In Monday’s (12/7) Wall Street Journal, Cynthia Yeh, principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, discusses her favorite apps, drumsticks, and other tools of her trade. “People made fun of me when I first got it because it’s so bloody huge, but I use a Samsung Galaxy Note II to draw the stage diagrams I send to the crew that sets everything up for us…. If the stage is not set up the right way, you get percussionists crossing paths and running into each other. I used to draw a diagram with pen and paper and take a picture of it…. All of my triangle holders … are made from bent coat hangers. My chime hammers are yellow acrylic mallets that I get at the hardware store…. I travel with Drummers Service Abel Concert snare drumsticks, which I never, ever, ever check at the airport…. I got my Black Swamp tambourine in 1999, when I was an undergrad at the University of British Columbia…. I just have this relationship and I know what it’s going to do…. I still own a metronome, but … I just use whatever metronome app I can get free on my phone.”
Posted December 9, 2015
