Tips and tricks for setup, implements, and gear regarding playing percussion for Mean Girls High School Version.
I recently wrapped up a two week run of playing Mean Girls High School Version. From the beginning of my tenure as a theatre percussionist, I've always wanted a resource for percussionists playing various shows. A space that discusses things to watch out for, instrument recommendations, setup guides, and more. There are resources that exist, but not many in a collective document.
If you find yourself playing this show, I hope you find this resource useful!
Tip #1 - Build your Arsenal
This show has a lot of gear. It is the epitome of a percussionist's playground! There are some instruments that I opted to substitute out for various reasons but all in all, I'm quite happy with what I ended up with. The book calls for:
"Timpani, Tam-Tam, Crotales, Shaker, Tambourine, Djembe, Small Shaker, Triangle, Congas, Bongos, Glockenspiel, Egg Shaker, Suspended Cymbal, Mounted Tambourine, Gran Cassa, One-Shot Shaker, Bell Tree, Jam Blocks, Mini-Wuhan China, Ribbon Crasher, Orchestral Triangle, Small Cowbell, Eastern Finger Cymbals, Timbales, LP Mini-Timbales, China Cymbal, Claves, Wood Block, Dumbek."
Some important notes on the instrumentation:
This show requires the two largest timpani (29" and 32"). For many of the songs, the percussionist needs to play a low Db and unfortunately, thats just not feasible on the standard theatre setup of 26" and 29" set of drums.
I highly recommend using a djembe with a synthetic head. For the song "Fearless" it requires brushes to be played on the head of the drum. I got away with using my skin headed drum by using a Vater Monster Brush, but it may help relieve some stress. Also, a synthetic head will make it significantly easier to stop the pitch from dropping throughout the course of the run! (A price I unfortunately had to pay!)
For much of the triangle playing in this book, it was extremely helpful to have one of Billy Miller's "Miller Machines" and like most theatre shows I play, I think it's a necessity to have!
Unfortunately, I opted to substitute the LP Mini Timbales for bongos during this run and while I prefer to play exactly what's on the page, I don't believe it made a huge difference. However, if I were to play the show again, there are a few "feature" moments on the instrument that would be extremely beneficial to play on the real thing! I toyed around with using a piccolo tom, however the sound I was getting wasn't exactly working for me in context and trying to mount it turned out to be quite the challenge!
Tip #2 - Your setup matters!
Realistically, this should be rule number one for every percussion book (even though I have it as rule number 2!).
The best advice I've been given is to think of playing theatre percussion like you're in a pilot's cockpit, and for this show, it's a necessity! The sheer amount of quick changes kept me on my toes for every performance... this is not a show you can fall asleep playing!
I opted to have my hand drum setup be the instrument(s) facing the conductor, since a large portion of the show are played on these instruments. Timpani are also a major factor when determining where everything is going. I didn't love needing to look over my shoulder to the conductor when I played the drums, however to have the success I needed to have on the other instruments, this was the best option!
You may notice in the pictures that I had three stands and three stand lights. Outside of one of the songs, I broke a lot of "rules" by only using one copy of my music. Typically, it is helpful for a percussionist to have multiple copies throughout their setup so they don't need to squint too hard to see... but I still have young eyes! I use two of the stand lights to illuminate my auxiliary station and my timpani gauge. There's nothing worse than when the lights go out and you can't see what pitches you're tuning your drums to!
I was very fortunate to have a large amount of space at my disposal for this run, but often times percussionists need to work within spatial constraints and need to synthesize/substitute different instruments.
Tip #3 - Choose the right implements for the job
I experimented with a few different kinds of mallets and sticks before I finally settled on this array of tools for the show. Below is a short breakdown of what I used.
Glockenspiel: I settled on Dragonfly Percussion's 3/4" black glockenspiel mallets. All of the bell parts in the show are meant to be prominent, which these mallets do extremely well, and they sound great on both bells and crotales!
Sticks: While I opted not to use timbales, I use primarily timbale sticks for the show. They work well with cymbal hits, ribbon crasher, playing on bongo heads several times, tambourine, and are all around extremely versatile (and cheap when they break). I also will sometimes use a pair of Vic Firth SD12 swizzle sticks for when there are fast changes from timpani to tambourine! Unfortunately, Vic Firth has discontinued the swizzle sticks so if you can get ahold of a pair, they are a lifesaver for all musical theatre performances. As mentioned above, there is also one song (Fearless) that calls for brushes on a djembe. I used a skin head djembe and wanted brushes nowhere near the head of the drum! I opted to use a single Vater "Monster Brush" and it worked perfectly!
Timpani: Along with the SD12's, I use a pair of Innovative Percussion CT-3's. They aren't my favorite mallet for a lot of concert playing, but they work extremely well for this show!
Bass Drum/Tam-Tam: For the Bass Drum, I'm primarily using a Ludwig Payson L310 (which might be my current all-time favorite bass drum beater). For my tam-tam, I opted to go with the Dragonfly Percussion Resonance Series Medium Soft mallet. The combination of the two mallets are excellent for tam-tam and bass drum rolls and I have loved the impact sound and resonance I get out of them!
It's important to note that while in many concert settings, percussionists get caught up in having perfect implements for every situation. In a musical theatre setting, often the extreme subtleties get lost. The priority is to play the notes on the page and focus less on the nuanced differences in mallet choice.
Tip #4 - Get your hand drumming chops ready!
To use a phrase I often hear from my students, this show goes hard with hand drumming. The percussion book utilizes congas, bongos, djembe, and a dumbek. All four sets of drums have their own feature moments as well, however dumbek is certainly played the least out of the four drums. It isn't played at all in the first half but is compensated in the second half by being heavily featured in the song "Who's House is This?".
If you are not a hand drum player by trade, I highly recommend you sit down and play through some of these grooves prior to your first rehearsal. Rhythmically they aren't crazy, but the tonal differences happen quickly and for someone not used to differentiating their bass, tone, and slap sounds quickly, they may have some challenges.
If you don't own a dumbek, I suppose you could make a high bongo work for the moments its called for, depending on your tuning, but I believe it is essential for the featured moments!
Tip #5 - Be aware of what's around you
Both the percussion and the drums book are extremely prominent in this show. It is imperative that these two players (as always) are locked in on various grooves and hits. There are also many times throughout the show where the percussionist is colla voce with the actors on stage. In the song "Meet The Plastics" there is a very prominent glockenspiel duet with the actress playing Regina. While I went into the show thinking this would be a struggle, it was very easy to line up if you open your ears and anticipate the actress.
The show is filled with bombastic percussion feature moments. Know when it is your time to shine and when to fit into the other instrumentalists. If you want to play a show that's only about the percussionist, go play West Side Story (kidding! mostly....).
When playing timpani throughout this show, it is extremely important to be aware of your tuning in relation to the orchestra. Please do not use the bells to find your pitches! Timpani is an incredible ear workout and this show works your timpani ears out similarly to your thighs after two "leg days" in a row! In the song "Someone Gets Hurt" there are huge timpani roles that add a "subwoofer" role to the rest of the orchestra. It is extremely important to have these rolls in tune with the rest of the ensemble... not just the bells!
Do your best to determine "why" a specific note or phrase was included into the book. There wasn't a single moment where I wondered "what is my role here?". Ask questions such as "how do I fit into the overall blend?" and you will be incredibly successful throughout this show!
Do your job!
While there are a few "show specific" notes I touched on, all of the prep work that should be done leading up to a show must stay the same. Take the time to listen to recordings, look up setup pictures online, and play through the book BEFORE the first rehearsal. Many of the tips I included are relevant and can be applied to other shows too! Do these things and you'll be prepared for any show you're asked to play!
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