I have helped to develop a new Vic Firth product that I think many of you may find useful.

Five years ago I started playing live gigs with Indian musicians. I found that when I played with sticks, the drums and cymbals were far too loud and drowned out the Indian drummers. I started using various "bundles" that were available through Vic Firth and other manufacturers. They worked as far as volume was concerned but, to me, none of them felt very good to play with. The main problem I found was the lack of rebound. I went to work with Dave Rundle, a Canadian Sonor rep, stick designer and entrepreneur, and together we came up with this new product that I call Tala Wands.

I chose the name Tala Wand because Tala is a Sanskrit word meaning "to clap" or "to mark time." It is one of the two main components of Indian Classical music, Raga (melody) and Tala (rhythm). Of course the Tala Wands can be used to play any style of music.

After two years of experimentation, we narrowed many ideas down to the "foam core" and using two different woods, birch and bamboo, to get different sounds and feels. With birch we decided to use twelve dowels, hence the "BIRCH - 12" on the logo. With bamboo, since it is heavier, we went with eleven dowels for the "BAMBOO - 11" wand.

You can now find the Tala Wands at your local music stores and drum shops. Check them out and see if they fit into your sound palate of sticks, brushes and bundles.