Rob Guilford's combined percussion setup for Tarzan at the White Plains Performing Arts Center in White Plains, New York.
"The original instrumentation for Tarzan requires one drumset player and two percussionists. The Musical Director for this run decided to combine both percussion books, and this is the solution that I came up with. I wanted to get the setup as tight as possible so I decided to put the congas up on LP’s conga feet and the djembe up on Pearl’s All-Fit stand. Getting around the drums couldn’t have been easier, and the sound guys loved it too!
The book that the MD arranged focused mainly on the hand drums and groove percussion, which led to some very fun opportunities for multitasking in order to cover all of the original parts. I used the LP Hi-Hat Shekere/Tambourine to fill out the texture on numbers that originally featured shaker and congas/djembe, but I really needed both hands free to drum. The only big compromise that I had to make was on the djun djun, there was no room for one in the pit, but I was able to use a stick on the lowest conga to mimic it quite nicely.
Over on the left side, I’ve got the malletKAT and most of my 'orchestral' accessories. Space was very tight in the theater, so having the malletKAT for all of the mallet and timpani parts was a lifesaver. MainStage worked flawlessly throughout the entire run of the show and was very easy to set up with the malletKAT. As always, the two Miller Machines made short work out of the quick transitions in the book. All in all, this show was a ton of fun to play!"
Drums:
- Freedom Drums 16” x 7” Talking Drum
- LP Giovanni Requinto
- LP Giovanni Quinto
- Meinl Headliner Conga
- Ludwig 13” Floor Tom
- Ludwig and Leedy 10” x 26” Bass Drum
- Toca Bongos
- Wula 13” Select Piece Djembe
Accessories:
- Cabello Caxixi
- LP One Handed Triangle
- LP Finger Shot
- LP Granite Blocks
- LP Shake-It
- LP Hi-Hat Shekere
- LP Hi-Hat Tambourine
- LP Jingle Qube
- Miller Machine with Sabian Finger Cymbal
- Miller Machine with Alan Abel 6” Triangle
- Pearl Hex Ganza Shaker - Medium
- Pearl UltraGrip Tambourine
- RhythmTech Live Shaker
- Sabian 19” Prototype Suspended Cymbal
- Shakka Shakerz "Mini-Z"
- Spectrasound Mark Tree
Electronics:
- Alternate Mode malletKAT Pro
- Apple 15” MacBook Pro running MainStage 3
- PreSonus FireBox 2x2 Audio Interface
Implements:
- Vic Firth American Custom M3
- Vic Firth TG04 Bass Drum Beaters
- Vic Firth 7A Drumstick
- Freedom Drums Talking Drum Beater
- LP Standard Wooden Cowbell Beater
- Stoessel 1⁄4” Triangle Beaters
Tarzan - Regional - Rob Guilford
January 2016
