Percussion Instrument Review

On Saturday, October 19th, I attended the IVCC Day of the Arts. I decided that I would personally enjoy the percussion workshop because I really had no background on percussion instruments and I wanted to learn something new. Paul Hayes, previous IVCC student who instructed the workshop, was very informative when talking about the specific percussion instruments. He first showed us the upright frame drumming techniques on the Bendir, a type of frame drum, that contained snares. Hayes continued to show us many of the other percussion instruments that he had brought along including the Doumbek, nicknamed the goblet drum for its shape, the Riq, which contained tiny cymbals along the edges known as jingles, and the Congas, which are more prevalent

The frame drum is basically a handheld percussion instrument that is held and played with the hands. It is usually made from wood and is more hollow than it is wide with a somewhat curved opening on the edge of the instrument for the player to allow their hand to rest. When played, simply by striking the instrument with the hand in any particular fashion before learning the proper way to hold it, I noticed that the Bendir produced a seemingly thick and deep tone with some resonance due to the snares that were located on the hollow side. I found it very interesting that there were actually many different stroke types that would produce different sounds; these being the Dum, Tek, Pah, and the many different forms for fast fingers. The Dum stroke involved the ring finger striking the center of the frame drum and it produced a lower pitched sound. The Tek stroke, similarly using the ring finger, involved striking the instrument at the edge to produce a higher pitched tone. The Pah stroke is executed by striking the center of the Bendir with a cupped hand and it produced a lower tone, but the snares did not seem to cause any resonance. Paul then gave us some time to soak up the information that he had given us about the many stroke types, and he gave us some time to try it for ourselves.

The Rik has two different ways of being held which Hayes demonstrated including the Cabaret position, where the instrument is held only in the left hand with the thumb holding a jingle, and the Soft position, which is held with both hands with the thumbs holding the frame and the index finger to mute it. The Riq has similar techniques for strokes including the Dum, Tek, and Pah played specifically for the position that the Rik is being held with the exception of the Pah stroke. Hayes demonstrated this instrument through the piece he performed called the Manta Ray Dance, which, dynamically was medium loud throughout with the tempo being very fast for the majority of the piece. The piece started out with just the jingles being played and then incorporated the drum starting towards the bottom of the first page of the piece. When listening to the particular piece, it was obvious that it had been derived from Africa, specifically Egypt and Syria, because of how highly rhythmic the piece was. The particular piece gave off a vibe that almost made the listener want to get out of their seat and dance to the sound of