robs MET stickbag!

the sticks i used (or planned to use) for each excerpt in my 2011 MET orchestra percussion audition

if youre thinking about taking the upcoming MET percussion audition, youre going to have to choose
sticks! i recommend that you use a method that i call the A/B method to choose them for each excerpt.
heres what that is:
for each excerpt,
1. line up all the sticks that you could possibly use for that excerpt.
2. find a stage and ask a friend to listen to you.
3. play the excerpt twice. once with pair A (the first pair in the line), and once with pair B (the second). make
sure the friend is far enough away that theyre using their ears and not their eyes.
4. ask the listener to choose a winner. put the loser pair away and move to the next pair of 2 mallets.
5. continue like its a march madness bracket until theres only one pair left - thats your winner!
its going to leave you with a great mallet choice. its even better if you can have a friend play with your
mallets and you can choose. feel free to do this multiple times with different people, like i did.

in the end, youre going to come up with a list of mallets that work for each excerpt. chances are that you
play differently than i do, and your personality is different, so your ideal sticks for each excerpt will be
different than what i chose. you should use my list as a reference and for ideas. good luck!
NOTE: youre gonna have to find this 2011 MET list for yourself to see the exact excerpts im talking about! a
bunch of the excerpts arent in the public domain so i cant reproduce them. :-)

1. xylophone
im realizing as i write this that im not sure all these mallets still exist! for instance - i have two pairs of
malletech OR39Rs. one of them i got when i was in high school, and its kinda red. the other one is brown.

strauss: salome - dance of the seven veils, rehearsal d malletech reds (see above)

gershwin: porgy and bess, overture malletech OR39R

gershwin: porgy and bess, act i sc. 2 malletech OR39R

gershwin: porgy and bess, act ii, sc. 1 freer K6 (the pro-mark era, i believe)

britten: billy budd, act ii, sc. 1 freer K6

britten: billy budd, act ii, sc. 4 malletech reds

britten: death in venice, act i, sc. 5 encore 200R

britten: death in venice, act ii, sc. 17 malletech reds

shostakovich: lady macbeth of mtsensk, act i entr'acte freer K9s

shostakovich: lady macbeth of mtsensk, act iii, sc. 6 malletech reds

berg: wozzeck, act ii, sc. 4 encore browns

2. bells
delibes: lakme, bell song freer KBFM (an older version of these)

saint-sans: samson et dalila, act iii, sc. 3 innovative OS7

puccini: turandot, act ii balter 10A

puccini: turandot, act iii equilibrium brass (a homemade version of these)

britten: death in venice, act ii, sc. 17 encore 207R

dukas: the sorcerers apprentice encore 207R

puccini: la rondine, act ii freer KBFM

www.robknopper.com/stickbag 1 rob's MET stickbag!

3. vibraphone
 3. vibraphone

berg: lulu, act i, sc. 1 innovative james ancona IP2007

berg: lulu, act iii malletech samuels DS18

bernstein: west side story, symphonic dances balter 22R

4. marimba
bach: e major partita, gavotte en rondeau (tape only) vic firth robert van sice sticks (a selection)

a selection of keiko abe sticks (i couldnt find which

druckman: reflections on the nature of water, mvt. 6
ones in my records!)

5. snare drum

bellini: norma, act ii stage music pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

britten: peter grimes, act ii, sc. 1 pearl philharmonic 13x4 maple & innovative CL-3L

britten: peter grimes, act iii, sc. 1 pearl philharmonic 13x4 maple & innovative CL-3L

berg: wozzeck, act i stage music pearl philharmonic 13x4 maple & innovative CL-3L

berg: wozzeck, act ii reh. 643 pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

prokofiev: lt. kije, mvt. i opening pearl philharmonic 13x4 maple & innovative CL-3L

prokofiev: symphony no. 5, scherzo pearl philharmonic 13x4 maple & innovative CL-3L

prokofiev: symphony no. 5, finale pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

rimsky-korsakov: scheherazade, mvt. iii pearl philharmonic 13x4 maple & innovative CL-3L

rimsky-korsakov: scheherazade, mvt. iv, reh. n pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

rimsky-korsakov: scheherazade, mvt. iv, reh. p-u pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

zuber: roll exercise pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

delcluse: douze tudes, tude no. 9 pearl philharmonic 14x4 aluminum & innovative CL-1L

6. tambourine

bizet: carmen, act ii, no. 11 black swamp bronze

bizet: carmen, entracte iv black swamp combo 1 (TC1)

britten: peter grimes, act i, interlude 2 black swamp combo 2 (TC2)

dvorak: carnival overture, opening black swamp combo 2

dvorak: carnival overture, finale black swamp combo 2

7. triangle

bizet: carmen, overture abel triangle w/ freer TSS (older version)

bizet: carmen, act ii, no. 11 abel triangle w/ stoessel #.5

bizet: carmen, act iv, no. 25 abel triangle w/ stoessel #4

(there was not, ahem, good enough record-keeping to include the bass drum mallets, sorry!)

thanks for reading! if youd like to share this with someone, they can visit
robknopper.com/stickbag.

www.robknopper.com/stickbag 2 rob's MET stickbag!