Tapping Into Tambourine Technique by Cary Nasatir
Like many auxiliary percussion instruments, the tambourine can present some real challenges for a young player.
Like many auxiliary percussion instruments, the tambourine can present some real challenges for a young player.
Sizes and models vary but I prefer a ten inch tambourine with a natural skin head and a double row of jingles. A synthetic head, however, may be a good alternative for school programs.
Your players have to master the use of the fingers at the edge of the tambourine head for delicate quarter and eighth notes at pp - mf dynamics. The four fingertips and thumb of the strong hand come together to a point and lightly tap the instrument. For louder passages, your player can make a fist and rap the center of the head sharply with the knuckles. The technique is like knocking on a door and should be struck just loud enough to make a "pop" sound.
To obtain a delicate sound at faster tempos, the player has to place his/her leg on a chair and lay the tambourine (head side down) on the top of the knee ( photo 1). Holding the instrument steady with both forearms, the fingertips are free to play light sixteenth notes at the drum's rim . For faster and louder passages, the leg remains on the chair while the drum is held in the player's weak hand (with the top of the head still facing down). The fist and knuckles of the other hand strike the inside of the drum while the weak hand moves the
instrument between the elevated knee and the knuckles (photo 2). This double action allows sixteenth notes to be played with the ease of eighth notes.
The tambourine shake is done by holding the instrument perpendicular to the floor with the weak hand while vigorously rotating the wrist. Low volume shakes should be executed less vigorously and near one's knee where the sound is soaked up by the musicians seated in front of the percussion section. Raising the tambourine to shoulder height projects the sound, thereby increasing the volume to the audience. The shake is almost always completed with a sharp rap of the knuckles from the strong hand in the middle of the drum head.
For short and delicate rolls, using the thumb is the accepted technique. The tambourine is held in the weak hand at an angle (head side up) in front of the player. The thumb of the strong hand is slightly moistened (by licking it) and pushed along the edge of the drum head creating just enough friction which in turn sets the jingles in motion (photo 3). This technique takes some time to obtain and needs serious practice time.
Looking at the drum head as a clock, the thumb travels from the 4:00 position to the 11:00 position. To make the friction easier to obtain, one can rub the edge of the drum head with beeswax or better yet a furniture repair "blend" stick (made by DAP) to create the necessary resistance. I purchased my first tambourine while still in high school from the great John Noonan in Chicago. His tambourine had a thin strip of fine sandpaper glued around the rim of the instrument. To this day I still use that method (and his tambourine!) to attain good friction for the thumb roll.
Headless models of tambourines, while great for Pop, Gospel, and musical theater, lack the tonality needed for classical, school, and ensemble literature.
The tambourine is also noted in music as Tamburo Basco (Italian); Becken Tambourine (German); and Tambour de Basque (French).
Cary Nasatir is the Director of the Nasatir School of Percussion in Castro
Valley, Ca; adjunct faculty member at Patten University (Oakland); percussion
coach to three San Francisco area schools; and author of "Praise And Worship
Drumming...A Guide To Playing In Church" (Hal Leonard Publishing). His
website is: http://www.nsopdrums.com
