Hey guys,
I've been working on a warm-up book to use for a high school battery. After finishing the book, I sent it out to some schools to work toward getting a job. After having gone through and speaking with some of the band directors, I've finally found a group for me to start teaching, and a program to basically call my own.

However, in addition to being the battery tech at said school, I'm also in charge of teaching their front ensemble.

I'm a little less acquainted with the mallet aspect of playing, in comparison to my knowledge in battery percussion, so I'm seeking a little bit of input. I would like to write warm-ups for the front ensemble to go along with the battery warm-ups that I already have written.

Here's where my question comes into play. In regards to mallets, what are the most important aspects of playing to approach in your warm-ups?

For two mallets, I plan on incorporating a piston-stroke technique, and I plan on writing exercises that allow the player to be more comfortable across the keyboard. I plan to include green scales in all 12 major keys, and probably all 12 minor keys, once I get the line progressing a little more as a unit. I also plan on writing passages that the players are going to want to aim for the middle of each note, and then faster exercises where the players are going to want to aim for the edge of the bar (below the nodes). I plan to write things in octaves so that the players will become familiar with the keyboard, and so that they have a comfortable set of muscle memory to base their playing off of.

For four-mallet playing, I plan to incorporate a double-laterals exercise to get each player comfortable with Steven's grip. (I'm assuming that they have little to no experience playing four-mallets so far, considering it's a pretty young group). I'm also going to write some exercises that works the players' intervals within each hand, and I also plan on writing music that gives them a bit of dexterity with their mallets (inside-outside mallet patterns, outside-inside, left-right, right-left, etc.)

In addition to the things that I mentioned, what are some key fundamentals that I should include in the warm-up music to better progress my players? Keep in mind that I'm aiming for a beginner to intermediate level, and from there, I intend to make things more difficult.

Feel free to give examples of how you've either approached these concepts, or even how you've SEEN them approached. Also, if you know of examples to incorporate for the aspects that I've already mentioned, feel free to include those, as well. Every bit of input expands my horizons and gives me more options to pull from.

Thank you all so much for your input!
B

I really like your idea of sending your exercise book around to schools. I'm going to have to start doing that.

Up Front
I've heard really good things about this book and I'm pretty sure it will be the first thing I buy if I get a gig teaching pit. There's a Student Edition that each of your students can get that will serve them for all their four years in h.s. and from the sounds of what's included, probably into college if they continue music.

I basically suggest having an exercise for all the stroke types in their music. If you can do more, awesome but don't go overboard. On the two mallet exercises; you can do green scales as both mid-bar playing and outside edge playing. If you wanted to do a musical excerpt for that you could take a solo for another instrument and write it out for them to play at different tempos. The Bach Piano Inventions seem like a good idea to me for that right now seeing how there isn't really a defined tempo. Make sure to make your students play musically as well. Stuff like phrasing and balance applied to exercises can go a long way.

Thanks for the input, but I want to give you a warning for this part of your reply.

Be very careful with who you send music that you've worked long and hard on to. I didn't send out any music to any of the band directors until they expressed their interest in me coming in as instructor, THEN I sent the title page, table of contents, author bio, about the book, and technique sections, but I sent it with no music. That way, not only did they get a sort of resume of who I am as an instructor, but they also got to see how I approach teaching technique. After that, if they expressed more interest in me, then I went in to teach their ensemble with my book in-hand. I taught an exercise from the book, and I showed it to them so that they could get an understanding of how I laid it out.

This ultimately kept what is rightfully mine, well, mine. The composing industry is somewhere that you have to tread lightly, if you're too quick to send out your own personal music for free, then you may not make as much off of it as you had originally intended, if that makes sense.

So, all-in-all, I'm flattered that you like my idea, just be careful for your own sake, and only send out what you'd be comfortable with other people teaching out of for free, at least until you know whether or not YOU will be the one teaching.

Thanks again for the link. I'm actually pretty well-acquainted with that book, and you've inspired me to look at it again, so I'll be doing that within the next couple of days.

Well...this is really such a broad question but I'll try to stay brief in my advice. Warboy is exactly right, Up Front is basically the go-to resource for any up-and-coming front ensemble instructor. Jim and Jim pretty much spoon feed you everything you need to know about how a healthy front ensemble should function. Having been at this for quite some time, I've definitely found places where some of their wisdom just doesn't fit with my ensemble or my style, but I guess that's just the way it goes with any kind of teaching. So for all things basic and straightforward, that book should be your bible.

But given that you're a drummer, and given that I've had experience working with drummers who think they can be "pit guys" as well, my biggest two suggestions would be: know what you're talking about and understand that a front ensemble functions on a different kind of wavelength than a battery.

Pertaining to my first suggestion, I think you're already part of the way there. From the little that you've mentioned in your posts, you seem to have a clue about certain fundamentals. And in no way am I knocking you if you are a well versed percussionist. But things like "double-laterals" are not something you should be really introducing to beginner 4-mallet players. It's cool if you meant double vertical...I confuse the names all the time when I talk about them in quick succession, but it's important to know the difference. A double vertical stroke is the easiest of the 4-mallet strokes whereas a double lateral stroke is probably the hardest. (and that is just from my personal experience of teaching kids year after year) Believe me, that Up Front book will really help you out with terminology and basically just what you're looking for: the fundamentals. But understand it's not only for the sake of the students learning the correct names for things, but if you know your craft, you gain that much more respect from those same students. I'm sure you can understand this from being an established drum guy. Your kids respect you because you know what you're doing and you do it well. That's half of the battle. There's nothing worse than a battery guy calling out a front ensemble student when he himself doesn't know what the hell is going on.

The second thing I mentioned is a bit more tricky. I think this is one of things you don't get from reading Up Front or any of the other resources you find out there. My point is that the kind of people who you will find as your "front ensemble" kids are of an entirely different breed than the kids in your drumline. It varies from place to place, but from personal experience alone, I'd say that 75% of the time you get an ensemble that is predominantly female students all of whom are of EXTREMELY different temperament than the students you've got as snare drummers and bass drummers. There are always a few exceptions to this happenstance, but for the most part this is the case for me year after year. Long story short, you've got to morph yourself into an instructor who can play both sides and be sympathetic to how each group functions independently of one another. I've seen countless colleagues of mine who take over a rehearsal for a day only to find they've made foolish changes, made one of the marimba players walk out of rehearsal, sexually harassed (mildly) the concert bells player, and any other host of mishaps just because they came into the process thinking you can use the same bag of tricks you use to teach your tenor line. Again, maybe other people will disagree with me on this one, and there are always exceptions. But it's best if you start working on your new persona as a separate entity from your battery instructor self.

Lastly I would just say that scales are a waste of time unless you are dealing with students who have a serious concentration in music. I mean, obviously people will disagree with that statement, but to me, it only takes up time that you probably don't have. With a front ensemble you have SOOO many basic building blocks to deal with that scales just sorta happen in the meantime. But like I said, unless you're teaching jazz musicians or kids who are going to be auditioning for state-wide bands and whatnot, there's not really a need to harp on the scales thing. Definitely do a handful! Most definitely C, Bb, Eb, F, G, A and the other "big name" major keys. But doing the whole ordeal and throwing in minor scales (especially if they don't even know what minor means) is a bit of overkill to me when you should be focusing on mallet heights between hands, proper stroke, sixteenth note timing, triplet timing, octave coordination, mallet rotations, quality of sound, roll technique, etc., etc., etc.

Oh and the actual last things I will say since this is already too long to be "brief"...Don't write exercises that go along with your battery exercises unless they have a purpose for both groups. Even the "sound good" exercises should have underlying technique builders involved. It's cool to be a writer, but don't write trivial material just because it goes with your triplet diddle exercise and the pit needs something to play. Also just have you front ensemble learn how to play ALL of their exercises on both the center of the bar and the edge. Good mallet players should be able to make that change with no effort whatsoever. So I just have the student who's in charge of warm ups call out "edge" or "center" and they switch back and forth during each exercise. (with exceptions of course)

If you have more pointed questions, I'd be glad to help, otherwise I feel as if I could go on for hours maybe even days. you can PM me or just keep using this thread. Hopefully the angry mob won't come after me for me trashing the scales studies...best of luck to you though.

I kinda agree with you about the scales. Unless you are in a very high level high school ensemble, there's no point in doing all twelve major keys let alone minors. I will bet you that you will never see something written for a high school pit in C# or for that matter even B major. It just doesn't happen. I do think that green scales is a really good way to apply a lot of different skills though with an easy exercise. Don't do scales to do scales all the time. Play scales to enforce musicality, timing, listening, balance, ect. The best exercises are those that you can use to do just about anything. That's why eights is the most played and universal exercise ever. You can do so much stuff with it. Same with scales. You could even practice your independent strokes by just using your two inside mallets.

I have also used Up Front a lot for developing my warmup book. I have a book that works the same for the entire percussion section, regardless of instruments. It is divided into 4 sections for the 4 core skills: (1) one-height skills, (2) two-height skills, (3) diddle-skills, and (4) flam skills. There are several exercises within each, numbered and lettered (1a, 1b, & 1c are all one-height exercises). The kids like the book a lot, and it's easy to reference a particular exercise when a rudiment pops up in the show music that a student needs to exercise.

I understand this, for sure. And yes, I did mean double verticals, that was my mistake. I am a pretty well-rounded percussionist, and I have strong mallet abilities. In fact, I've also taught a pit before, just this past season. However, when I taught this pit in the past, I taught under someone with a PhD in performance, and it was someone that already had a set style that he used to teach his students. I'm currently adapting a big part of his style, including what I've learned so far at Georgia State University as a Music Education major, and also trying to see what else could have possibly been missed. Keep in mind that when I mention doing scales, I won't expect these students to learn every single key signature. I plan to use the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) scales (Majors - C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab), and then after they gain familiarity with those, adding in some sharp keys, (G, D, A), and then even after that MAYBE minor scales. I don't plan on this being anything that happens anytime soon; I'm merely saying that this is an ultimate goal for this ensemble, because I plan to be a part of this group for several years.


I'm definitely prepared for this aspect of my instructing. Keep in mind that I've already taught a pit, I just haven't taught my OWN pit.



I forgot to mention that I've already incorporated into the warm-up book both sixteenth note and triplet timing AND accent grid exercises. I've mentioned the octave coordination, and already have an exercise written for just that. Mallet heights and proper stroke are going to be incorporated into ALL of the exercises, and quality of sound is something I will approach throughout the entire season. However, could you go into a little bit more detail by what you mean by "mallet rotation," and how have you seen this approached before?



All of the exercises that I have written for battery and pit collectively have a purpose for both ensembles. I've already chosen to NOT write exercises for some battery pieces to include pit because of the fact that I know I can't make it relevant. Thank you for the suggestion about the center/edge playing; I may use that.

Thank you so much for all of your help!
B

What I meant by mallet rotations was pertaining to four mallet playing with particular focus on single independent strokes. I'm a huge stickler for having my guys really isolate inner rotations and outer rotations. For beginners it's probably the single hardest thing getting them to have the proper up stroke and subsequent down stroke with both inner and outer mallets. I've noticed personally that a lot of indoor groups on the west coast have adapted rotations to be a more full handed stroke where they're almost doing a double stop and only playing with inner mallets. But well-executed Steven's grip requires two separate rotations systems in your hand, as I'm sure you know. That's all I was really getting at. The outer rotations seem to be more difficult for most players, so I've written my own exercise "Lester" that focuses specifically on developing that particular motion. If it's something you're really interested in I'd be willing to share it with you as long as you don't pass it off as your own. It's nothing special, but I've seen amazing improvement since I added it to my book last winter. So yeah, if you've ever got any questions I'm glad to help.

Oh okay, I had a feeling that's what you meant, I just wanted to be sure. I may be interested in taking a look at that exercise, just so I can get an understanding of how you did it, if that makes sense. If I were to use the concept, it would be written in a different exercise.

As stated before Up Front really is the best book and the Student Edition is a great addition. I'd recommend the Up Front Etudes if you want to save yourself some hassle of writing out full warmups.

At 1 of the schools I work at, I started the Front Ensemble with 1 Xylo and 1 Bells and 4 years later we have 2 Aux, 2x Marimba, 1x Vibes, 1x Bells/Chimes, and 1x Xylo. It's true that the front ensemble instrumentalists are a different temperament than the battery but I make sure both groups know how important they are to each other and to the general effect.

As far as warmups go, my book consists of 4 Major scales built around a beat that the Auxiliary (Drum Set) plays. That way it stays interesting and the Drum Set can play around too by playing a Funk or Rock or Punk beat as things speed up. We also have a few Standalone musical warmups that emphasize things like Double Stops, Ensemble Sound, and Dynamic Contrast which really helps when playing with the whole band.

I am currently writing out a Battery and Front Ensemble warmup based around the song "Glacial Planet" by Scale the Summit as this years "performance" warmup which emphasizes syncopation, heights, dynamic contrast, stick control, ensemble sound and more all in one fun tune. No matter what you do keep it interesting and make sure the Pit has as much fun as the battery and everything will be sweet. We just did our first audition clinic and it looks like I am going to have 10 this year in the front ensemble and 23 on the field. Watch and Grow!