Category Archives: Percussion Axiom TV

Percussion Axiom #29

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The recent Percussion Axiom TV episode 29 is available on YouTube as well as Thomas Burritt’s web site. In the recent episode he continues providing insight and instruction to Gordon Stout’s Etude #3 from book 1. Take 10 minutes to listen on the video below.

This episode is focused on the middle section of the piece which is filled with many scalar passages with double vertical octaves in each hand. There is also just a hint of melody although I am not sure if a 20th century octatonic piece can have a melody. Measure 15 has a really nice little pattern that initially was hard to understand, but once I understood what was happening in each hand, it grooves nicely.

I have posted my first attempt at this passage after about 2 hours of practicing on YouTube and also at the bottom of this post.

Learning an Etude online

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As part of the Percussion Axiom TV weekly podcast by Thomas Burritt, I am learning Gordon Stout’s Etude #3 from Book 1 of Etudes. If you want to follow along, feel free to sign up for the weekly podcast.

One of the ways to assist in learning a new piece is to record yourself playing it and critique yourself. With the available tools in many computers, and hosting web sites like YouTube, you can take that one step further and post your videos for others to view and post comments.

I have posted my first 4 attempts of measures 1-14 of this piece on YouTube in the MarimbaSass channel.

This effort has payed off already as I received a comment saying that I was playing a part of one of the measures in the wrong octave. I went back to the music and confirmed he was correct. Take 4 now has the corrected notes. Now that is a real use of these Web 2.0 social media tools. For the other marimbists learning the piece, feel free to post your playing too!