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Percussion Education Online
http://www.percussioneducationonline.com
Information for anyone interested in Percussion Education, especially Percussion Ensembles in Schools
- Author: Kevin Tuck
- Listed in: Music Education
- Tags: percussion drums drumming music education marimba percussion ensemble
Recent Posts
New Music Theory Book Now Available
YES! Theory is important for Drums and Percussion Too! Drummers and percussionists are often the furthest behind when it comes to music theory, as they play an instrument that has no pitch associated with it. I’ve just been involved in helping ...
Help Making Custom Drum Sets
I just received an excellent DVD called “Guerrilla Drum Making” from John Dutra in the United States. This video took me back – I used to play around a lot with refinishing and refitting hardware onto drum shells.. however I was nev...
Help finding Staff for Bands
I just found this new website which has been launched to help Bands connect with potential tutors, arrangers and directors. Its a really well thought out project, and I’m keen to support such a project as this getting off the ground. The more s...
New textbook with help for Concert Band Directors
I’ve just been lucky enough to find a new textbook written for concert band directors. I haven’t done a lot of concert band conducting, but the little I did do I know what a challenge it is! This brand new text was written specifically fo...
Help in the Music Business
I’ve just discovered something that I WISH had been around ten years ago! Getting started in the music business is hard enough as it is - firstly you’ve got to become brilliant on your instrument and get yourself into a great band or ensemble. Th...
Guest Post - Concepts Ends Results
Today I’ve got a guest contribution for you - an interesting article on the benefits of teaching reading in drum lessons. I agree with david’s philosophy.. how about you? Leave a comment on the end of the article. TO READ OR ...
Kevin,
I've stumbled on some ideas that I think would merit some research for improving teaching music to beginners. I think they would be particularly appropriate for programs that use the tuned percussion instruments, such as Orff.
THE IDEAS:
1: the Janko keyboard arrangement, and
2: The Kodaly method as an organizing principle for learning melody.
To try my idea, I purchased a student chromatic glockenspiel and rearranged the bars into the Janko arrangement: two rows with each bar a whole tone apart, e.g. C D E Gb Ab Bb top row and Db Eb F G A B on the bottom row. In this arrangement all major scales have the same 3-4 pattern. I think barred percussion instruments are fundamentally more adaptable to this arrangement than piano, and it would be interesting to see whether beginners could learn faster/more easily--but more importantly, learn MUSIC better--with a keyboard that intuitively matched the scale steps. (Sonor pointed out that this arrangement could be easily accomplished with their "Chime Bars" product, without any need to structurally modify the instrument.)
After years of frustration trying find arrangements I can play or reconstruct a song "by ear", I've found some success with the Kodaly approach to melody because it focuses on learning to hear/sing/think in musical intervals rather than just playing notes from rote or notation. I think it should be fully compatible with Orff rhythm principles as well.
Combined with the Janko arrangement, the scale intervals take on a distinctive physical form that is the same (except for the up/down reflection) in all keys, and the physical bar distance matches the half/whole-step tone distance!
Perhaps some instrument manufacturer could be persuaded to create a Janko set for research purposes. Alternatively, these instruments are simple enough for "do it yourself" construction.
As for myself, I've found a mallet percussion teacher and am hopefully on my way to getting the sounds from my ears to my head to my instrument (and maybe even on score paper) with the help of Janko and Kodaly!
PS--I tried submitting this earlier but it hung. Sorry if you got a duplicate.
Posted: June 28th, 2009 | Report This Comment