I would like to begin this article by giving a hearty
congratulations to all who participated in the 2003-2004 IPA
and/or WGI indoor percussion seasons. It was great to see some
new names at the top of each class and exciting to see new
offerings from some of the traditionally strong programs. It
is at this time of year when thoughts turn to new ensembles
and fresh musical endeavors. Seniors begin auditioning for
college ensembles and underclassmen start thinking about
marching band. Some are preparing for summer outings with a
drum corps. Others are beginning new independent ensembles of
various types to supplement their high school or college level
musical experiences. No matter whom you are, you know that
your pursuit of music is a never ending cycle of learning,
mastering, and performing. Auditioning for ensembles is the
front door to these experiences.
So what can you do to prove to your next ensemble’s staff that
you are the person that, given the chance, will be a positive
for the ensemble? What can you do to make yourself stand out
among all those competing for your position or for a
leadership role such as section leader? I have found that it
is a good idea to give my students some guidelines to help
lead them through the correct process of approaching a new
season with a musical ensemble. Below are just a few short
excerpts of my latest handbook regarding this topic.
Your Gear
The core tools of our trade as percussionists are our
instruments and the implements with which we play our
instruments. A marimba player may have a marimba, two mounted
cymbals, a set of mounted bells, and three sets of mallets
with a mallet bag. A bass drummer may have a drum, a carrier,
a mounted woodblock, and two sets of mallets. A tenor drummer
may have tenors, one set of mallets, a specialty stick, and
two props. No matter what you play, you must have the gear you
need to perform your show. Below is a preliminary list of gear
you will need to have at the beginning of every rehearsal:
1) Your instrument(s)
2) Your implements (mallets, sticks, brushes, etc)
3) Your hardware (carriers, mounting stands, cymbal stands and
felts, a drum key, etc.)
4) Your props (depends on the ensemble)
5) Appropriate clothing (depends on your instrument and
ensemble)
6) All music, exercises, and drill books
All of these things are necessary in order to perform at the
highest level during practices or rehearsals.
Practicing Versus Rehearsing
Practice: to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually
Rehearse: to say again, to recite aloud in a formal manner
In my percussion ensembles, we define practice and rehearsal
differently. Practicing is something that you do usually at
home, usually as an individual. It is something that you do to
become a better performer on your instrument and it is
tailored to fix your specific deficiencies. In practice, you
perform a motion or an exercise or a piece of music over and
over, habitually. Rehearsal, on the other hand, is something
that is done with the entire ensemble or large sections of the
ensemble. It is what happens when everyone has gone home and
practiced, made themselves better by defeating bad technical
habits, and learned their exercises and music. It is a formal
meeting of people who have practiced prior to the rehearsal.
When everyone practices, they bring a better product to their
rehearsal. When everyone brings a good product to rehearsal,
the ensemble can focus on putting the show together and fixing
ensemble problems, and not have to waste focus on individual
problems. It is never acceptable to spend much time on
individual issues when we are at rehearsal. If you do have an
individual technical or memorization problem, we expect to
point it out, and that it will be corrected when you go home
and practice.
Practicing Versus Performing
In my years performing with The Cavaliers, the most important
lesson I learned was “practice like you perform, perform like
you practice.” This means that when you are practicing or
rehearsing, do everything exactly like you will do it during
your next performance. This means taking the same mental
approach by pretending that you are standing in front of a
crowd and judges while you are practicing or rehearsing. This
means taking the same physical approach by making sure all of
your equipment is right where it is supposed to be and not
reacting wildly when you make a mistake. This also means
taking the same spiritual approach by being prepared and
excited and ready for your practice like you are prepared and
excited and ready for the show. If you do anything differently
in practice/rehearsal than you do in the show, you are not
really practicing the show; you are practicing something
different than the show. In my ensembles, we believe that
after all of your practicing and rehearsing, when you perform
at the show it should be a breeze, devoid of surprises. If you
really pretended during practice and rehearsal like you were
in front of an audience, then performing in front of a real
audience and real judges is something you have done a hundred
times before, even if it is just your first show.
Practice/Rehearsal Technique
Have you ever known someone who really wants to be good at
something but just never seems to get any better at it? Have
you ever seen a group that rehearses for hours upon hours but
can never defeat their competitors? Though several things
could cause this problem, many times this condition is a
result of not using a very good practice or rehearsal
technique. Below are some guidelines toward getting the most
out of your hard work.
Practice Technique
The very first thing that you need when you practice is a
goal. Your goal will often vary with what part of the season
you are in. In the early season some good goals might be:
1) Play through a long exercise without stopping.
2) Get rid of a bad technical habit such as pounding or
slicing.
3) Learn a new exercise or piece of music.
4) Memorize a new exercise or piece of music.
Depending on how much time you have devoted to practicing, you
may be able to achieve several of these goals in the same
session. Look at the following list to see how late season
goals could differ from early season goals:
1) Build speed on double stroke exercise.
2) Develop lighter touch on fast section of Opener.
3) Incorporate Tuesday’s changes to Closer.
4) Work on stamina.
An important thing for you to understand is the difference
between what is expected of you in the early season (from your
ensemble’s first meeting to when you start putting the show
together) and what is expected of you later in the season
(from putting the show on until your final performance). As
you can see from the list, the important things early in the
season are learning the exercises and music, and working on
your technique. If we can accomplish those objectives in the
early season, this leaves the rest of the season for the fun
stuff which is really making the music “happen” and making
changes to the show that will make it more exciting for the
audience, the judges, and you. One of the biggest season
killers is when members fail to reach their early season goals
of learning and memorizing music and practicing away all their
bad technical habits.
After you have decided your goal, it is time to get to work.
Whether you practice on your bed, a piano, a drum, or a
practice pad, try to make everything as close as possible to
what it will be like in rehearsal. If you play in a battery
section (marching snare, tenor, bass drum, or cymbals), then
stand up while you practice. This will allow you to mark time
as you practice which is very important. Try to practice in a
somewhat quiet area. That is how it will be at rehearsal and
at your performances, so try to emulate that in your practice
area. Begin the exercises just like we begin them at
rehearsal. Use the same implements (sticks and mallets) that
you use in rehearsal. The more you can make your practice like
rehearsal and rehearsal like performance, the happier you will
be with your progress.
It is best to practice on whatever instrument you will play at
rehearsal. However, with loud snare drums and bulky marimbas
sometimes that is not always possible. An alternative for
battery members is to rehearse on a practice pad. See a staff
member to learn which type of pad will be best for you.
Special pads are made for bass drummers. When I played bass
drum in high school, I practiced on walls or trees so I could
play using the proper bass drum technique. Again, ask an
instructor about the best option for you. Cymbal players can
get much of their practicing done by just using their hands as
the cymbals. They have it easy! Mallet players, depending on
the goals for their practice, have a couple options. To
achieve a technique goal, you can play on a practice pad. To
learn scales, exercises, or music, you can play on a piano or
organ. If you don’t have one of those instruments, you can
draw the mallet keys on a piece of paper and tap on them with
your fingers. This doesn’t improve your technique, but it can
be a great way to learn music, notes, or scales while not
making a sound.
Your practice sessions should be at least 30 minutes long and
should be once per day. As a general rule, it is better to
practice 30 minutes a day five days a week than it is to
practice 200 minutes once per week, even though 200 minutes is
more. A lot of mastering percussion has to do with something
called muscle memory. It is the training of your muscles to
perform a task correctly without really having to think about
it. Once you achieve this, you can almost set your hands on
autopilot when you perform an exercise. This frees your brain
up to make music, perform drill moves, and make important
ensemble decisions. You cannot reach that point by practicing
only once or twice a week. It requires your muscles to perform
the task over and over on a frequent basis. This is our goal
as members of an ensemble.
As masters of rhythm, percussionists need the tool that is the
ultimate judge of tempo; a metronome. This is an essential
tool for any practicing percussionist and will increase your
practice efficiency exponentially. The metronome I like to use
is the DB-88 and costs upwards of $130. Much less expensive
models can be purchased for $10-15. A search on the internet
will yield many software metronomes that can be downloaded for
free. Some of these do almost everything the $130 version can
do, but they do not need batteries! Practicing without a
metronome is not an option in my ensembles. For an excellent,
in-depth article on how to maximize your practice time with a
metronome, see Jim Bailey’s article at the following link:
Not all your work outside of rehearsal will be with sticks or
mallets in your hands. There are occasionally other tasks that
need to be performed in order to be prepared. A battery person
may mark all of their drill sets in their music. A bass
drummer may highlight all of his notes on the bass drum music.
A beginning mallet player may write the names of the notes
under each note. An experienced mallet player may denote
mallet changes in the music. Anything that can be done to
better prepare you for rehearsal needs to be considered in
your practice. This includes drumhead changes, tuning, and
packing a lunch when necessary.
For some great in-depth tips on how to get the most from your
practice time, see Jeff Queen’s article at the following link:
After you have spent time practicing your instrument and
fixing your technical problems, it is time to take your new
talents to rehearsal. Chances are that everyone else was
practicing as well, and the ensemble is going to sound really
good by the end of the session. But there are a few things to
consider before waltzing into that rehearsal ready to show
off.
Are you ready physically? Do you have all your implements and
tools? Drill sets? Music and exercises? If not, see your
section leader to get a copy and expect that he is going to
charge you a Coke for burdening him at the last minute. Are
you wearing the appropriate clothing and shoes? Is your
instrument tuned up correctly? Does your drum fit correctly?
Did you eat something decent to give you some long term energy
or did you just pound some junk food? These are all things
that must be considered before rehearsal begins. Taking care
of these things during rehearsal is unacceptable.
Are you ready mentally? There are many distractions during the
day that can creep in and affect your rehearsal time. Parents,
girlfriends, boyfriends, school work, and personality
conflicts can all cause distractions that take away from your
rehearsal focus which is to perform your responsibilities just
like you taught yourself in practice. Clean out your mind
before you step into the rehearsal. You do not have to worry
about a goal like you did in practice because your staff has
likely already devised a goal for the rehearsal.
Are you ready spiritually (in the non-religious sense)? Is
everything good in your head? What do you need to do to get
fired up for the rehearsal? In my years of competitive
percussion, I have seen people who cranked up Metallica on
headphones, some who stretched silently, some who played for
an hour, some who slept, some who ran, and even some people
who meditated prior to rehearsals. The fact of the matter is
that we are all different people with different motivations
for the things we do. One person needs Audioslave cranked up
on their stereo to get them fired up, while another finds
Mozart to be the relaxing key to rehearsal preparation. It is
important that you find your best way to prepare for rehearsal
and use it before practice, before rehearsals, and before
performances. It does not have to be something that you share
with anyone else, but it could be something that you do with
others. Find it, use it, and feel good every time you step up
to your instrument.
In more successful ensembles, you will find percussion
rehearsals to be very well structured. You will be expected to
be ready and focused on the task at hand. Rehearsals can go
from laid back patience while waiting for the staff to fix a
problem, to fast paced, non-stop music and action for a
straight hour or more. You must be prepared for either. Often
an ensemble can go from a laid back rehearsal to running a big
part of the show, and ensemble members are often not prepared
to regain their focus 100%. That is why no matter what is
going on at the time, you have to keep your eyes and ears open
to what is being addressed on the field, even if it does not
involve you. When you have nothing to focus on, THAT is when
you MOST need to keep your focus.
It is very important that you “read” the staff. If the staff
is pushing you along to try to get something done, you need to
help push. If the staff is quiet and laid back, you need to be
quiet and laid back. The staff knows what needs to be done in
order to be successful in your performances, and you need to
make sure you adopt their approach to each rehearsal. It could
be different every rehearsal, so you have to read the staff
and be prepared to help take the rehearsal in the direction
they want it to go. If you are having trouble reading them,
ask them during a break how you can assist them in keeping the
rehearsal moving at the correct pace. As always, communication
is key.
In Conclusion
I hope that you have seen this text as a good beginning guide
to approaching your next musical ensemble. I am a firm
believer in communication between percussion staff and
performing members, and I believe that following this approach
will put the proverbial ball back in your ensemble staff's
court and will challenge them, as it has me in many cases, to
help you push your show in a positive and creative direction.
Good luck in your next endeavor!
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