rehearsals. You need a pencil for writing music notation, taking notes, and for those personal markings on sheet music that remind and clarify. As soon as you decide on that sticking sequence, write in those rights and lefts. When you figure out which chord voicing on the vibes sounds best, put pencil to paper. Not only will this help during your current session, you will not waste time straining your brain when you resume practicing later. (Keep an old-school pencil sharpener in your mallet case--I do.)

Though never audible, the trap table, launching pad, paper, and pencil are part of my percussion set-up at every rehearsal. Form a partnership with these items and allow them to lend their silent aid to your music making.

Avoid Extraneous Tambourine Sound

It's simple to ensure a clean attack on shake tambourine. Watch this short tutorial video to find out how.  

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for more video tutorials.   www.youtube.com/marksheltonmusic

Tambourine Improv

Short tambourine improvisation with strong and weak subdivision accent technique

Easter 2017 Gateway Sandi Patty & Larnelle Harris

How great to play percussion for  seven services for Easter Weekend 2017 with my Gateway Worship pals--and work with Sandi Patty, Larnelle Harris, and Jay Rouse!   What talent!

Timbre Jam & Marimba Demo

Check out this short demo of Timbre Jam--along with marimba.  For more info on Timbre Jam, contact One Beat Better at www.onebeatbetter.com 

Stick Control

Among the hundreds of percussion instructional books available, there are several "classics" of teaching texts.   Stick Control is a favorite of mine and the "tape repair job" on my personal copy bears witness to the many times it has been used in my drumming career.  For three quarters of a century, drummers have sharpened their skills with this famous educational opus by George Lawrence Stone. Stick Control contains material that can benefit ANY percussionist (drum set player, hand percussionist, mallet player, orchestral percussionist, or drum circle enthusiast).   The first nine pages of exercises alone can increase your playing level.  Mr. Stone's tome gives variation upon variation of sticking patterns for many basic rhythms.   The exercises can be played with sticks on a single surface, executed on multiple surfaces (giving you some ideas for fills), and played with brushes "sliding" the patterns (an idea from drum set great Ed Soph).

Stick Control is currently published by Alfred Music.

Songs of Good Cheer

Clever arrangements combine with veteran Broadway actress Maureen Brennan's lyrical voice to create music that can function as either foreground or background listening. If you choose foreground listening, there's a lot of tasty musicianship to check out. Neil Grover (Boston Symphony percussionist and owner of Grover Pro Percussion) brings his arranging skills to the project along with percussion work that propels and colors with a graceful polish.  My favorite track is "What Child Is This?" with Neil laying down some shifting time signature doumbec licks.  

Songs of  Good Cheer is well-produced without being "over-produced."  

It is available as a CD or download from CDbaby. 

iTunes, Amazon and Google all have the download.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/maureenbrennan

In Harmony: Activate! Asks: Mark Shelton

In Harmony: Activate! Asks: Mark Shelton: How many years have you been teaching?   Over 30 years If you could have only one item in your teaching bag, what it...

PASIC 2016

 Wow!  A few days at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention 2016 provided me with big doses of information and inspiration.  Lots of great instruments and gear including the aFrame--an electronic frame drum from ATV Corporation www.atvcorporation.com

https://youtu.be/LJhF4E2bVrc

Matt Billingslea's clinic, Half Man, Half Machine: Exploring Sound Design, Hybrid Kits, and Samples gave me insight into how drummers are blending electronics with their acoustic kits.

The University of Tennessee at Martin World Ensemble's concert was lots of fun.  These college students performed with excellence along with showmanship and enthusiasm.  Great teaching from Dr. Julie Hill and Dr. Josh Smith. 

Always good to hang out with Neil Grover at the Grover Pro Percussion booth.  Check out the new Shakerz  at www.groverpropercussion.com

Divine Detours

When God is the hero of the story, it never ends in death. God's stories end in resurrection and life.

A recent publication from Gateway Create Publishing, Divine Detours provided me with some of those "hmmm" moments--when you read a sentence and you feel it resonate.  

In both my personal life and career, I have experienced God directing, stopping, redirecting, and re-inventing.  No wonder I connected with this book!

Pastor Sion Alford writes that Jesus' story did not end at a cross; and neither does yours.  The death of your dream opens the doorway to something better, more real, and more life-giving. 

As a musician, I enjoyed reading Sion's personal story as God moved the pharmacist to his current station as worship leader, songwriter, teacher, and administrator. 

An added bonus-- Divine Detours contains plenty of SHORT chapters.  You can read a chunk when you have a spare moment and then let it roll around in your brain.

Order Divine Detours at:

https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Detours-Messes-Plans-Paperback/dp/0996566260/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477501762&sr=8-1&keywords=sion+alford

Sion Alford serves as an Executive Worship Pastor at Gateway Church. 

 www.sionalford.com

Frame Drum Solo

Frame drumming virtuoso Glen Velez defines a frame drum as a single-headed drum with the measurement across the head exceeding the measurement of the depth of the shell.  The headed tambourine is a great example from our Western culture.  The Middle East region of the world gives us frame drums such as the riq, tar, and bendir.  

Could the drums mentioned in the Old Testament have been frame drums?  Did Miriam play a frame drum while singing and dancing?   

Here's a short improv frame drum solo from me.  Enjoy

Creativity is...

Steve Jobs said,  "Creativity is just connecting things."

That statement has the ring of truth.  Keep in mind that you have to collect those "things" so that you can have a stockpile in your brain at the ready when the creative moment is needed.  That is why it is important  to explore and grow as musicians.  LIsten to different styles of music...including pieces WITHOUT percussion. Check out methods of playing other than your favorites.  Read up on the newest innovations that you cannot afford...yet!  Attend concerts and clinics presented by great players that will inspire (and humble).

This "collecting for connecting" extends outside of music.  Studying other fields (history, visual art, dance, math, astronomy) can spark creativity in music.  

Devote some of your practice time to creativity. Improvise. 

As percussionists, our number of instruments keeps growing, the sources of educational media increases, and players continue to push the technical limits.

Be a lifelong learner.

Connect and Create !

Intelligent people are always ready to learn.  Their ears are open to knowledge.

Proverbs 18:18 New Living Translation
Scripture quotation from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

What techniques do you use to spark creativity?

Jesus, Holy Name

My songwriting pal Jonathan Malone and I composed this worship song recently.  Check out the lyric video for "Jesus, Holy Name."  

Danica Henry's sweet vocal delivers the simple--yet contemplative lyrics.  Jonathan Malone provides some tasty guitar along with a few well-placed licks from Danica's violin.

Jesus, Holy Name   (c) 2016 Mark Shelton & Jonathan Malone  

800-272-2249 

Drum Chart Builder

I had the pleasure of meeting Liz Ficalora a while back at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention.  Liz has designed a web-based drum charting software program that allows percussionists to create charts on their computers--and store them on their mobile devices.  

Check out the promo video below and head over to  www.drumchartbuilder.com for more info.

More info on Liz Ficalora at www.easydrumchart.com

RIQ Solo Demo

Check out a short improv demo on the RIQ (Middle Eastern tambourine). 
The RIQ (pron. RICK) is a frame drum with larger jingles (zils) than its Western culture cousin.

July/August Worship Musician!

 

Look for my interview with Todd Bragg (percussionist with Crowder) in the July/August Worship Musician!

 

Click on the link below and turn to page 40

 

 

http://joom.ag/ZhTQ

 

June Set-up of the Month

 

June Set-up of the Month

 

Todd Bragg's set-up for his percussion work with Crowder.

I met Todd several weeks ago at Gateway Men's Summit.  Look for an interview with Todd Bragg in the upcoming issue of Worship Musician!