Page 34 - Bandmasters Review - 2017 June

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An Instrumental Blog presented by D Addario

TEN EFFECTIVE PRACTICE TIPS INCREASE YOUR PERCUSSION
AWARENESS WHEN YOU TEACH
by Denise Gainey
I T by James Campbell
n today’s world, we are all busy trying to fit too many things into
too few hours each day. For musicians, the issue is finding the time he world of percussion crosses all musical boundaries, and
we need daily to progress on our instruments, and without a doubt, percussion students have the widest possible vocabulary of instruments
focused and productive time in the practice room is much more and musical genres to master – more than any other instrumentalist. I
important than the number of hours spent just playing through music.
often tell my students that someone invents a new percussion instrument,
Here are ten tips to build an effective practice regimen.
implement, or technique every day. As a music teacher, who might not be
1) Equipment matters! It helps to own a professional quality
a percussion specialist, how do you keep up?
instrument and mouthpiece, a metronome and tuner (there are several
great smartphone apps), a dictionary of musical terms, a folder to When you give a percussionist instruction, think of their quality
organize your music, a notebook devoted solely to your instrument, of sound - FIRST.
and a method of recording yourself. Think back to when you were a beginning music student studying
2) Set aside definite and regular times for practicing, and don’t let your own primary instrument. When was your first memory of a
anything interfere with those times. Along with that, go into your
teacher or a classmate talking about your sound? How many lessons
lessons with a plan of what you want to get accomplished, including
after you started learning your instrument did it take for your teacher to
both short-term and long-term goals.
comment on the SOUND you produced? For a percussionist, it is often
3) Work particularly on improving your fundamental skills. True
progress won’t be made until the fundamentals are addressed and years after they start playing that anyone even mentions the quality of
improved. sound they produce.
4) If you sound good the entire time you are practicing, you are One of the challenges of percussion pedagogy is that instruction is
not really practicing! Focus your attention on areas that challenge you often focused on external factors. With each music concept, students
instead of always starting at the beginning of a piece of music. My
may hear comments like:
favorite three rules of successful practice: isolate the problem (for
• Rhythm – “Hit now.”
example, it may be one interval causing a passage not to work); slow it
• Tempo – “You’re behind.”
down…way down; repeat the passage thoughtfully in varied ways,
using different rhythms and articulations. • Dynamics – “Play softer.”
5) Always try to transfer knowledge and skills learned from one • Timbre – “Use the red mallet.”
piece to the next, and look for opportunities to apply new fingerings, Teachers need to give students more AWARENESS
tone considerations, improved intonation, etc. INSTRUCTIONS to help them develop their internal awareness
6) Practice half of your time while sitting, and half while standing.
of sound production. As a teacher, address the percussionist with
We practice what we perform, and we perform what we’ve practiced,
comments like these:
so it is important to become comfortable playing seated for ensemble
• “Are there other instrumentalists that you share this rhythm with?”
playing and standing for solo playing. Notice how your breathing and
posture feels in both situations. • “Is your passage here part of the melody or accompaniment?”
7) Use a mirror! My mom used to say, “You never know how you • “Is there a mallet that would help blend with the woodwinds?”
look until you get your picture took.” A silly way of reminding us that • “How does your grip change when you play a roll?”
we may not realize bad habits developing and perpetuating in the areas The diversity of percussion experiences offered through performing
of embouchure, hand and body position until we see ourselves play.
in music ensembles helps the percussion student grow and mature by
8) If you are a reed player, make time daily to work on breaking in
providing them a variety of opportunities for musical grow in both
new reeds and adjusting others. We are only as good as our weakest reed.
internal awareness and creative problem solving. With awareness
9) If you don’t understand a concept, don’t wait until your next
lesson to ask your teacher – ask now instead of waiting a week and instruction from the teacher, it becomes the responsibility of a
losing those hours that you could have used to improve. percussionist to figure out WHAT sound to make and then HOW to
And finally… do it consistently.
10) As my mentor Kalmen Opperman used to say, “Practice and
hope, but never hope more than you practice.” Wishful thinking alone
won’t work – get in the practice room daily using these tips, and watch
for great things to come!
Texas Bandmasters Association Bandmasters Review • April 2017 • page 32