Percussion Rehearsal

Welcome to part two of my rehearsal instruction series in which I will tackle percussion instruction. Even though they are in the back, we still need to work with them during our rehearsals. Hopefully some of these tips will give you some idea on how to continue to engage your percussionists. If they are not engaged, they often get into trouble.

Include Them

Duh, that is the most obvious statement ever. I believe that we are drawn to the instruments we are most comfortable with. This happens in score study and conducting, too. If we were to get lost in the score (never happens, right?), we often latch onto the most prominent part to our ears: the melody (likely at the top of the score) or our instrument. It’s difficult to latch onto percussion because the parts can often be sparse or complex to get us back on track.

Where am I going with this? In our score study, we must be more deliberate about studying the percussion parts and their subtleties so we can include them in our rehearsals. Because score study usually focuses on structure, melodic and harmonic analysis, etc., it often overlooks what exactly the percussionists are doing. As a result, we leave them out during rehearsals.

In a session about conducting an honor band, Director of Bands at UCLA and Yamaha Master Educator, Dr. Travis J. Cross, said to make sure to address percussionists within the first 30 minutes. Because rehearsal time in middle and high schools is far shorter than that of a multi-day honor band, band directors should do this much sooner than the 30-minute mark.

Inventory

In my article on wind instruction, I talked about the importance of intonation charts for wind students. How can percussionists create an intonation chart? Well, they could try, but it would be really boring.

If you devote a whole rehearsal for your winds students to work on intonation charts, then what could your percussionists do? Have them take inventory of the instruments in your percussion section — what is in good shape, what’s broken, what mallets you have, what hardware you have, etc.

While they do this, have them look up the price of the equipment and what needs to be repaired or replaced. Yes, percussionists hit these instruments, but they are really expensive, so students cannot mishandle them. One benefit percussion students have is that generally the equipment is provided to them, but they should still treat it like they own it.

What a great use of time to educate and give a meaningful housekeeping task to get your percussionists ready for a successful year!

Find the right timbre

One of the best parts of percussion is that there are so many different timbres and colors that can be achieved depending on the way the instrument is struck and what it is struck with. Hard or soft mallet, plastic or rubber, stick density, body of the snare drum ­— the possibilities are endless. And here’s the thing: Unless you are teaching high-level percussion students, this is pretty much a foreign idea. Sure, students understand that different materials create different timbres, but it is up to you to teach them how to use that knowledge to make the most informed decision on what equipment to use and when.

This is something you can teach during rehearsal and it all comes from your score study. For example, during rehearsal a student on bells has a part that doubles the melody, but it is too loud. Ask the student to find a mallet that makes the instrument less prominent. They might move from a brass mallet to a rubber mallet. Now the sound isn’t as “shimmery” as you’d like. Ask the student to find a mallet that is a bit brighter but doesn’t stick out in the timbre. Finally, the student settles on a plastic mallet.

If your percussion stick and mallet collection is anything like ours, there are many that often go unused because students aren’t thinking about the sound they are creating. Challenge your students to put the various mallets to use by giving them direction on how to find the right stick or mallet for the timbre that will make your performance the most effective it can be.

Utilize your percussionist to help with winds

This is not a novel idea, but one that is worth remembering. When working with winds on something that needs a metronome or some other constant beat, use the snare drummer or temple block player to provide a beat or subdivision. Not only are you keeping them engaged, but you are giving them a chance to flex their muscles on what everyone expects them to do best. Hope they don’t mess up!

While student teaching, I was working with a middle school band on “Loch Lomond” by Frank Ticheli. The students were having a lot of issues with time on their individual parts because of the flowing nature of the music. Something was just not clicking, so my cooperating teacher had an idea to lay down a fat rock beat over the music (don’t worry, it was only during rehearsal) and made “Loch Lomond” into “Rock Lomond.” We didn’t have a student play the rock beat, but we could have. The point is to show that percussionists can serve an extra and creative role in our rehearsal process.

Make your way back there

When was the last time you went back to your percussion section? If it was recently, good for you! Regardless of the last time you made your way back to the percussion section during rehearsal, do it again! If the excitement from the winds thinking the percussionists are in trouble isn’t enough, it breaks up rehearsal and can help you focus the whole group by being at the back of the room.

Similar to my article on wind instruments, just stepping off the podium is an engaging rehearsal tool. While you’re back there, take the opportunity to note some of the workings of your percussion section. Is it set up well? Why are they missing this entrance? Who is having trouble with their part? What is that smell?

Part assignments

Oh, the dreadful part assignments, especially when you must keep in mind the strengths of your percussionists so they can be successful and feel challenged with new skills. Easy, right? Don’t get me wrong, I do part assignments for my groups. I swear I know how to do it. However, another way to engage your students is to have them help. I have been lucky to have some exceptional percussionists who love the task of assigning parts, which can be really helpful when sight reading a piece. These students know their section’s strengths and provide parts to other students to challenge them a bit more. Perhaps they will assign a strong battery percussionist a less challenging mallet part instead of the snare part, and vice versa.

Students also can speak up and say, “I would like to work on my skills on marimba. Can I have a marimba part on this piece?”

My percussion leaders have done a great job of making sure parts are balanced and that all students are playing the same number of pieces in a concert. I will admit, sometimes this doesn’t go as planned. There might be that one wind chimes student who sits around for 182 measures before playing for the first time then won’t play for the last 206 measures. Have your students share a document with their part assignments so you can double check their work to avoid this. Even if you have to make these changes, you have saved yourself some time by designating tasks, and you have created leaders in the process!

Bonus: When you go into the sight-reading room at your large group adjudication, these percussion leaders are ready to distribute parts on their own!

Part doubles

If you have a large number of percussionists, you might have to double parts. This can be as simple as doubling a mallet part or adding another snare drum. However, you can be limited by the number of mallet instruments with the right or similar timbre, and you can only stand to listen to a finite number of snare drums. Some might suggest doubling a flute part on bells or similar, which might be effective on something like a march that doesn’t have a mallet part, but might be less effective on other pieces.

How is it possible to keep all your percussionists engaged if they are not playing on every piece? Let me offer a solution. Full disclosure: I learned it from someone else. When assigning parts, double up students on a part, but have them rotate — not a novel idea. However, don’t let the student who’s not playing go sit in the corner; they should be completely engaged, following along with their part and working with the student who is playing their part. What if you change a dynamic, or give an instruction to that part? Now they both know what to do next time! This is also a great way to pair a less experienced player with a more experienced one to create a sort of peer mentorship. They can help each other and remain engaged on every piece during rehearsal. As the concert gets closer, assign one to play the part. Now, if one of those students gets sick before the concert, the other can step in!

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Percussionists play a unique and important role in our bands. One thing that often gets lost on school-aged percussionists is that they are musicians, too! As meaningless as they might think that triangle hit is, or that tambourine or crash cymbal part, they need to play it like it is the most important part in the world because at that moment it just might be. Help your percussionists continue to grow into the artists that they are.

Top photo by Shutterstock/Fortseff