Oklahoma!

Well, the musical for the 2009-2010 academic year is Oklahoma! A fine choice, if I may say so, because it means I get to play timpani again. After almost two years of thinking about the problem, I finally figured out how to add dynamics to my MIDI timpani setup: Add a volume control pedal! I don't play the electric guitar (or the electric organ), so I never knew this sort of thing existed until I decided to peruse a guitar catalog one day. My kid has a Fender amp and a guitar effects box with a volume pedal (who knew?), so we plugged the output of the MIDI keyboard into the effects box (which in turn is attached to the amp) and then I played a drum roll on the Alesis drum pad controller (it drives the keyboard) while he adjusted the pedal at the same time, and voila! dynamic control like a real timpani! His effects box makes too much noise in the amp for my taste, but that's not a problem, I guess, if you play your guitar at high volume, but in my case, I would need a quieter setup. Perhaps a simple pedal like this Behringer may do the trick. Stay tuned.