Sunday 17 June 2007

Percussion Music Online - MP3's, videos and information for all Percussion Sheet Music

Late 2006 I published a website service for percussionists, drummers and teachers of all ages. My objective being to provide students and teachers with the very best in composition research, promote new music and create an online community of musicians specializing in the practical performance of drums and percussion.

The site has developed a great deal recently and I have already collaborated with several major publishing companies to provide members with a comprehensive catalogue, promoting literature written for drummers and percussionists. Our ever-growing collection of music offers in-depth performance information, programme notes, composer biographies, instrumentation requirements, personnel, composition details and much, much more.

I started the site after being asked to teach at a music college in the United Kingdom. I thought it would be useful for my students to research information about music written for percussion and give them the opportunity to find music themselves using the site. The recent development has seen plans to include MP3 and video tutorials from percussion artsits explaining technical issues relating to certain pieces of music and how to overcome them.

When designing the site I decided to seperate percussion music into 9 different categories. These being the following:

Drum Set
Contains information, MP3s and videos of solos and ensembles, written for drum kit. Elementary / beginner to advanced / professional. Funk, Swing, Bossa Nova, Rock and many more styles. Drum kit solos with CD backing tracks, rudimental kit pieces and much more can be found under this section.

Education
Here you will find information, MP3s and videos of many simple but effective tuned and untuned compositions for elementary / beginner percussion students. Great listings for any school percussion ensemble or younger students performing solo compositions.

Mixed Chamber Ensemble
If you are looking for percussion with a little difference then perhaps combine your instrument with one from another instrumental family. Great ideas here from Flute and Untuned / Multi Setup to Vibraphone and Saxophone. Check out information, MP3s and videos to find a piece that is most suited to you!

Percussion Ensemble
A fantastic archive of information, MP3s and videos for percussion ensemble / group music. If you are a teacher or ensemble director you will find some great music in this section.

Snare Drum
A full range of music for snare drum. Elementary / beginner pieces to advanced / professional. Rudimental studies including single stroke roll, double stroke roll, flam, flam accent, flam tap, flamacue, flam paradiddle, single flammed mill, flam paradiddle-diddle, pataflafla, swiss army triplet, inverted flam tap, flam drag, ratamacue and much more. Information, MP3s and video clips should help you find the perfect piece!

Timpani
A unique list of Timpani pieces. Our information, MP3 and video clip archives should help you find a suitable piece for your recital!

Tuned Percussion
A fantastic selection of tuned percussion pieces here. A wide range of music for marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and much more... Experimental pieces for 2 and 4 mallet technique. Fantastic recital pieces can be found in this section. You can also check out the music first by exploring information, MP3 clips and videos.

Untuned / Multiple Percussion
Contains information of music written for Untuned / Multiple Percussion. Listen to our MP3 archives as we show you some groovy pieces for multi-percussion setups! An infinate amount of instruments under this category but to list a few, Bass drums, Tom-Toms, WoodBlocks, Cowbells, Snare Drums, Tambourines, Maracas, Bongos, Congas and much more....

World Percussion
Here you will find information, MP3s and videos of many World percussion solos. From darbukas to frame drum solos, you will find a wide variety of music for ethnic instruments. If you are looking for something a little different to put in a recital you may just find it here!


A recent review from PAS Percussive notes:

"This website established in 2006 seeks to provide an online database of percussion literature. The design is sleek and easy to navigate. In order to view the database you need to register but basic registration is instantaneous and free of charge. Upon selecting a composition you are transported to a page presenting a slew of information including, composer biography, number of players, instrumentation, programme notes, duration and publisher details. The database is organised alphabetically by title, but can be filtered to show compositions of a specific type (e.g. mixed chamber ensemble). As of this writing there were 1000 members registered and 144 compositions in the database, although a note from the creators indicates further growth.

David Whitman

For more information please visit http://www.percussionmusiconline.com/