& Thursday, February 28

& Monday, February 25

& Tuesday, February 19

& Saturday, February 16

MERE WAS MY VALENTINE ON THURSDAY.

Huge load of polishing done on friday. my hands have never felt so dirty in band.

the before and after photos are really bad though. you should be there so compare for yourself.

you'll be amazed D:

theres 47 DAYS and 12 PRATICES LEFT.

if you ask me, its as close as tomorrow .

please work hard.

Love, oli.

& Thursday, February 7

& Sunday, February 3

EDIT: click the url seriously, its alot easier on your eyes
Hello friends!

for those of you who asked me on friday , " whats a tam tam?"
and i replied " a tom tom" HAHAHA ( it sounds stupid when you type it out)

i was wrong haha. a tam tam is actually a gong.

Here's the exact definition and description:

Among percussionists, tam-tams are instruments very similar to the gong. There are two distinctions between "gong" and "tam-tam":

1)The center of a gong has a protrusion opposite the natural curve of the saucer-shape, whereas the center of a tam-tam is flat.

2)A gong is meant to produce a long and sustained tonal sound, whereas a tam-tam is more aimed towards producing a shorter and louder crashing sound.

Uses for the tam-tam are virtually limitless. The tam-tam can be used for some background ambient sounds, or for loud crashing accents. They are employed in "classical" genres more often than most people are aware of. There have also been several rock bands that have used this instrument, although almost always incorrectly.

How to Play the Tam-Tam

First you must select a mallet or beater. As opposed to a gong, you will want to use a mallet with a softer head. Most proper tam-tam mallets resemble oddly-shaped hammers. The shaft and most of the head are usually wooden, and the part (or parts) of the head intended to strike the tam-tam will have a thick cotton covering.

For describing playing technique, I'll be assuming that you are right-handed. Stand facing the tam-tam with the right half of your body being directly in front of the face of the tam-tam, while the left-side of your body is outside the instrument. Stand about 10-12 inches away from the striking side. Now angle your body about 30 degrees to your right and extend your left leg out a bit. Grip the mallet/beater similar to that of a baseball bat. Your stance should now be sort of like you are about to perform a slapshot in hockey. It should be pretty comfortable (for a short period of time), so adjust if it feels too strange.

Now that you know how to stand, you need to learn how to strike the tam-tam. Everything I am about to describe is critical to not only producing a good sound, but also to avoid damaging the very expensive instrument.

Before playing any actual notes, you will need to "warm up" the tam-tam. This is accomplished by doing light taps around the tam-tam with the mallet. You want to do these taps right between the (usually colored) center area of the tam-tam and its perimeter. Do the light taps in a circle (clockwise or counter-clockwise doesn't really matter) while being careful not to produce too much vibration. Too much vibration would make your taps audible, so if you start to hear yourself, play softer.

You are moving your mallet along the tam-tam keeping an even vibration. Now you are ready to strike and play your note. Never ever strike the tam-tam directly in the center! Doing so will likely break it on contact or create a lot of microcracking that will shorten its lifespan. Instead, strike above the center of the tam-tam. You want to hit it just a little bit closer to the middle than when you were warming it up.

**CRASSSHHH** You just produced a huge sound (or sometimes small one depending on the music you're reading and how you struck it) and this baby is going to ring for a very long time. That means you have to "cool down" tam-tam. Again, this is strictly governed by the music. To do the fastest muffle possible, you'll press your arm and body into the front of the tam-tam while reaching around and laying your other arm across the other side of the metal monster. When doing this, make sure that you don't have anything metallic to ram into the tam-tam (such as a belt buckle or a set of keys). It's not too dissimilar from the way Steve Irwin jumps on a crocodile. This method isn't very good for the health of the tam-tam, but some music requires it. Not to mention that it's fun.

Most likely, though, you'll want to do a gradual cool down. An easy method for this is to step behind the tam-tam and then press the palms of your hands on the back of the instrument and then removing them again at regular intervals. You do this over and over again until you have silenced the tam-tam where you desire

STOP SCROLLING. I BET YOU JUST SCROLLED THROUGH THE WHOLE THING AND ONLY READ THE FIRST AND LAST SENTENCE. RIGHT? RIGHT? RIGHT?

now please go back up and read every single word because that information is extremely useful and easy to understand. or click here so dont just scroll through it! read it carefully. its very detailed and very very helpful . and actually, most of it has already been taught by mr j .

PLEASE read it! especially sec threes and twos cos theres a tam tam part for symphony 5.
ive sent the recording to most of your emails but if you didnt get it, you can ask me! ( oli haha ).

i currently dont have a picture of a tam tam but based on the description that its flat in the centre, i think its the one PB has, aka the one ariel and juli played for renegade or the one vanessa played for safari AND! famously, the one that descended on jaslynn's toe.

but then again ah! if you look at this website (click) , and scroll all the way to the bottom, the comment says that another name for the tam tam is a tom tom.

SO IM NOT WRONG. HAHA in terms of name though.

ah well.
its a big big wolrd of instruments. ( omg corny)

i hope this answers most of your questions!

love oli (((((((((:

60 DAYS AND 15 BAND PRACTICES LEFT.




hahahahah omg i took this picture and i think its fucking cool.



and just for the fun of it...

& Saturday, February 2

HI ALL!
61 MORE DAYS!
61 more days!
61 more days!
61 more days!
61 more days!

its gonna be 60 days in half an hour!
have to work our ass off yo.
anyway,i was bored,
and i tried searching ,looking at different
type of cymbals.
HERE ARE SOME REALLY AWSOME ONES!
LOOK!

HOW I WISH OUR DRUM SET HAS
THAT MANY CYMBALS!

IN CASE YOU DON"T KNOW,
this is part of a high-hat.

OH OH!AND THIS ONE!
DAMN COOL OK!
its called a spiral cymbal!

AND THIS ONE!!
PLATINUM CRASH CYMBALS OK!
it cost around like $6000 plus.
I WANT!

know what.i don't mind polishing all
the cymbals up there.
but i think i'll take like a day to do that.



61~

& profile