If you look at the Symphony for Youtube, Tan Dun has the LSO percussionists hitting the inside of tires. It makes for a cool affect.

Oh my god! Jonathan Lipnicki will be grated to ribbons! Noooooo!

This is a little unusual but if you shake a large piece of plexi glass it makes an awesome noise.

The ol' hammer on a break drum is a definite classic. Also, nylon tip sticks on the bottoms of old paint cans and coffee cans are fun. Also done triangle beaters on.... anything - trash can lids, metal pipes etc. basically any metal on metal is great fun!

Mahler hammer!

Best percussion instrument ever.

You could try a chime mallet on a snare drum, snapping a rubber band on a bass drum, or perhaps rolling a cymbal on a flat bass drum.

You could try bowing the chimes as well.

Also, if you have a piano, you can have them press the sustain pedal, and do a glissando with something like a pencil, or a triangle beater, on the two lower sets of strings (not keys), and that creates a really neat effect

clave resting on a bass drum hit with another clave

also

anvil from the shop room with hit with a really big hammer

Have them take a sledge and ram it into the biggest gong they have....I say if you can't think of anything subtle, just write something as loud and obnoxious as possible. Works everytime ;).

I love, love, LOVE it when you post about the music you're working on. The very first time I read your blog was when Dick and Cheryl Floyd pointing me in this direction to read what you had posted about your process as you were creating Undertow.

In the meantime I've come to enjoy your posts on food, home remodeling (NICE job, by the way), and Christmas decorations. But most of all, I love the posts that give a little hint of what goes on inside your head when you're working. I'm fascinated by the creative process.

Thanks for sharing it!

How about they hit the band kids that fail....

Just kidding!

Or am I?
~C

Last year when UT played Rouse's "Wolf Rounds" I had a part for a large plywood board played with two hammers - lots of fun (choppy, too). Probably my favorite "found percussion" part was from Thom Hasenpflug's Euonymus Alatus, when I played three salsa jars (I used rosewood xylo mallets); we premiered that piece at PASIC in 2006. I've also played "jar with pebbles" and "cymbal with skewer" in a Chris Deane perc. ens. piece. Auto springs are loud and different-sounding, and easy to find or get. Metal chains sound cool in various sized tin cans, or in metal mixing bowls. I imagine that a hotel pan, hung on a rack, would make a great hammer target. As far as effect sounds go, some standards include the cymbal on pedaled timpani trick; using bows on gongs, cymbals, etc., to make an awesome screechy sound; chime scrapes, which are very loud and fun to play, especially if you use brass bell mallets; and the water gong, which has always been a personal favorite (probably too messy for middle schoolers though). The ribbon crasher, while technically a percussion instrument, is one of the best sounds EVER, and stacking a china splash or EFX cymbal on a smaller crash cymbal makes a great trashy sound. Zildjian used to make something called an Earth Plate, basically a cymbal that hasn't been hammered, that are clanky and piercing - I think Sabian still makes something similar (Sound Plate?).

Non-metal options include anything made from wood, for instance the Lang marimbas used in So-Called Laws of Nature, or from PVC - you can cut PVC pipes to specific lengths to achieve specific pitches and then play them with sticks (marching snare sticks will help with projection). Flowerpots and other "china"/clay instruments like mugs are becoming common. Using maracas instead of sticks on almost anything is neat and Tony Edwards recently came up with a pill-bottle maraca stick that is really effective. Pouring something like pebbles, coins, or nails into a headed tambourine is kind of a cool effect, and by the same token, hitting a bass drum with rice on the head is an interesting variation. You can lay chains across vibes to make the sustain rattle. Metal pipes are fun to play and also to play with, a la handrails that no young percussionist can resist hitting. What about a metal water pitcher or coffee pot? Trash cans are fine but sort of stock, and it might get pricey for a middle school to rehearse with them if the players destroy them in the process (tin cans are less expensive to replace). I wonder if corrugated metal sheeting, like for roofs, would sound any different than a standard thundersheet - I've never tried it but I'd be interested to know. Anytime you combine metals (using finger cymbals to play vibes, crotales to play bells, maybe a cowbell to hit a gong...) you're going to get new and interesting sounds.

We have a lot of random stuff up in the studio (6.222) at UT. We keep it around to play Cage, Crumb, and other assorted crazy perc. ens. pieces. You're welcome to come explore any time.

Speaking of loud... you should stop by some time when we're rehearsing Xenakis' Peaux. Six people playing unison rooftop hits at ffff in a low-ceilinged room = earth-shaking.

Oh yeah, I forgot: oxygen tanks.

Whatever they used to make the laser sounds off Star Wars. Its a hammer hitting an antenna wire, but for the life of me I have no idea how you could get an antenna in a concert hall...

Here's some ideas:

- Usualy a school's percussion section has a case full of wistles, you could get everyone to blow a different wistle at the same time.

- A timpani with maraca mallets (they shake when you hit the drum. I saw CSU do this in one of their pieces.

- A klaxon, like in "Traffic" by Thomas Doss.

- A rain stick

- You could hit the tubes of a marimba or a vibraphone.

- You could "Blue Man Group" the percussion section and get some one to play on pbc pipes.

Here's an article on Savage Aural Hotbed, a local band who will play anything as an instrument:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/06/savageauralhotbed/

Also the director of our CD label is an environmental sound artist/instrument maker who made a bunch of instruments with kids this past summer:
http://oddsandendsorchestra.blogspot.com/

Hit the backside of the divot in the middle of a big gong with a soft mallet. It's pretty cool.

Asphalt Cocktail is premiering before March? I burst with glee.

Well, the Asphalt Cocktail performance next Tuesday won't really be the "official" world premiere, but yes, there will be a public performance next Tuesday night. Chances are, I'll revise it after that (and before the "official" premiere at the end of March).

will you post this tuesday's recording or not?

Just to let you know, its The Association of Texas Small School Bands www.atssb.org

Alex - I don't know yet if I'll post Tuesday's recording. It depends on how substantially I want to change the piece after I hear it.

Jason - thanks! I made the correction.

Wow I had no Idea Texas Tech's Wind Ensemble was gonna be there, what an unexpected surprise!

Now that I think about it, I'll probably be in rehearsal...