nafmeadmin.
nafmeadminI love arranging music and I’m trying to expand my writing for marching percussion (esp. battery). Since I am a “brass guy”, my percussion chops are severely limited. Can anyone recommend some ideas, books, etc., to work on arranging for marching percussion? I am really interested in learning fills and some “classic” licks that I can learn to incorporate. Any help or thoughts are appreciated.
nafmeadminPercussion writing is great but my advice would be always think for the music first. It’s easy to write a fancy percussion that you know into a song but is it musically sound? I start out with learning to match rhythms to the rest of the band. I also think it’s important to have an overall concept of what a marching percussion section is doing on the field. Is it a marching drumset or is a marching concert percussion battery section? Important steps to get started with.
nafmeadminRule #1 – Don’t listen to anything the Blue Devils have done or the Cadets from about 2000-2010. 2011 is okay.
If you want tasty writing, you need to look at some of the Delucia stuff from the Bridgemen, Jim Casella from SCV and later the Cavaliers, and definitely Paul Rennick. These are guys that write musically and for the composition. They don’t always win, but they’re always VERY musical.
Sadly there is no “magic book”. It’s simply trial and error and experience. Know where you want to have impact and line up rhythms. Know where you want to have rhythmic dissonance and write counter rhythms. In my experience, it’s VERY easy to tell when a non-percussionist has written percussion parts because they tend to be very chordal, double melodies/wind parts a great deal and there is little rhythmic interest and a lot of “1 +a 2 +a 3 + 4e+a” or similar figures. The best thing you could do is learn or play more percussion in an ensemble.
That said, I love the Huey Lewis (and the News) fill. Shot-boom-boom-shot-boom-boom-shot. It’s the “we need a fill now, fill”.
Christopher M. Johnson, Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy, is currently the Chair of the Music Education and Music Therapy Department and Director of the Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. Johnson earned his Ph.D. from the Florida State University.
Since his arrival at The University of Kansas, Johnson has taught courses in Instrumental Conducting, Teaching Instrumental Music, Managing Behaviors in the Music Environment, Psychology and Acoustics of Music, and Research Methods in Music Education and Music Therapy. Johnson served two terms as the editor of the International Journal of Music Education: Research, the research publication of the International Society for Music Education. He is currently serving his second term on the National Association for Music Educations Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. He also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education, and one earlier term as the Chair for the MENC Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. Johnson also served as the Chair for the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education.
Johnson’s research interests include applied research in music education, and basic research in all aspects of the psychology of music. He has published articles in many journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, the International Journal of Music Education, the Journal of Music Therapy, Journal of Band Research, Contributions to Music Education, and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, among others. Johnson has also been an active member and contributor to the Research Seminar of the International Society for Music Education and World Alliance for Arts Education.
Johnson received a university teaching award – the Ned N. Fleming Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the recognition for Graduate Teaching Achievement from the Center for Teaching Excellence. Johnson was also awarded a lecturing & research award as a J. William Fulbright Scholar and recently received the Ella Scoble Opperman Citation for Distinguished Achievement from the Florida State University College of Music.
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