We’ve reached the inevitable transition from the long hours of marching band to the next musical season around the corner. Manage this transition smoothly to continue to engage your percussion students.
Indoor Percussion
Indoor percussion can be both a smooth and bumpy follow-up to your marching band season, depending on how it’s set up, planned for, and followed through.
Consider giving the students a small breather from the last marching band contest until auditions. Your students will have a chance to recharge as well as shift their focus. This time is also an excellent way to introduce new audition material to breathe new life to the next season.
Concert Percussion Ensemble
Capitalize on the technique gained and time spent from marching band by shifting the focus to prepare a winter or spring percussion ensemble concert with your students.
Percussion ensemble repertoire will continue to push your students and give them an opportunity to perform in a chamber setting. The students will be responsible for more musical material to complement their full band literature.
Contest and All-State Preparation
As essential components of the total program, band festivals, contests, and All-State ensembles can greatly enhance the experiences of young musicians.
Compare the time spent preparing the marching band program to preparing the concert band literature. If the time spent were the same for marching band and concert band, the possibilities of the achievement would be endless.
Every band program throughout the country will inevitably follow one or more (or all) of these paths after the marching band season. A fluid transition to the next season will ultimately generate a greater investment in the full program and result in a positive cyclical process benefitting the entire band.
Adam shares his thoughts on using different percussion implements here.
