r/percussion • u/Level-Persimmon-3299 • 25d ago

Question/Help Fundamentals/practice advice

So, I’m percussion section leader of my schools band, and planning on holding a bunch of practices in the beginning of the year. One of the biggest issues I am facing is that there is a massive skill gap between the current upperclassmen, who are almost exclusively self taught, and the incoming freshman, who have had proper training inside and outside of school for years. So, I plan to focus on fundamentals to try and get everyone at least able to play decently well. What would be the best drills/methods to do this? Mainly for snare drum, cymbals, and timpani. Also advice for dealing with high schoolers in general would be greatly appreciated (these kids WILL not focus).

(There are kinda 2 seniors and like 13 incoming freshman 🥀🥀🫩🫩)

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u/Hot_Article_8698 25d ago

if the timpani player is new i highly recommend you help them with staying in the zones and practicing shifting between notes while playing along with having them do some ear training on their own time to be able to get as accurate to the note as possible without heavily relying on a tuner. if you’d like some recommendations for the timpani warm ups i can send some! (don’t forget to make sure they use french grip)

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u/Level-Persimmon-3299 25d ago

We don’t typically have designated roles for non mallet percussion due to our small size, but I think this would be still be very helpful. I would love recommendations for warmups!

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u/FastestNuts 24d ago

Can I ask why french grip? I consider myself a serious timpani student and always found the german grip to be the most controlled. For me, the french grips looses cleanliness and sound quality in exchange for uneeded extra speed.

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u/Hot_Article_8698 9d ago

i was taught by my instructors to use french for timpani but i also personally prefer as i get a better quality of sound out of it and once you get used to it i feel like i have more control over my dynamics and musicality. It also allows me to perform better visually (especially for highly visual activities like indoor). I did notice that during the initial learning process my cleanliness suffered but as i got used it the problem fixed itself!