COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

PHOTO CREDIT: tomtommag.com 10 hilarious ways you know that you (or someone you know) was in drumline !  Ear plugs were for sissies Only wimps wear ear plugs, right? Forget the fact that you will be deaf by the time you are thirty. Better save up for hearing aids now! You practiced in the band uniform closet For some reason, almost every drumline I knew was forced to practice in the smallest possible quarters, which usually meant the uniform closet or the band storage area. You know what a triple paradiddle is Paradiddles , ratamacues, rudiments, flamadiddles and Swiss army triplets - What can it mean? Well, if you are in drumline, you know. If not, then you can go back to playing clarinet. A spare drumstick was hidden on your person Every drummer has dropped a stick mid- marching band routine. But only the good ones have a hidden place for a spare stick, usually under the marching snare drum harness. You have ever played a bullet-proof dr...

Composer's Guide to Drums and Percussion: Top 10 Mistakes when Composing for Percussion Instruments How to avoid the pitfalls amateurs make when writing music for percussion.  Real advice from a REAL PERCUSSIONIST. TOP 10 MISTAKES WHEN WRITING FOR PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS 10. Indicating the wrong mallets for an instrument. Brass mallets on vibes? Try a hammer on a violin! 9. Writing the glockenspiel part as heard. You shouldn't have to climb a ladder of leger lines to read a glock part. Keep it in the staff. 8. When in doubt, adding more suspended cymbal . This is a huge mistake made by arrangers. Yep, cymbals add automatic intensity to a piece, but so can a bass drum roll, a rousing hand drum part, exciting mallet licks, or a hundred other combinations. Well-written percussion parts stand out in the band and church repertoire. 7. Better means more complicated, right? This is my main mistake. A percussion part can be simple enough for a middle school, bu...

The Composer 's Daughter: A Mother's Recollection  A young mother recollects musical memories  about her new baby in this heartfelt story. Strangers say she has the slender fingers of a pianist. She grimaces at minor seconds and is lulled to sleep by the rhythm of the pounding drums. She cries as cluster chords play electronic strains and is fascinated by the simple strumming of the melodic mandolin. She smiles as her mother sings a half-forgotten lullaby and shuts her eyes at the clash of clanging cymbals. She is the composer's daughter. As I hold her tiny, pink, pillowy body closely to my gently beating heart, I wonder if the nearly ten months she spent in my womb has left any permanent musical impressions on her. I remember the rhythmic kicks she gave me from within when I stubbornly insisted on playing drum set seven months into the pregnancy, my bulging belly only a centimeter's distance from the piercing snare drum . I think of the hours I performed on...