Welcome to the Percussion Play Blog
We hope you'll be a regular visitor as we share stories about the instruments we make and the people who play them.
This is where we share our passion for music in the great outdoors! We'll share with you details of exciting new outdoor music projects and designs from around the globe. We'll share with you information about the instruments we sell and a little about the inspiration behind them
Most importantly, this blog is about what we love to do the most - help you create new and exciting ways to bring music to the great outdoors.
Thank you for reading, visiting, commenting and contributing - we’re excited to have you here!
Christmas music and songs - the oldest ones are the best!
This is the season when spades of cringe-worthy Christmas tunes are on constant rotation in supermarkets, department stores, and coffee shops. It is virtually impossible to leave the house without hearing them - over six weeks of inescapable Christmas music!
The sounds of the season are pretty much the same from year to year: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Frosty the Snowman, Baby, It's Cold Outside, White Christmas, I could go on…..and on.
For some, these old chestnuts may inspire them and get them in the spirit of the season. For others, however, it may be too much, forcing them to make a fast exit, leaving their gingerbread lattes behind. I feel for the employees. The tunes created to get us in the Christmas spirit must become akin to Chinese water torture for them after the first week of November.
But for music, it’s actually a unique time of year when a radio playlist can span not only decades but centuries. What other season has its...
Percussion Play CAD Drawings and Product Specifications available NOW! on CADdetails.com
Percussion Play is excited to announce the availability of a new resource for architects, landscape architects and other design professionals to make adding Percussion Play outdoor musical instruments to their projects and designs easy and hassle free.
CAD & 3D drawings, product specifications, media files and more are now available for FREE download at CADdetails.com - the leading online source for manufacturer-specific building product information for input into working plans and specification documents.
Incorporate Percussion Play products into your plans quickly and easily by downloading our design files from CADdetails.com. The CADdetails program is developed specifically for design professionals with the goal of getting manufacturer-specific product information into their working plans.
Click here to download Percussion Play high quality design files including 2D cad drawings, BIM models, specifications, videos and related documents
Thousands of AEC professionals rely...
American School of Milan - Elementary Playground Gets a Musical Makeover
The American School of Milan (ASM) is an independent, co-educational college preparatory day school offering American-style education in the south of Milan.
The playground project was sponsored by the Fund for Excellence who purchased collaborative outdoor musical instruments (Duo Xylophone, Conga Drums and Tubular Bells) for the elementary school playground as an alternative to sports for students.
I asked Sara Griffiths, the school’s Admissions Coordinator, a little more about the project, how they found Percussion Play to deal with and how the instruments have been received:
What originally attracted you to our products?
We were looking for playground equipment that was designed for group play and a great alternative to sports at recess. The instruments are tuned to make nice harmonies and attractive to look at.
The videos on your website were very helpful when selecting the instruments.
How well did we communicate?
There was great follow up and the online chat...
Introducing the Capella Outdoor Xylophone
The Capella is brand new colourful 15-note outdoor resonated xylophone.
Available from our range of diatonic outdoor musical instruments, the vibrantly coloured anodised notes deliver a bright rounded sound and are set to our ‘rainbow scale’ encouraging players to reproduce a myriad of familiar tunes as well as being able to improvise and make their own unique music. The note range for this instrument is C-Major G3-G5.
When speaking of music and harmony, you will frequently encounter the term diatonic. The diatonic scales are the basic scales, or natural scales, and they can all be made by playing just the white keys on the piano.
For example, the key C-Major is the white keys on the piano starting with C - the notes are C D E F G A B C. If a melody is said to be diatonic and in the key of C, it will only use those 7 notes within the C-Major scale/key. You’ll notice however that the note range of the Capella is G3-G5, this makes it a mode of the C-Major scale, in fact it...
ASLA2015 Expo & Conference Chicago USA
So we’ve filled out all the relevant customs and immigration forms, organised the shipping, calculated time-zone changes and computed currency conversions and so, following panic attacks of epic proportions we’re finally there! Chicago USA for the ASLA2015 Conference and Exhibition.
With over 400 exhibitors, the ASLA EXPO is the largest trade show in the landscape architecture industry.
Our booth ‘1061’ looks fun, is interactive and tells a compelling story. We’ve taken some old favourites such as the Babel Drum, Congas and Duo Outdoor Xylophone, along with some pretty special USA inspired ‘My Tunes’ chimes which will let visitors to the booth play ‘Oh My Darling Clementine’ or ‘Amazing Grace’ with no practice or previous musical knowledge! Also, we are delighted to showcase three new instruments the Capella, Hand Pipes and Colossus Chimes.
The response so far has been overwhelming from customers and potential customers. We’ve come to Chicago for relationship...
Rain, rain, go away but first let's play a little music
We had several visitors come to Percussion Play towers yesterday. They’d come along to see and play our outdoor musical instruments and so in preparation we bought a selection of instruments out onto our sunny courtyard, ready to be admired and enjoyed. Then it started to rain, really rain and it did not stop - a right British downpour. Not a problem for the outdoor musical instruments, they’re built to withstand the elements and will produce a great sound whatever the weather, especially the rain. Let’s be honest, here in the UK we’re not exactly blessed with the sunniest of climates, in fact we are known for attracting a fair amount of rainfall pretty much all year round. So you either stay inside to avoid the showers or you face the weather full on, which is exactly what we did. We decided to defy the weather, donned some raincoats, grabbed umbrellas and went and had some creative musical fun in the rain.
In fact, with rain showers comes inspiration. The weather can undoubtedly...