In all forms of music while you're reading
music you're going to encounter a term called
dynamics.
Now, dynamics could either be written on a
piece of music, or it could be just sort of
a general thing that you discuss with who
you're playing, with the band playing softer
or playing louder.
Dynamics are basically just the level of volume
that you're playing at, whether you're playing
soft, medium, or loud, and there are specific
terms that date back to the history of reading
music that are good to get familiar with.
The basic range for dynamics, of course from
being from soft to loud, starts at pianissimo
which is marked with the little p on music.
Pianissimo means soft.
You can go a little bit even further than
that where you have two or three p's, and
it means getting even softer and even softer.
An example of playing pianissimo, or very
soft, would be something to the effect of.
The next dynamic level up would be mezzo piano,
meaning medium loud.
We're just getting a little bit above pianissimo.
An example of that would be.
The following dynamic level after that would
be mezzo forte which is marked with an m and
an f.
That means medium loud.
For this you want to start getting closer
to the middle of the snare drum, and you want
to start a little bit more motion in your
arms.
That would sound like.
The higher level of dynamics you get to you
start getting into the forte range which is
marked with an f.
Forte would be nice and loud.
It stands for loud in general, and it would
sound like this.
At that point I'm doing a full stroke, and
I'm really driving into the snare drum.
Of course, that's not the loudest dynamic.
You have fortissimo which is two f's.
Even past that, where you really hit the drum
really loud.
Typically, your range is about piano to forte.
