Hit Me…
As a percussionist, often you have to perform on an unusual instrument. Interesting "instruments" I've had to play over the years include: brake drums, trash cans, breaking bottles, thunder sheet, coffee cans, railroad spikes, pool tubing, anvil, air raid siren, water cooler bottles, taxi horns, klaxon horn, all types of whistles, the inside of a grand piano, prayer stones, temple bells, tubaphone, church bells, etc., etc.
Last week, I was at Tanglewood playing with the Boston Symphony. Amongst other instruments, I got the chance to play a very large hammer (hitting a wooden box) in Berg's "Three Pieces For Orchestra". Everyone was careful not to upset me...I wonder why?
THE ORIGINAL MARK TREE® NOW AVAILABLE!
It was the early 70's and LA studio percussionist, Mark Stevens, needed a new sound for a recording project. He went into his workshop and what emerged was an instrument that changed the percussionist's arsenal forever. The Mark Tree® bar chime was born, and wow, did it take off! Mark could not keep up with orders for his new invention so he handed over the manufacturing responsibilities to SPECTRASOUND™, a percussion manufacturer in the LA area.
After years of waiting, the original Mark Tree bar chime is once again available! Sure, there's dozens of bar chime imitations, but only SPECTRASOUND bar chimes can truly be called a Mark Tree® bar chime.
Check out our products page for more information and sound samples!
Triangle Girls Gone Wild !
Aya Kaminaguchi is a wonderful young percussionist and was colleague of mine while I was on the Star Wars tour. I'm back in Boston, but Aya is still out on the road. She sent me a link to a wonderful blog about her triangle playing. Go to the link and be sure to sit through about 30 seconds of video footage. Then you'll see Aya on the big screen and hear the crowd go wild !
FWIW- Aya uses a Grover TR-9 Super-Overtone triangle.
Pops Goes The Fourth !
This will be the 33rd consecutive year that Neil Grover will be playing the giant Boston Pops Fourth of July concert on the Esplanade. This year, the guest artist is country star Toby Keith.
There will be quite a few Grover products heard, including a Grover concert bass drum, 2 Grover snare drums, tambourines, triangles and woodblocks. You can catch the show live on CBS, starting at 10pm (EST). If you live in the Boston area, you can catch the entire show on WBZ starting at 8:35pm.
Have a great holiday!
Grover South Of The Border!
While performing recently in Monterrey, Mexico, I had a chance to visit with Mike Tovar, owner of Mike's Drum Shop. Mexico's top percussionists shop at Mike's and for good reason. Mike's Drum Shop has an impressive selection of the finest mallets, ethnic percussion and concert percussion accessories. Mike's is also one of our very best dealers and stocks a wide variety of Grover products, including tambourines and snare drums. So, if you're in Mexico and need a Grover product contact Mike's Drum Shop in Monterrey!
Mike Tovar, owner of Mike's Drum Shop
On The Road Again…
I leave today for a 10 week concert tour of North America with "Star Wars In Concert". Some of you may remember that I did a short stint in the fall. This time around, I've signed up for all 10 weeks! Click on the link and then go to "tour dates". You'll see a listing of where we're performing.
SWIC is a great multi-media production and needless to say, the music is superb ! Some of the equipment we use are the new Grover G3 snare drums, a Grover Projection-Plus Field Drum, plus Grover triangles and tambourines.
If you decide to attend, please let me know by dropping me a line at: ngrover@groverpro.com. I'd love to meet up at intermission and say a quick "hello".
Berklee Students Visit Factory
Today, Berklee Professor Dean Anderson brought a few of his top students to visit the Grover Pro factory. The students took the factory tour, which includes both Grover Pro and SilverFox production. They were amazed at the level of "hands-on" craftsmanship that goes into every Grover Pro product. After a quick lunch, the students left with a new sense of respect for percussion manufacture!
Bamboo Aids Haitian Earthquake Victims
We are picky about the quality of bamboo that we use for our TMB Series Timpani Mallets. VERY PICKY!
We start with the highest quality bamboo available and then hand select only straight bamboo lengths that are consistent in diameter and have very few nodes. In order to get lengths high enough in quality for our mallet handles, we have to go through lots of bamboo poles. LOTS! We actually reject over twice as much bamboo as we accept . "What do you do with all the rejected bamboo?" you might ask. Good question... In the past, we have sold rejected bamboo to be used as everything from bamboo fencing to bicycle frames!
Recently, we have begun a partnership with Architecture For Humanity. We donate the rejected bamboo to AFH, who uses bamboo for the construction of geodesic domes in Haiti. Bamboo is a good material to use in the superstructure of a geodesic dome due to its strength and flexibility. The finished domes will provide critical housing and shelter for victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti.
We take so much for granted on a daily basis. All of us at Grover Pro are honored to be able to play a very small part in helping those less fortunate than we are.
Welcome To Our New Website!
I want to officially welcome you to the new Grover Pro Percussion website. I'm sure you'll agree, our new site has a clean, crisp look and feel. Navigation has improved by the addition of easy to use navigation bars. We have also uploaded new images of many of our products. Click on one of our product images and a new window opens with a zoomed in view of the selected product. Of course, our tambourine alloy selection chart and the tambourine features animation have been incorporated into the new site as well.
Feel free to explore our pages and click away! Be sure to let us know how you like the new site .
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