If you’re looking for help with Arkansas All-Region and All-State Percussion Auditions, here are some play-along tracks that might be of some help. The first is a play-along track for Cirone’s Snare Etude No. 10. The notated snare drum rhythms are duplicated by the melody. The second is a play-along track for Goldenberg’s Etude XX. You’ll hear the melody in the piano part. The orchestral accompaniment helps add interest and clarify phrasing. If you have any questions, you can email me by clicking on the envelope icon at the top or bottom of this page. - Dr. Tyson
Power of Ten (Play-along for Etude 10)
Written to demonstrate how to think melodically (and harmonically) about the rhythmic content of snare drum solos. Written for piano with string orchestra, It is based off the rhythms of Etude 10 from Cirone’s Portraits in Rhythm.
There are two mp3s here. One at performance tempo, the other 72 bpm. The tracks start with a one measure intro.
Power of Ten at practice tempo (59 bpm)
Power of Ten at marked tempo (69 bpm)
Bearded Ogre Logjam Tune (play-along for Etude XX)
The title Bearded Ogre Logjam Tune is an anagram of “Goldenberg Etude Twenty.” I hope the play-along tracks below help with your accuracy, consistency of tempo, and phrasing. There’s a brief intro on each track to establish the tempo.
Etude XX accompaniment practice tempo (72 bpm)
Etude XX accompaniment performance tempo (85 bpm)
Below are more play-along tracks, music resources, and articles you might find interesting.
Scale Exercises
This exercise uses the ii-V-I chord progression in a bossa nova style. The sheet music for the scale patterns can be downloaded below. There are also play-along tracks at four different tempos.
Sheet music for Bossa Nova Scale Exercise
We Ride at Dawn (mp3)
Written as a play along track for Etude 13 from Intermediate Snare Drum Studies by Mitchell Peters to help demonstrate how to play snare drum with musical (and even melodic) phrasing and gestures. Download by clicking the link above.
23 for Tony
A brief “piano concerto.” The solo part is built on the rhythms from Etude 23 from Portraits in Rhythm. Download by clicking the link above. Download by clicking the link above.
Ten Tiny Rhinoceri (cirone ThiRTy-nine)
An orchestral piece based on the rhythms of Etude 39 from Portraits in Rhythm by Anthony Cirone (the title is an anagram of Cirone Thirty-Nine. You can us this as a play-along for the etude. Click the main link above to download the version at the written tempo. There are two mp3s below at slower tempos.
Bach Violin Concerto in a minor (3rd movement)
Learning this piece for Arkansas All-Region and All-State auditions? Click the link above to download the midi play-along track of the orchestral accompaniment. This track’s tempo dotted quarter equals 112 bpm.
Need a slower version for practice? Here’s the same accompaniment at dotted quarter equals 92 bpm.
Resources for Sight Reading Practice
Rhythmical Articulation by Bona
Bona’s collection of short etudes has helped improved the sight reading of generations of musicians. This pdf will work well in electronic format. Because the scan is of a very old copy, it would be best to convert to black and white adjust the contrast to help remove the discoloration of the aged pages. Otherwise, printing may take a very long time. Or, you can buy a new copy of the book for around $10.
First published in 1919, this book covers a great deal ground on all the orchestral percussion instruments. This is just an excerpt that contains the studies for keyboard percussion.
Marimba Mozambique (PDF)
Step by step notation of how to learn the rhythm and sticking for the “Gadd Mozambique” on marimba (that can then be applied to drum set)
In Defense of Unserious Music
A short article about composing and listening to all kinds of music