Over my years as a player and educator I found myself particularly curious about the objective nature of our instruments and how they physically produce sound. This curiosity spawned from 1. Wanting to be able to be as precise as possible in my direction to students and 2. To be able to have as much control in the creative decisions I made on stage. There have been so many moments over the years where the perfect ‘sound’ came from my instrument and I couldn’t recreate it again. I wanted to know WHY it sounded the way it did. This brought me to this question: What is touch?

In my opinion, touch is the ability to react to what the instrument is giving to you in terms of sound, color, articulation, and resonance.

In this class, I will go through a selection of instruments (snare drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, cymbals, tambourine, triangle, and bass drum) with the help of etudes and orchestral repertoire to get into the nuance of these instruments, how they work, and how to explore and control the range of sounds within each one.

The class is a great opportunity to not only hear about these topics, but hear a wide range of orchestral excerpts performed.