Brandon Levesque’s percussion setup for Rhode Island College’s production of Seussical.
Read Brandon's write-up about the show, below the photos.
“I thoroughly enjoyed playing the percussion book for Seussical. There is not too much down time and I never felt rushed. The musical has a little bit of everything in it; mallets, timpani, latin percussion and plenty of accessories. As always I needed to figure out the best way to set up so I could get to everything with relative ease. I decided to have the main music stand centered between the xylophone/bells and the latin percussion instruments (bongos, djembe, congas) since those are played most often. The timpani were set off to the back because the timpani part is not that difficult and I was still able to see the music from that distance. I placed the vibraphone off to the right-hand side with an added music stand. The vibraphone part is not as busy as the bells and xylophone.
Instruments I left out were chimes (no room so I doubled on bells) and crotales. For the crotale sound, I cut a timbale mallet down and screwed a finger cymbal to the top, using that as a mallet on the bells. It gave a different timbre instead of using a normal bell mallet on the bells.
Also, there is one marimba part which states marimba/vibraphone so I chose to play it on the vibes."
Equipment List:
- Yamaha Timpani - 29” & 26”
- Musser M39 Xylophone
- Musser M645 Bells
- Musser M48 Vibraphone
- LP Aspire Congas - 11” & 10”
- LP Matador Bongos
- LP Cowbells - 2 different sizes
- Djembe (mounted on a concert snare drum stand)
- PDP 10" Mini Timbale
- LP Multi-Guiro (LP 452) - used for the 3 scrapes in song 20A, measure 29
- Meinl Luis Conte Shaker - Black
- Grover Tambourine - German Silver/Bronze Combo
- Miller Machine for Finger Cymbal
- Miller Machine for Triangle
- LP Granite Blocks (only need the top row of three)
- LP Cabasa (used for two measures)
- Zildjian A 15" Custom Crash
- Sleigh Bells
- Steve Weiss Ratchet
- TreeWorks Chimes
- Carroll Bell Tree
- Acme Siren Whistle
- Samba Whistle
- Vibraslap
- “Counter” Bell - took one off the counter at the school where I work
- Pop Gun (one pop for the entire musical)
- Rainstick
Seussical - Regional - Brandon Levesque
April 2017
