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David K. Bakken’s Gotta Git Gittin’ is a swinging good time for eight percussionists who have something to say, aren’t afraid to say it, and are ready to spread some musical joy!
Written for intermediate percussionists with an even balance of pitched to non-pitched instruments, the piece requires active engagement from each player from start to finish. It is notated in cut time with a swing feel, making this a great teaching tool for introducing students to handling swung eighth notes.
The timpani player opens the piece with a groove-based ostinato and holds sway throughout (no shy timpanists allowed). The vibraphone part contains occasional three-mallet passages, while the marimba part requires four mallets, but both parts are quite accessible and require minimal interval shifts.
There is a “drummy” four-bar vamp towards the end of the piece for the unpitched instruments to shine. The composer has supplied a part but suggests using a custom-tailored part if the students are up to the challenge.
Gotta Git Gittin’ ships as a fully bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for either printing or tablet viewing.
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
Vibraphone
Marimba (4-octave)
4 Timpani
Drums — concert snare drum, 4 concert toms, 2 congas
According to composer David K. Bakken, “Gotta Git Gittin’” is a swing chart inspired by the idea of taking action to achieve one’s goals. This is a catchy and groove-based piece that would work quite well on a high school concert.
Once the timpanist establishes the groove, the rest of the performers enter in a quasi-additive manner starting with the accompaniment and soon followed by the xylophone melody. There is also a fun soft shoe-ish snare drum part and a rather busy toms part (which could require balance considerations). At various points throughout the piece each mallet player performs melodic, counter-melodic, and accompaniment figures, making “Gotta Git Gittin’” great from a pedagogical standpoint. There is also a drum break section where only the snare drum, congas, and toms play. Bakken states in his program notes that the musical material of this break could be adjusted based on the experience level of the performers. The rhythmic material is eighth-note and triplet-based throughout the piece — another useful pedagogical aspect.
Some technical areas include timpani muffling and pedaling, four-mallet playing, and scalar and arpeggiated mallet figures. There are also a few rolls in the xylophone part. The four-mallet material is pretty basic and would serve well as an initial encounter with this technique. The conga part calls for slap and open tones, and the snare drum part uses multiple-bounce and double-stroke rolls.
—Joseph Van Hassel
Percussive Notes
Vol. 62, No. 4, August 2024
David K. Bakken’s Gotta Git Gittin’ is a swinging good time for eight percussionists who have something to say, aren’t afraid to say it, and are ready to spread some musical joy!
Written for intermediate percussionists with an even balance of pitched to non-pitched instruments, the piece requires active engagement from each player from start to finish. It is notated in cut time with a swing feel, making this a great teaching tool for introducing students to handling swung eighth notes.
The timpani player opens the piece with a groove-based ostinato and holds sway throughout (no shy timpanists allowed). The vibraphone part contains occasional three-mallet passages, while the marimba part requires four mallets, but both parts are quite accessible and require minimal interval shifts.
There is a “drummy” four-bar vamp towards the end of the piece for the unpitched instruments to shine. The composer has supplied a part but suggests using a custom-tailored part if the students are up to the challenge.
Gotta Git Gittin’ ships as a fully bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for either printing or tablet viewing.
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
Vibraphone
Marimba (4-octave)
4 Timpani
Drums — concert snare drum, 4 concert toms, 2 congas
According to composer David K. Bakken, “Gotta Git Gittin’” is a swing chart inspired by the idea of taking action to achieve one’s goals. This is a catchy and groove-based piece that would work quite well on a high school concert.
Once the timpanist establishes the groove, the rest of the performers enter in a quasi-additive manner starting with the accompaniment and soon followed by the xylophone melody. There is also a fun soft shoe-ish snare drum part and a rather busy toms part (which could require balance considerations). At various points throughout the piece each mallet player performs melodic, counter-melodic, and accompaniment figures, making “Gotta Git Gittin’” great from a pedagogical standpoint. There is also a drum break section where only the snare drum, congas, and toms play. Bakken states in his program notes that the musical material of this break could be adjusted based on the experience level of the performers. The rhythmic material is eighth-note and triplet-based throughout the piece — another useful pedagogical aspect.
Some technical areas include timpani muffling and pedaling, four-mallet playing, and scalar and arpeggiated mallet figures. There are also a few rolls in the xylophone part. The four-mallet material is pretty basic and would serve well as an initial encounter with this technique. The conga part calls for slap and open tones, and the snare drum part uses multiple-bounce and double-stroke rolls.
—Joseph Van Hassel
Percussive Notes
Vol. 62, No. 4, August 2024
