Pitch Pedagogy for Percussionists

In Creating Well-Rounded Percussionists, the first blog post of this series, Dr. James Yakas identified the delicate balance educators must strike in creating great percussionists. More importantly, educators must help develop great young musicians who can transfer any skill to any context or even any percussion instrument.

When considering how percussionists experience pitch, there are some important differences compared to our instrumental peers. Like pianists, we don’t have to hear a pitch to create a pitch. This is both advantageous and detrimental, depending on how you look at it. Second, our music-making is not always centered in a tonal, pitch-based environment like that of our non-percussionist bandmates. We provide color, timekeeping and character in the world of indefinite pitch more than half of the time we are playing our instruments.

All of this highlights the need to maximize efficiency and transfer value as we develop foundational skills that are adaptable to instruments of any kind. In creating your plan to teach pitch to percussionists, you must consider three things: 1) how, 2) what and 3) when to teach it.

The information in this article will hopefully help fill your toolbox with the how and what. The when (scope and sequence) is where the true artistry of teaching emerges, and it is best determined by you — the educator who knows the institution, understands their students and can respond to their diverse experiences, needs and skillsets.

What follows is a list of foundational skills in the area of pitch for percussionists. You might notice there is no mention of grips, strokes or playing techniques. For beginners, if taught with transfer value in mind, technical skills can be transferred from snare drum. Of course, there are many idiomatic considerations for keyboard percussion that must be addressed, but these are secondary to ensuring that students develop a strong foundation in pitch-based music theory.

Treble/Bass Clef — USE STEMLESS NOTES

Like most young students, there is a compulsory stage of simply learning the lines and spaces of the staff. Your percussionists (excluding any piano students) will most likely be behind in this area, so you must set aside time for them to simply name notes on the staff.

Tip: Prepare music pages that only show noteheads — this works great. This can be done in Dorico or any music notation app or software. Simply pick a note, delete the barlines, stems and beams, and create a stream of noteheads on lines and spaces. Start with mostly stepwise motion and then move to larger intervals (skips). The advantage of a page like this is its flexibility — you can use any rhythm, clef or tempo.

Also include bass clef from a very young age because percussionists will need it for timpani and marimba later on. While sight-reading the page, set your metronome to a tempo, pick a rhythm and have students name the notes. Tell them not to worry about saying “flat” or “sharp” — just stick to the single letter names first. You can also turn the page upside down for more fun!

Intervals/Scales — USE TETRACHORDS & SHAPES

I will describe the next two categories through the three primary modes of learning: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Teachers must maximize all these modes when introducing pitch to percussionists. This is the only opportunity students will have to see, hear and feel how notes on a staff transfer to an instrument (aside from timpani, which usually involves only two to three pitches at a time, in a frequency range that is difficult to hear, and drums, which are physically challenging to play… but these are for later blog posts).

I have had great success teaching intervals and scales to students at all levels through the tetrachord method. After learning about whole and half steps on a keyboard, I have students memorize the basic pattern of a scale: two tetrachords linked together with a whole-step “bridge.

W-W-H—W—W-W-H

It is important to make sure students understand that these are the spaces between the notes, not the locations of the notes themselves (when they count or vocalize the steps).

To ensure that all three modes are engaged, have students sing and hear the intervals as they play them (aural). The “feel” of each of these shapes can be felt as you move up the board. This will eventually become necessary for sight reading and looking away from the keyboard (kinesthetic).

There are 7 distinct shapes (download this chart):

Arpeggios/chords — LEARN IN 2 WAYS

After whole steps, half steps, tetrachords and scale shapes are internalized, all qualities of arpeggios and chord shapes can be taught very quickly in all keys. I stress the importance of learning these in two different ways:

1. How they are constructed (m3–M3).
2. How they are altered from the scale degrees of a major scale (1–♭3–5 for a minor triad).

Because these are simply locations and students are not required to audiate the differences (unfortunately, in some ways), this process can go very quickly!

A classroom favorite! The Yamaha YX-1030PR Xylophone is designed for easy playability and portability.

Sight Reading ­— TRAIN MUSCLE/AURAL MEMORY

Every musician agrees that a core component of music literacy involves being a proficient sight-reader. On keyboard percussion, sight-reading is one of the hardest skills to develop. First, we are the only musicians who do not touch our instruments when reading; there is an intermediary object in the form of a mallet! This requires all the information we receive through the kinesthetic channel to be processed through muscle memory only — nothing tactile.

We can train our peripheral vision to aid in the process, but more than anything, it is repetitive muscle-memory training, proficient aural skills and music theory knowledge that create confidence while sight-reading on keyboard percussion. The process is slow and tedious. However, if done correctly, it can relieve what I call “pitch anxiety” in beginner percussionists.

The goal is to start simple with one- to two-note shapes, beginning with stepwise motion and then gradually including skips. At first, make it a rule to not look at the keyboard and even embrace wrong notes. Students must learn the art of recovery and use their ear and knowledge of tetrachord shapes to guide them toward greater accuracy.

Again, think of the three modes of learning:

1. Visual – Pitch identification on the staff.
2. Kinesthetic – Pitch location on the keyboard. What shape (key) am I in (without looking at the instrument)?
3. Aural – Error detection. Fix incorrect pitches (without looking at the instrument).

Using a metronome with a higher-pitched (accented) click at the start of each bar will help students maintain the feel of the meter. Find publications that specialize in beginner keyboard percussion reading. Here are some that I use:

• “Look Up!” By Brian Flack
• “Mallet Percussion for Young Beginners” by Randall Eyles
• “Sight Reading Skills for the Mallet Percussionist” by Eric Martin
• “Mastering Sight-Reading for Mallet Percussion” by Christopher Butler
• “Educator’s Guide to Sight Reading on a Keyboard Instrument” by Oliver Molina

These books usually provide a slow enough pace and often have large enough music fonts to help students feel comfortable not looking down at the keyboard.

Improvisation/Composition — IMMEDIATE CONTEXTUAL APPLICATION

A student’s musical skill reaches its highest level when they can apply it creatively through improvisation and composition. Teachers should not shy away from improvisation as soon as a student has an understanding of the tools needed to improvise. For example, as soon as a student knows a major scale, have them improvise within the scale. Instead of learning patterns similar to what they might see in a phrase, have them create the phrase themselves. The benefits are numerous: aural, visual and theoretical. Students can quickly move beyond a pattern when they are required to use that tool to compose something.

Before my students sight-read, they are required to improvise in the key for one minute with a metronome, without looking at the keyboard. I have them start on the tonic pitch and end on the tonic pitch so they can get the key “in their ear.” This gives them the confidence to stay in both the aural and physical (shape-based) center of that key as they sight-read.

Step-Up Progression for Keyboard Percussion Instruments

Lastly, a common challenge for educators is finding the perfect vehicle to teach pitch to percussion students. Teachers must balance budget and practicality while creating efficient, effective transfer from practice instruments to real instruments. At the same time, they must keep students engaged and ensure that they are having fun. Ideally, educators should plan a “step-up” program for their keyboard percussion instruments. These steps should be determined by the end goal for each level of student.

As I mentioned above, the vehicle through which we teach pitch (how) requires as much attention as what we teach. For decades, the student-level glockenspiel has been the instrument of choice for educators, mainly because of budgetary concerns. Although these instruments provide different pitches, they are extremely limited in the actual application of movement, tone production and, quite frankly, enjoyment. Check out this article by Mike Huestis about why the practice xylophone is a better teaching vehicle.

An ideal step-up plan for your keyboard percussion students should be:

Student Bell Kits → Practice Xylophones → Real Marimbas/Vibraphones/Xylophones.

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Your percussionists could and should get on even footing — and even ahead of other instrumentalists — in the area of music theory. The keyboard is music theory visualized. Pitches, intervals, scales and arpeggios are simply locations and shapes.

Beginning wind players also need to have attainable goals, such as learning one new note every week. However, imagine what would happen if you asked your percussionists to strike that one B♭ bar for an entire week. There is a chance they might miss, but chances are they will get it within a minute or two, then become disengaged for the rest of the week.

Instead, as your wind players are learning their “new note,” have your keyboardists learn the tetrachord, major triad or scale built on the “note of the week.” The new challenge will be to get percussionists to actually hear and sing pitches, intervals, scales and arpeggios. That’s when you will have to slow them down!

Until then, happy keyboarding!