TigerBill's DrumBeat Community Forums for Free Expert Advice on Drums and Percussion.

Hi, StarGirl, and welcome to the Forum!

About your question: is it just the accents, or is it a problem with the rhythm?

If it's just the accents, there are things to address short-term, and things to address long-term. Long-term, place more of an emphasis on your left hand in your practice sessions - start your scales and arpeggios leading with your left hand at least as often as with your right; accent the left-hand notes in your scales and arpeggios, etc. Over time, these sorts of things will help strengthen your left hand so you can not only make the left hand notes as loud as the right, but make them louder to play accents.

Short-term, there are a few things to check out:

1) If this were a concert piece or solo, I might (depending on the passage) suggest an alternate sticking, placing more of the accents in your right hand. However, I know that for drum corps and marching percussion, often the stickings have to be consistent among all the players, and that you may need to match your stickings to the other mallet players in the ensemble.

2) Check your stick heights - are you bringing the left hand up as high as the right, for the start of each stroke? I've noticed this in a lot of my students - they'll settle into a habit of starting their stronger hand higher than their weaker hand, and this leads to the stronger hand sounding that much stronger as a result. If possible, set up your bells (xylophone, etc.) in front of a mirror, so you can see if the stick heights are consistent between your hands.

3) Also, check to see if you're holding the left stick/mallet at the same point as the right stick. I've seen some of my students fall into the habit of choking up more on one stick than the other. I'm wondering if you're holding the right and left sticks in the same place on the handle. If you're choking up on the left stick more than the right, that might be contributing to your problems making the left-hand accents stand out.

4) Finally, watch your striking spots. It's tough to diagnose this sort of thing without seeing you play, but is it possible that you're striking the right hand notes in one spot on the bar, and the lefts in the other? If you're striking the right hand in the middle of each bar, and the left towards the nodal points (i.e., where the cord goes through the bar, or where the mounting screw may be on a glockenspiel bar), that will contribute to the right hand sounding louder.

Bottom line, aim for consistency between the hands. If you want the hands to sound as similar as possible, or to be as capable as possible of sounding similar, try to get your technique and striking points between the hands as consistent as possible.

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