Rob Knopper, percussionist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is in the middle of his 12 Days of Delécluse. If you are not familiar with Jacques Delecluse’s 12 Etudes for Snare Drum, head out to our friends at Steve Weiss Music and buy yourself a copy of this seminal book for snare drum. There are a couple of books every percussionists should own and this should be one of them. (Other standard snare books include Stick Control, Anthony Cirone’s Portraits in Rhythm and Mitchell Peter’s Intermediate Snare Drum Studies to name a few.) (more…)
In this episode of Percussion Education, I want to introduce the concept of Wrist Lifts. I don’t want this to be confused with the Moeller Technique. If you are not familiar with the Moeller Technique or Method, there are a lot of videos and method books that describe this approach to drumming. (more…)
Have you ever started working on a new etude or piece and found that there were a couple of measures that we more difficult and needed some extra attention? I know I have (especially in Delecluse #9)! (more…)
How many times have you stepped up to the marimba to work on a passage and it seems like you have never seen the music before even though you spent hours practicing the day before? Well guess what? This happens to everyone including me. It is frustrating and makes you want to throw your mallets across the room. If this sounds familiar, I want you to start incorporating block chords into your practice routine.
If you think about it, we use block chords in our warm up routine (or at least you should be). Block chords allow us to warm up our big muscle groups and work on accuracy. So why do we only use them in warm ups? Here’s are some tips on how to use them on your next difficult marimba and/or vibraphone piece. (more…)
This may be an obvious question for most of us, but as I continue to think about the future of music education and how we can reach more people, I think we need to be able to justify “Why We Study Music.” Too often we don’t quantify or have solid evidence why someone should study music. We all know how it feels to work hard, practice and then perform to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, our government agencies can’t or won’t understand why they should fund arts organizations. We need to be able to give them solid, research based evidence. (more…)
In the previous episode, I have talked about the triple stroke roll. Please make sure to review that video for more information. In today’s episode, I introduce the multiple bounce roll, aka the “Buzz Roll.” Let me know if you have any questions and comments. (more…)
