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"Teaching the First Snare Drum Lesson" not only lays out a basic snare drum technique, but explains how to teach it as well. Junior high, high school music teachers/band directors and percussion students alike will find fundamental information on how to play with a relaxed and supple technique that will serve them for a lifetime.
Hi Band Directors, I'd be delighted to answer any questions you might have regarding percussion techniques and/or teaching methods. Wishing you a great start to the school year!!
Hi all, Evaluating snare drummers in band class, especially beginners, is challenging. While your other instrumentalists have to think about their embouchure, breathing, posture and fingering just to produce a note, drummers can just drop the stick onto the drum and play a few quarter notes without giving it much thought at all. So what does a teacher evaluate?![]()
Watch my latest video, Beginning Snare Drum Evaluation, to discover how to approach testing in a new way - by focusing your drummers' awareness on important technical points. Evaluation will be a breeze . . . plus, you'll be guiding your drummers toward the development of a solid technique.![]()
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Be sure to download the Sample Test here: lnkd.in/djZ6fBGd
Evaluating the Beginning Snare Drummer
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Band teachers: Learn how to test beginning snare drummers by providing clear goals for both yourselves and your students.00:00 Intro to snare drum evaluation...
The great vibraphonist, Stefan Bauer with bassist Matthias Akeo Nowak - both in from Germany - and Toronto's legendary Terry Clarke on drums rehearsing for their gig at Toronto's Jazz Bistro, Friday Oct. 4 and Saturday Oct. 5 (first sets start at 8:30). Rounding out the band Mosaic is tenor saxophonist Matthew Halpin, arriving in town tomorrow from Germany. Don't miss this very special event!
Evaluating the Beginning Snare Drummer: Video and Sample Test
When it comes time for band teachers to evaluate students’ performance on their instruments, evaluating percussionists – snare drummers in particular – usually leaves teachers baffled. Unlike the other instrumentalists, snare drummers have no problem producing a sound and hitting the right note with good intonation. So what do you test? As you will see […]
Teaching and Playing Paradiddles with Lifts and Levels
Stewart Hoffman is the author of The Band Teacher’s Percussion Guide from Oxford University Press (Watch all the videos related to this post: Teaching Lifts and Levels; Teaching and Playing Paradiddles; and Practising Paradiddles) No matter what a drummer’s goal is – whether it’s to play in an orchestra, or a jazz, rock or marching […]
Practising Two-Beat Drum Fills
What are Drum Fills? Drum fills are short, improvised drum, or drum and cymbal patterns, most often played when moving into a different section of a tune – as when a verse leads into the chorus, to name just one example. Drum fills commonly take up anywhere from the last beat of the bar to […]
Teaching Mallet Percussion in Band Class: A Carefully Planned Program + Appropriate Testing = Success
If you’re teaching mallet percussion in high school and have never attempted to sight read music on a mallet instrument, walk over to a xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel or vibraphone right now and try it. Even pianists will be surprised at how difficult it is. With your eyes focused on the music, you can barely see […]
Playing and Teaching the Buzz Roll
A good buzz roll should sound even, seamless, and remain under control at all dynamic levels. The best drummers devote a great deal of their practise time focusing on it. In Playing and Teaching the Buzz Roll – a short video excerpt from my NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) Winter Convention snare drum […]
Teaching Percussion Technique: 8 Essential Points for Students and Teachers to Remember
The development of good percussion technique is not often on the teacher’s or student’s mind during those first weeks or even months of classes. After all, there’s nothing easier than playing a note on a snare drum, xylophone or timpani: any beginner can hold a stick or mallet above a drum head or bar, let […]
Beyond the Method Book: How to Engage and Challenge Percussionists in Band Class
(DOWNLOAD Snare Drum Sticking Patterns here) It’s not easy to engage and challenge percussion students in school band class. Just having them play the method book snare drum part – especially during those first months of classes – won’t do it. Having them work on the snare and mallet exercises in a method book helps […]
Planning Your High School Percussion Program
Summer is winding down and if you’re a high school band teacher, you’ve likely begun to tidy your band room, organize instruments, search out new music and plan programs. But have you taken the time to focus specifically on your high school percussion program? Have you considered whether all your percussionists will be required to […]
Leonard Bernstein’s Centenary: Introducing Genius into the Classroom
I’m always disappointed to discover that my percussion students – and that includes high school music students – have so little knowledge of music beyond pop and maybe some classic rock. I was thinking of this on August 25, the date of what would have been Leonard Bernstein’s centenary. Worldwide celebrations of the event had […]
Finding a Good Drum Teacher (and Identifying Those to Avoid): 5 Points to Follow
What Should a Good Drum Teacher Teach? When parents invest in their children’s music lessons – on piano, trumpet, violin, oboe or whatever – they expect certain basics to be taught. A functional technique is one of them. They would also expect a teacher to relentlessly steer students away from bad habits that inhibit technical […]