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While there is much knowledge and research on the acoustics of timpani, there is a lack of scientific research on the playing technique. In my research I analyzed visual and audio recordings and discovered the impact on the sound colour using different mallets, varying the tension of the membrane and played with different grips and styles. In instrumental practice, timpanists wish to follow the articulation demands of composers as much as possible, but there is often no time to change mallets while playing, so different grips serve very well to achieve a proper colour of the sound according to the musical context. Doing in this manner we can say that a timpanist is playing and not only striking timpani.

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Andraz Poljanec (1972) is Slovenian percussionist. As a member of Studio for percussion he received Betetto´s award in 1999. Since 2004 he is solo timpanist at the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. He is also interested in acoustics of timpani connected with instrumental practice. In 2015 he received a master´s degree at the University of Ljubljana.

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