5-Minute Read: The Problem with the Percussion

As a school band director, you wish you spent 100% of your time dealing with music. But we know that's not the case.  In fact, like all teachers, you spend a vast amount of brain power on plain old classroom management, that is, getting your students to be on-task throughout class time.  And if we had to wager where a large percentage of your classroom management efforts went, we could safely say "the percussion section."

I'll be the first to admit that every instrument has a stereotypical "personality" that dominates those who play it. In that regard, percussionists as a group of humorous, rambunctious, and sometimes mischievous young people can indeed be true.  But people who play percussion aren't ill-behaved or poorly-prepared during rehearsals because that's who they are.  It's because of us!  Let's examine some ways we can maximize your percussionists' participation in your rehearsals, thereby minimizing management and behavior issues that might arise at the back of the room.

Proximity is Important

It's no coincidence that most behaviors disruptive to a rehearsal take place the furthest from your podium.  Ensemble members just feel "safer" to engage in off-task behavior when they feel like the conductor can't "reach out and grab them" (note: do not reach out and grab your performers)! Percussionists are not only at the back of the room, but they also have several 100 pounds of equipment blocking your vision of their area.  So increase your proximity to them.  Create some lanes in your ensemble's seating plan that allow you to get off the podium and walk back to work directly with your percussionists several times during a rehearsal.  Here's a really important tip if you have a very large percussion section and/or a particularly immature group of young folks, consider placing an empty row of chairs in the front of your ensemble.  During those pieces that don't involve many percussionists, those players can come and sit and study in that front row, nice and close to the podium.

Downtime is Dangerous

How often are your percussionists sitting doing nothing during a rehearsal?  The nature of the instruments' scoring means they have many more counts of rests per performer than many other members of your ensemble.  Some works barely have any percussion scoring at all, leaving several of your percussionists to sit tacit while you rehearse that piece. This leads to lots of downtime when percussionists are bored and ignored, and that opens the door to trouble.  Here's are a few tips to help you avoid percussion downtime:

1. Always include percussionists in the warm-up using scales, rhythms, rudiments, you name it.
2. Try to schedule your percussion-light works towards the very beginning or end of your rehearsals, so that your percussionists can use that time to either prepare for percussion-heavy rehearsal or to pack up all that equipment!
3. Always designate a few minutes of your rehearsal plan to focus on a tricky section in the percussion parts!

Respect Your Percussionists and their Musicianship

Some of the most incredible and thoughtful performers I have ever known have been percussionists. They care about sound and musicianship as much or more than any wind, string, or vocal performer. But we sometimes don't treat our percussionists, their time and their musicianship, with the respect they so adamantly deserve. For example: how many percussionists have shown up to a rehearsal, ready to go, set up all the myriad equipment needed to perform the upcoming concert's literature, and found that they barely played a note the entire rehearsal? How disrespectful of those percussionists' time and efforts.  We just plain forget them in our planning.  So here's how you involve and respect your percussionists and their musicianship:

1. Always write your rehearsal order (including on which areas of the pieces you'll focus) on the board. That way, percussionists can set up all the equipment they need, and none that they don't!
2. Vocally and visibly engage in your percussionists' music making.  Take time to stop and actually say how you want that cymbal crash to sound, what technique they should use, and have them demonstrate.  Percussionists and wind players alike need to know that sound quality matters with every instrument.
3. Have the proper range of sticks and mallets, and engage with your performers in which ones to use. This is a big one!  Don't let them hit those instruments with whatever happens to be lying around.  Grow and maintain a quality range of mallets that you can easily distinguish visually from the podium, and then make sure that matched and appropriate equipment is being used to evoke the colors you want.  Bright, exuberant timpani? Hard wooden mallets! Brittle, crystalline bells? Hard brass mallets! Gentle vibraphone lines? Soft yarn!  And here's the pro tip: you can see what they're using from the podium if you make sure these sticks and mallets are color coded! Some companies manufacture their mallets like this for you, but you can always use a small band of colored electrical tape to visually match and distinguish sticks.
4. Care about percussion equipment organization and maintenance. Please, don't let your percussionists play a triangle that is dangling from a string of carpet they ripped from the floor. Make sure that there is a system that your percussionists use to properly store and maintain their equipment. If a suspended cymbal felt is missing, replace it.  If a marimba string is broken, fix it. A disorganized, broken set of instruments leads to a disorganized, broken rehearsal.  Pro tip: organize the percussion cabinet yourself, then take a picture of it and tape that picture to the percussion cabinet.

Respecting your percussionists' time, equipment, and musicianship will make them realize that they are part of the ensemble like every wind player.  By applying these techniques, you can greatly reduce behavior problems in your percussion section, increase their readiness to rehearse the scheduled pieces, and develop their musicianship to a new level.  Give these techniques a try this week!