Percussion and Brass Students Prepare for Term III Playing Tests

Pictured: Percussion III student Nathan Wells

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (3/21-22) my percussion and brass students will perform a term exam on their respective instruments. Each student has a number of projects that will be presented in a mini-performance for their classmates, and which will count as a major test grade. Students should be hard at work perfecting endeavors in the following areas:

• Ben Tomlinson and Josh Caprell: concert and rudimental snare drum studies; rock, jazz, and Brazilian drum set studies; marimba scales, studies, and repertoire
• Adam Maalouf: marimba scales, studies, and repertoire, tympani technique and etudes
• Rebecca Schillizzi and Eli Ackermann: Pat Petrillo rudiment combos and Robinson's flam studies; concert and rudimental snare drum studies; rock, jazz, and Brazilian drum set studies
• Eric Schneider and Alex Forrest: major scales and arpeggios, a selected study from Pares Scales and Rhythmic Training, and Pasquale Bona's Study No. 71
• Masin Decker: concert and rudimental snare drum studies; jazz drum set studies; marimba scales, studies, and repertoire
• Nathan Wells and Justin Pasquale (no relation to the Bona studies!): concert and rudimental snare drum studies; marimba scales, studies, and repertoire; tympani technique
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Why so much work, you might ask? Well, for each instrument, we take a stepwise approach to building and then applying technique that goes something like this:

1. Scales and rudiments build essential technique. Working on these allows students to listen to themselves, to watch themselves in the mirror, and to otherwise be aware of the physical aspects without the distraction of reading music or having to make interpretive decisions about a musical composition.
2. Studies and etudes allow students to apply their technique to a written pedagogical composition that requires varying amounts of reading but still focuses on the fundamental aspects of playing one's instrument.
3. Repertoire (solo works) requires an artistic application of general technique to the specific musical "problems" contained in a musical composition. Proficiency in music reading, musical creativity, and higher order thinking skills are the hallmarks of this component in your student's practice session.