Beginning Percussionists: Every Teacher’s Dilemma
July 18, 2008
My district has been doing a lot of experimenting in recent years with beginning percussion. The junior high and high school teachers had been frustrated with being fed lots of drummers from the elementaries. Few of these students had experience with pitched percussion like marimba or even timpani, and all of whom wanted to play snare.
Two or three years ago, we began experimenting at selected schools with having all beginning percussionists learning to play orchestra bells until Christmas. Then they had the option of switching to snare or sticking (ha!) with bells. Last year, that system was expanded to all the elementary schools. We used a practice pad/bell kit like this one.
In terms of numbers, this cut my beginning percussion sections way down, but perhaps too far down. Some students may have been turned off by the bells and decided not to join the music program, some chose a different instrument instead, and some took up the percussion challenge. Among those who started percussion, some have been successful and some have not.
Since I am in year two or three of this program, I am feeling the effects of having very few good advanced percussionists. On one hand, the memory of 13 mischievous elementary drummers standing in the back of the room is still fresh in my mind. On the other hand, at one of my schools, I had no advanced percussionists and had to recruit some of my advanced string players to play percussion in band.
So the purpose in writing about all this is to ask your input on how you handle beginning percussion in your schools. Do you have limits on how many percussionists you will start? Or limits for any instrument? Do you teach bells in addition to snare? Please chime in here (pun intended!) and share your experiences.
July 18, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Steve-
You MUST read Peter Loel Boonshaft’s chapter called “Percussionists: The missing “peace”?” from his book “Teaching Music with Purpose”. The entire book is excellent, but this chapter ALONE is worth the price of the book. There is just so much good stuff in this chapter on how to keep your back row musicians engaged throughout a rehearsal and practical tips for teaching all aspects of percussion. Seriously- read this chapter for some excellent tips.
July 19, 2008 at 7:26 am
Thanks for the tip, Ken. I’ll look for the book.
As for keeping the back row under control, I’ve always had success with:
1. Raw meat
2. Tranquilizer dart guns.
Steve
July 20, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Aah yes, my roommate has the Boonshaft book; I’ve been meaning to get a copy of my own, and the public library doesn’t have one in the mean time. Bah.
Anyhoo, we do limit our percussion by having the kids fill out first and second choices for instruments; if there are too many percussion (which there usually are), we give kids their second choice so it’s not like we’re not letting them play what they want. Then, they get kits similar to those lined above with bells, snare, and a stand, but also get them on bass drum, “timpani” (an old pair of roto-toms), and a ton of misc. percussion toys. Switching them around form song to song seems to keep them pretty happy.
By the way, where do you get your darts?
-Greg
July 24, 2008 at 8:54 am
I think your post makes an interesting wider point. During music lessons at a young age we are programmed to practice in a certain rigid way (including the use of a metronome). I’d argue that what we should be aiming for is to fit the practice methods to the result. If the required result is better sound then the metronome is not the tool or technique to achieve this.
The metronome can be useful but not at the expense of developing ones inner sense of time and rhythm.
Enjoy your practice!
Mike.
August 6, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Hi Steve, I enjoy your blog,
I wanted to leave you a comment regarding the beginning percussionists dilemma. I’m not in service yet, so I don’t really have any experience to support my thinking, but I thought I’d share one of my own experiences with you.
I’ve been playing the piano for quite a few years now. When my teacher saw that I was becoming relatively comfortable with the basics of the piano (within my first year of lessons), he suggested that I start learning to play the organ and even offered me some extra time now and then to teach me how to approach it. His thinking was that I ought to become comfortable with the extra musical and physical demands required of playing the organ before I had played the piano for too long. Then, I could slowly overcome the challenges of both instruments, and come out that much more ahead. (It’s been working out great for me, and I’m forever indebted to my teacher for this).
Because of this experience, I think it is a good idea to have beginning percussionists play bells and mallot instruments when they start. However, I don’t think it’s such a good idea to keep them away from the snare drums or drum kits that they’d really like to play. I believe it’s healthy to get them hitting all kinds of things! Just my 2 cents.
August 8, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Good post! There are many kids who wish to play percussion and do become great drummers (including very capable jazz/drumset musicians)– but never really master mallet percussion. For years, I followed the “everyone must learn everything” dictum, keeping kids off the “real” drums until several months of percussion purgatory passed. That’s not a bad way to go, building very foundational skills in melodic reading and hand coordination with pads and bell kits before letting them bang on instruments. BUT–in my experience, by late MS and certainly in HS, percussionists have specific strengths and preferences. While all kids can master a cymbal crash or chime part, you will eventually have the wonderful mallet specialist and a couple of ace snare drummers. Not letting them play to their strengths can be frustrating to you and them. You have to deal with hogging certain instruments and parts sometimes, but there’s no point in embarrassing Louis Prima by assigning him the marimba part on “Rocky Point Holiday.”
One of the ways we addressed the “too many percussionists” dilemma was by passing the word that taking piano lessons was an asset in being “selected” for the percussion section. After a year or two, kids began showing up in 6th grade saying “I heard you had to know how to play the piano to be in drums, so I took lessons.” I never turned anyone down flat (some kids don’t have the resources to study piano before joining the band)–but having some basic skill in melodic reading helped build a diversely talented section at least as much as making everyone get a bell kit. I also “auditioned” kids by having them repeat increasingly complex rhythmic patterns, checking their hand to hand coordination, and asking them to keep a steady beat to various types of music. Some kids decided themselves, after a casual scan, to take up the trumpet or sax instead.
Now…what to do about too many saxes?
August 17, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
August 19, 2008 at 5:56 am
Thanks for speaking up, Jessica and Nancy.
Both of you brought up the issue of learning more than one instrument but specializing in one. I agree with that approach. In fact, in my pre-college musical experience I wish that someone would have insisted more strongly that I learn another instrument or two. (I play sax, and saxophonists are expected to learn other woodwind instruments.)
Just to clarify, Nancy, I do take your approach as far as allowing students to play their strongest percussion instruments. Perhaps to a fault, however. I think of one recent 6th grade graduate who specialized in bass drum. I am proud of her for not quitting music when she may have been inclined to. But I hope that her lack of snare skills won’t haunt her in the future.
Nancy, I also like your thoughts about auditioning percussionists. My only thought is that every instrument uses rhythm, so having a good sense of rhythm doesn’t necessarily make one a percussionist. Maybe this wasn’t exactly your point. But I often have parents come to me and say, “My son is always banging on things. He must be a drummer.” I desperately want to say, “Well, maybe he’s a future tuba player who bangs on things now only because he doesn’t know the fingerings yet.”
January 4, 2009 at 11:06 am
I teach at the elementary level and I have a percussion group that learns Orff instruments (marimba) and hand percussion, djembe, conga, and assorted color instruments (clave, guiro, etc). I also teach some simple snare rudiments, (single stroke rolls, double strokes, paradiddles). I buy some of Musicians Friend’s “seconds” drumsticks, and give them to them to keep at the winter concert.
I mention this because about half my kids prefer drums, the other half pitched percussion. It’s a pretty even split on what they prefer, but they play both willingly. A lot of them have gone on to be middle school percussionists, and the feedback I get from younger siblings/middle school directors tells me over half are continuing music – some as percussionists some on other instruments.
Is there a way they can learn both mallets/snare concurrently? Can you fit a percussion ensemble in your schedule somewhere? To me, that would seem ideal. My personal philosophy is that if you want them to play both eventually, make them play both to start. Divide them into groups and have one group play one week w/mallet the other group with snare then switch the next week.
A lot of the elementary schools in my area don’t do it like I do, and they have separate groups one for drum, one for mallet. They’re all better than my group at their respective specialties, but my students are more well rounded, and that I think, is more important than an awesome group.