the official blog of the Percussive Arts Society

“The biggest problem with trying to put together an ensemble on a football field would have to be sound delay. Sound travels approximately 1,100 feet per second at sea level, and it is 105 feet from the back hash to the front side line. Therefore if you were to put a snare drummer on the back hash and a bass drummer on the front side line and have them play quarter notes at 160 at exactly the same time, it would sound as though they are 1/5 of a beat apart from the front or the back of the field.”

Consider the solutions proposed in this December 1990 article about sound delay from one of the greatest in the field of marching percussion education!

The purpose of this article is to provide the reader with practical information on how to practice mallet keyboard instruments and to differentiate these practice concepts from concepts involving other percussion instruments. There are six basic skills to be mastered in order to play mallet instruments (vibraphone, bells, xylophone, and marimba), and they are as follows:

1. proper grip and stroke action
2. speed and accuracy in technique (legato and non-legato)
3. sight-reading ability
4. muscle memory skills
5. smooth rolls (tied and untied)
6. ability to assign good sticking patterns to written music.”

Check out this excellent Percussive Notes article from 1990 that retains its relevance today regarding our approach to keyboard percussion instruments.

“I think they are better players today; there’s no doubt about it. I just think the overall quality suffers as a result of becoming too specialized. People are playing better; that’s something we can be proud of!” 

Is this an example of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”? Check out this December 1990 article about percussion pedagogy from one of the charter members of the Percussive Arts Society!