This is a big week in the world of percussion. Over 5000 percussionists and over 90 marching bands will converge onto Indianapolis, IN for the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and the Bands of America Grand National Championships. Are you going? I’ll be there for PASIC with the Yamaha Percussion Team. If you are there, please come by the booth and say hi. It’s a going to be a great week for everyone involved. Here are some articles to check out on your plane flight. (more…)
Over the past couple of years, there have been many college percussion instructors who have recorded performances of the all-state repertoire for various states. Some of them include Thomas Burritt, Mark Ford, Matthew Holm and many more. (Search YouTube for “All-State Percussion” to find more). All of these are great resources for the young percussionist and I am happy to see so many great performances of these audition pieces.
Recently, Matt Cook, GRAMMY® Award winning percussionist and member of the LAPQ, has released the 2016 CMEA All-State Audition Tutorials. These tutorials include a performance video, a tutorial video, click tracks and PDF study guides for each piece. Check out the page on Innovative Percussion for all of the resources. Bravo Matt!
Head to Toe by Molly Joyce
Performed by Mike Truesdell
Video: Evan Chapman (Four Ten Media)
A note from the composer Molly Joyce:
“Head to Toe was inspired by my experience performing in high school marching band, and thus the idea that one player can perhaps become a whole marching band himself. When I was working on the piece, I was specifically reflecting back on the Friday night football games, and found it particularly interesting how during the majority of these events the marching band stands still in the bleachers, barely marching at all. Therefore with the video for this piece, I wanted to highlight this contradiction by having the solo performer “march” in the bleachers, becoming a single-person marching band aurally and visually.”
Joe Morello, legendary drummer for the Dave Brubeck Quartet and his drumming on Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk, also wrote one of the best technique books for snare drum called Master Studies. If you don’t own this book, I would highly suggest that you add it to your collection of technique books. Joe describes this book as the continuation of Stick Control (another must own book).
Our friends over at Drummerworld.com, a great resource for videos and lessons from the top drumset players, has written a post on Joe Morello’s Killer Exercise (Ex. 22). You can check out the video and sheet music on their site.
What other exercises do you frequently use? Leave a comment below and let me know.
I have featured the original recording of Andy Aikido’s Karakurenai a couple of months ago. It is a great piece for steel pan and marimba. During the summer, a former student, James Yoshizawa, recorded a video of him playing it on marimba.
Cymbals are one of my favorite percussion instruments. In my studio, I stress the importance of triangle, tambourine and cymbal technique. A couple of months ago, I found this great resource on cymbal playing, CymbalExcellence.com. The site features Thomas Stubbs who is currently the cymbal specialist and associate principal timpanist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. You can easily get lost in the audio and videos of Mr. Stubbs instructing and playing the orchestral cymbal repertoire. This site is for beginning percussionists as well as professionals. I highly recommend this website and I hope everyone will visit this site. You won’t be sorry and I am sure you will learn a thing or two about cymbal playing.
“Originally composed in 2012, I made significant revisions to the piece in 2015, with the inclusion of an entirely new section. The piece combines two of my favorite instruments to perform on: marimba and drum set. The outer portions feature the marimba, with contrasting sections that use a variety of time signatures and harmonic ideas. By design, some phrases place the marimba in the role as accompanist, while most phrases see it scored as the solo voice. The middle section is meant to be a fun jam section based on the groove the underlies the piece from the very beginning. While portions of the middle section are open for improvisation, certain sections are written out to aid with transitions.” (From YouTube Description).
Wow, summer flew by and now it is Fall. Where does the time go? It has been a couple of months since the last Percussion Education Summer Edition. During this time, I have read a lot of great articles and books. I would also love to hear what you have been reading. Please let me know. Here’s my list: (more…)
On December 15, 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed by President Obama. This law replaced the No Child Left Behind law.
“With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal—that every child, regardless of race, income, background, the zip code where they live, deserves the chance to make of their lives what they will.” – President Barack Obama
As a member of the Yamaha Education Committee, our team has put together an ESSA Resource Guide that will give you tools to help you navigate this new education law, specifically about music program opportunities, and assist you in advocating for a music education program strategy in your local area. If you are a K-12 arts educator, please take the time to read and share this guide.
For more tools and tips, visit the Yamaha SupportED website. You can also sign up on the mailing list to receive music education updates.
A Music Teacher’s Guide to ESSA: Yamaha Sr. Director of Education, Marcia Neel
