The Little Mermaid - Alec Wilmart

August 15, 2024

Alec Wilmart's drum set setup for The Little Mermaid at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington.

Alec's writeup below photos.

"The Little Mermaid drum book has a lot going on. While not terribly difficult technically, the player is responsible for quite a lot of percussion in addition to providing solid grooves.

First, beyond the standard 5-piece drum set, the most important instruments in your set up are your suspended cymbals, triangle, and Mark Tree. If you have played any Disney show, you know about the cymbal rolls. Two distinct sounds, light and dark, are required, and both need to emulate big rolling waves, so if you only have two like I do here, I would recommend nothing smaller than 18"-20". You will need a good combination stick and mallet, or 'Swizzle' as a lot of these rolls are played in combination with music you will need sticks to play. I use my standard Vic Firth 7As, but wrap the ends in Dr. Scholl's Moleskin, so the sticks feel right to me, and I can easily make another pair without having to spend a lot of money if the stick chips or breaks.

As for the triangle, the Miller Machine (Thanks, Billy Miller!) is essential for some seriously quick switches, but I play most of it with a standard Stoessel beater. I find the contrast of the Abel side beam, which has a clear pitch and no overtones, and the bottom bar, which has a tone of overtones, works well for this particular show.

The Mark Tree is mostly written to be played ascending or descending, so less like 'wind chimes'. The Spectrasound Mark Tree reproduction with the dampening bar works perfectly for this.

On the Calypso style numbers, the book calls for 'timbales'. I usually go all in on using the exact instruments listed, but for this set up, I opted to 'cheat' and use my LP Mini-Timbales. They actually work great for this show and allow me to have my set up nice and tight. I also use a Zildjian Zil-Bel for the ships bell.

As you can see in the pictures, I prefer to have as much 'stuff' right in front of me, as close as possible. Because there are so many instruments close in, I have mounted a music stand off of the tom mount. The Yamaha Tom Mount with the extra hole works great for this. I mount a cymbal tube in that hole, then use a multi clamp to attach the stand, making it easily accessible and keeping my sightline with the conductor."