TOUCH: Developing Subtlety and Nuance for Percussionists
TOUCH is Norman Weinberg's groundbreaking new book that challenges the percussionist to think of technique in an entirely different manner than other etude books. Instead of placing focus on difficult rhythms, odd time signatures, pyrotechnic speed, or endurance; the player's goal is approach and devise their own interpretations and techniques necessary to explore all musical parameters: melody, harmony, timbre, rhythm, dynamics, phrases, formal structure.
All too often, percussionists live within two different musical aesthetics. One is the world of metronomic and rhythmic precision, pyrotechnical displays of rhythmic complexity, unwavering dynamic relationships, uniformity of tonal quality, etc. The goal of this aesthetic is to “play the ink”. This style of percussive interpretation is most often displayed when the percussionist is performing on non-pitched instruments such as snare drum, tambourine, bass drum, wood block, triangle, etc.
The second world is inhabited when these same players perform on keyboard percussion instruments such as the marimba, vibraphone, orchestra bells, or xylophone. When performing on these instruments, the goal is often to play musically, with interpretation, and with style. Yet these familiar terms are quite difficult to accurately define. They are also difficult to assimilate without a deep understanding into how some of the world’s best musicians get “inside the printed page” to make their performances come alive with meaning and sincerity. TOUCH can help you achieve this elusive goal.
Gaining the ability to breath personality into a written musical passage by making artistic decisions based on the consideration of all musical parameters, is the intended purpose of TOUCH.
TOUCH is Norman Weinberg's groundbreaking new book that challenges the percussionist to think of technique in an entirely different manner than other etude books. Instead of placing focus on difficult rhythms, odd time signatures, pyrotechnic speed, or endurance; the player's goal is approach and devise their own interpretations and techniques necessary to explore all musical parameters: melody, harmony, timbre, rhythm, dynamics, phrases, formal structure.
All too often, percussionists live within two different musical aesthetics. One is the world of metronomic and rhythmic precision, pyrotechnical displays of rhythmic complexity, unwavering dynamic relationships, uniformity of tonal quality, etc. The goal of this aesthetic is to “play the ink”. This style of percussive interpretation is most often displayed when the percussionist is performing on non-pitched instruments such as snare drum, tambourine, bass drum, wood block, triangle, etc.
The second world is inhabited when these same players perform on keyboard percussion instruments such as the marimba, vibraphone, orchestra bells, or xylophone. When performing on these instruments, the goal is often to play musically, with interpretation, and with style. Yet these familiar terms are quite difficult to accurately define. They are also difficult to assimilate without a deep understanding into how some of the world’s best musicians get “inside the printed page” to make their performances come alive with meaning and sincerity. TOUCH can help you achieve this elusive goal.
Gaining the ability to breath personality into a written musical passage by making artistic decisions based on the consideration of all musical parameters, is the intended purpose of TOUCH.
Steven Schick
Percussionists search their entire lives for just the right touch. It’s an elusive quality because good touch on an instrument is more than just good technique. It requires context in the form of applying just the right energy at just the right moment. Until now that seemed like alchemy, but Norman Weinberg’s fascinating new book TOUCH, with its 25 études built upon well-known orchestral excerpts, stresses nuance and subtlety, the very components of good touch. Student percussionists who work through Weinberg’s book with open ears and minds might find that developing a good touch is not as elusive as it seems.
Mark Ford
Norm Weinberg's new book, Touch: Developing Subtlety and Nuance for Percussionists, focuses on the most important aspect for students: real music! This book is unique and progressive as it requires students to listen to orchestral masterworks while also learning touch and timing on the snare drum. Weinberg's book actually trains the students' ears as it addresses musicality, balance and phrasing. Quite an achievement!”
Michael Compitello
Touch can be phenomenological. A musician with great touch might elicit a gasp from a single note. Touch is also syntactical. Musicians with great touch use instantaneous sonic flexibility to create nuance, inflection, and ultimately style. Percussionists with wonderful touch have myriad sonic personalities, mobilizing all parameters of their playing in service of a musical goal.
Dr. Norman Weinberg's Touch posits that technique is but a subset of expressive virtuosity. We grow when musical exigency challenges our practice, and Touch provides ample inspiration to explore the limits of our physical technique in service of infinite expressive moments.
I love that Touch simultaneously develops knowledge of repertoire, expressive range, and interpretive creativity. Dr. Weinberg deemphasizes convenience and habit and inspires us to explore every way in which we can infuse our playing with nuance, character, and clarity. It pushes the regimented towards the ephemeral, and encourages the spontaneous to organize their playing within the framework of unforgettable performances. It’s a text for nerds and neophytes, and represents the type of musical goals towards which all percussionists should strive.
Dr. Norman Weinberg's Touch posits that technique is but a subset of expressive virtuosity. We grow when musical exigency challenges our practice, and Touch provides ample inspiration to explore the limits of our physical technique in service of infinite expressive moments.
I love that Touch simultaneously develops knowledge of repertoire, expressive range, and interpretive creativity. Dr. Weinberg deemphasizes convenience and habit and inspires us to explore every way in which we can infuse our playing with nuance, character, and clarity. It pushes the regimented towards the ephemeral, and encourages the spontaneous to organize their playing within the framework of unforgettable performances. It’s a text for nerds and neophytes, and represents the type of musical goals towards which all percussionists should strive.
Megan Arns
As a musician, having a great touch means truly allowing the instrument to speak. The human is the mind behind the music, the implements are the tools, and the instrument itself is the voice.
Dame Evelyn Glennie CH, DBE
The sense of touch can be the most profound sense of connection we have to our world. For musicians, touch is the glue to our sound story; it is the bridge that defines us as sound creators. Touch is a form of listening internally, our bodies becoming a huge ear, transforming what is within outwards. Whether we touch another human, an animal, a flower or a musical instrument it generates emotions that light up all of our senses. Touch is like a river – always flowing; a never-ending journey of discovery that ignites new wonders and appreciation towards our skills to paint sound onto our performance canvas.
Keith Aleo
Musicality and touch on percussion instruments is the core to developing into an expressive and communicative musician. Norman Weinberg’s fantastic book entitled Touch embraces subtlety and nuance and gives percussionists a path toward musical expression and thoughtful sound production. This book is an invaluable resource to all percussionists at any level and age.
Peter Erskine
When it comes to percussion, touch has everything in the world to do with tone. A hard or brittle touch will result in a hard, brittle sound. A touch that allows the stick or mallet to breathe and the surface of the instrument to sing will produce a musical tone. This is true for the timpani, marimba, triangle, ride cymbal, or tom-tom. The word that most comes to mind in terms of musical association with touch — after tone — is ‘legato.’ The musical soul seeks notes, utterances and sounds that connect to one another.
TOUCH Overview
Using TOUCH
Rimsky-Korsakov Etude with Introduction
Prokofiev Etude with Introduction
Mahler Etude with Introduction
TOUCH Overview
Using TOUCH
Rimsky-Korsakov Etude with Introduction
Prokofiev Etude with Introduction
Mahler Etude with Introduction