Word: pedaler
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...different register. Each individual timpani can be tuned up or down during the actual performance, so the percussionist actually has a significant melodic range. Formerly, this tuning was done by carefully twisting the screws holding down the drumhead but most timpanis today are constructed to be tuned with a pedal. This is quicker and allows one to tune two timpanis at once. This has dramatically expanded the role of the timpani in the modern orchestra and indeed as a solo instrument...
...even with the innovation of the foot pedal, playing the timpani remains a delicate and complex job. Each timpani is different, and in addition, each spot on the taut drumhead has a slightly different tuning, tension and response. And the tuning is still an uncertain science, performed with the orchestra in full swing around the timpanists. They have to find the perfect pitch despite the tooting and sawing of their neighbors and without losing track of the conductor. If you see them stooping over the drumhead during the concert as though they were whispering into a gargantuan ear, that...
...wears Timberlands, baggy black jeans and a big black sweatshirt. He is very tall. He also clearly runs the show. He walks over to the curb to talk to Jason, who is sitting on a short purple-framed bike, one foot on the ground and the other on a pedal. A bunch of girls on the corner sing, at full-throttle to no one in particular, "Happy birthday dear whoever." Then a short, stocky one jumps into the middle of the gang and, turning in circles and waving her slice, chants, "I got pizza and you can't have...
...first-year victim accused the University administration of not delivering the security he assumed would come along with college life. Although Harvard certainly isn't the real world yet, it's also not the safety blanket of our parents' household. Delinquents decorate residential houses with hateful graffiti, burglars quickly pedal away on unattended bikes, and several students have also been the victims of assault in this very "utopia" of a college campus...
...except for one problem: a skilled thief can cut through the steering wheel where they are attached, remove the lock and drive off in your BMW. The new Autolock from Lawman Order Corp. ($50, available at the site unbrakeable.com tries to solve this problem by attaching to the brake pedal, which is much harder to sever. Then again, with the steering wheel untethered, a thief might try to drive the car anyway and smash your Beemer into a tree. Oops...