many sticks.

Linen-covered sticks tend to produce much more articulate

sounds with an emphasis on higher partials. This covering tted on cart-
wheel sticks tends to be used on thicker or sluggish timpani heads. When
compared to felt mallets, these sticks do not produce a colorful tone.
Today, the most common covering is felt (piano felt). Felt is often
termed American and German. American felt is woven tighter, is compar-
atively harder than German felt, and is used to make general and staccato
mallets. Because of its tighter weave, it tends to enhance the middle and
upper partials; thus, it tends to produce a brighter tone than German felt.
Because German felt is less tightly woven, it is softer and is particularly
good in producing legato, darker tones. Therefore, German felt is good for
producing legato and rolling sticks. In addition to the type of felt, the
depth of felt shapes timpani tone. The thicker the felt, the more it damp-
ens the upper partials produced by the core and the more it produces
lower partials. Thus, thicker felt (especially German felt) gives a darker
sound. Felt that is too thick has a tendency to dampen the tone and should
generally be avoided. Conversely, the thinner the felt, the more it enhances
the color of the core and the more it produces upper partials. Thus, thin-
ner felt (particularly American felt) is effective in producing staccato sticks
or sticks that blend better with the orchestra. Between the core and outer
covering, a thin layer of felt can be used to further darken the color of the
mallet. In stick construction, thought should be given to the relative ad-
vantages of using American felt, German felt, or even linen in shaping the
tone and articulation of a particular stick. Obviously, linen or American
felt can be used on lighter sticks to produce a more articulate and brighter
stick, and German felt can be used on a heavier stick with a larger core to
produce a darker, more legato tone.
Once sticks have been made, they can be voiced to further shape the
color of the mallet. Voicing is a process of ufng up or picking the felt
with a piano felt pick or a sewing needle. Felt is picked for three reasons.
First, cartwheel sticks have a seam which, when it strikes the timpani
head, produces a sharp slap. To eliminate this sound, the seam is uffed
up. This has little effect on the sticks tone color and it eliminates the slap-
ping sound. Second, voicing the felt allows the timpanist to voice the stick
relative to other sticks in the set. For example, if a legato mallet needs to
be slightly darker than a general stick, additional ufng will achieve this
result. Finally, picking allows the timpanist to match the tones of similar
sticks. In the mallet recovering process, sticks often do not sound the
sameone sounds more articulate or brighter than the other. Flufng the
brighter stick is one way of matching its tone to the darker mallet. As a
general rule, voicing a mallet head makes it sound somewhat darker, more
tonal, and less articulate.
Making sticks is an art. Stick building requires an understanding of
how weight, mallet head shape, mallet head covering, and the mallet core
synergistically work together to produce the kind of tone and articulation
that is needed from that stick. For example, a very articulate stick might
have a light bamboo handle, a small wooden head, and a very thin Ameri-

Theory and Practice of Timpani Tone Production 13