New Beats!

We have just completed uploading the first of the "Essential Skills" series of exercises.  These exercise packets will each focus on a variety of skill sets that should be mastered by every rudimental percussionist.  Essential Skills for Battery Percussion: Volume 1 can be found under the new Beats section of the site.  This is also the new home of the Transcription Library.

Please download and share Volume 1 with your friends and look for more material in the near future!

Gearing up for the 2012 Indoor season

Auditions are either underway or quickly approaching for the Minnesota drumlines. I've had about 2 solid months off of drumline and while it was nice to have some weekends and nights to pursue other hobbies and relax but I cannot wait to get back to it! There's nothing quite like seeing someone master a new rudiment, nail a drill move, or hear the music come to life.

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Drum Corps Season is here!

Finally, the drum corps season is upon us! I, for one am eagerly awaiting the YouTube clips of the drumlines throwing down in the lot and the blistering sounds emanating from the horn lines! The music these drum corps produce is awesome, chilling, and down right massive. When that final chord is hit you can feel it in your bones.

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Feeling the Beat

Feeling the music you're playing is something that's hard to teach but important to the progression of your performing. Feeling the groove, the rhythm, the beat of songs in your body means you are becoming part of the music and that is a sign of your maturity as a musician. There are some basic things we can all do to practice feeling the beat over a groove pattern...

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motivation and encouragement

Perfection is what this activity (drumline) boils down to. Every note, every step, every time. As staff we strive to minimize the opportunity in a show for things to go wrong, and as marching members we strive for consistent playing and marching to eliminate any errors during a performance. During the process of perfecting the show there is at least one point where we want to quit. As staff we need to know how to keep the members moving forward and motivated while making sure they know what needs to be worked on. In my time teaching I have run across a few factors which impact a student or members ability to stay motivated.

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How to accept failure and grow as a musician (and a person)

I haven't posted on here for weeks due to the overwhelming volume of work that comes with running a drumline, working a 9-5, auditioning for a DCA corps and working towards a music education degree simultaneously but today I had a series of events occur that compelled me to get back behind the keyboard and share.

I knew over nine months before enrolling at my local university that I would need to begin preparations for the music scholarship auditions the following year.  One of the great features of this institution is that there are numerous music-specific scholarships available, however the size of the percussion studio (and music program in general) has swelled over the last few years, and the competition for these scholarships has grown quite intense.

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How to play with a metronome

Playing with a metronome is essential for any musician.  Since percussionists are often the keepers of tempo it is important that we know HOW to keep tempo.  I’ve already written about how to play with your feet, and the importance of being able to keep tempo without a metronome on.  This is more fundamental than that.  This is simply how to play with a metronome.  Sure it seems easy, but more often than not new players do it wrong. I’d like to point out that for the sake of this discussion we are using a little personal metronome, not a Dr. Beat hooked up to a Long-Ranger.

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The Line is Set: Now what?

All those hours of your work have paid off. You are now in the drumline! Once the elation of the event has passed you may have some of the following questions: * What do I practice? * How do I keep my spot? * When should I practice? Basically: "What do I do now?" There are a few basic rules that everyone should follow to maximize your potential and help push the line in the quest for excellence.

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Making the Line: What Staff Look for in a Player

The season is upon us! Rehearsals are starting, people are chopping out, and instructors/educators around the world are gearing up for the WGI season. Arguably one of the hardest parts on both staff and members is the audition process. For staff we worry about making the right choice to fill out the line as we see fit and how we need it for our show. For students it is almost always about getting the instrument that they have worked so hard to play. There are three main areas that the staff look for when placing a student on an instrument: Attitude, Improvement, and Ability.

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Pardon our dust

You may have noticed it's been a little quiet around here lately, and we wanted to to let you know that Rüdimentality is still alive and well, albeit a tad overwhelmed. 

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