Some people like to make things just because they like to do it. Other people like to make and fix their own things to save money. But, everybody needs to know some basics because of emergencies that can occur. You don’t want to be caught with a broken timpani head and without the knowledge to […]

Marimba, Xylophone, Bells or Glockenspiel, Vibraphone and Chimes are the instruments that will be covered in this section. Four mallet playing technique, exercises meant to help you know where the notes are and unique playing techniques that are needed to play each of these melodic instruments are all part of this section. Want more percussion […]

Timpani playing is deceptively tricky. On the surface the rhythms are generally easy and usually you are asked to play only two notes. But, there is an awful lot of technique involved in playing these amazing drums properly. In these lessons I cover the basics like tuning, rolling and give you exercises that can help […]

This is the fun stuff! Tambourine, Triangle, Castanets and more make up this category of the percussion family. While each of these instruments is a percussion instrument they each have their own unique playing technique. Percussionists need to know several different techniques on every instrument in the section and these techniques have to be practiced […]

Every percussionist needs to know how to play the snare drum. It’s usually the first instrument we learn how to play and the techniques that we need to know on the snare drum help us with many of the techniques we’ll need when play on all of the other percussion instruments. In this series of […]

Hand drumming is possibly the most ancient form of percussion. Here you’ll find lessons where the only thing you need is two hands and a surface to drum on. We also cover the basics of some of the more classic hand drumming instruments like the djembe and the bodhran. Follow along with these lessons and […]

Playing crash cymbals is much more than banging two 20” plates of metal together and in this series of lessons I walk you through the process to develop your Orchestral and Concert Band Cymbal playing techniques. In these lessons I reference the teachings of my teacher when I attend the New England Conservatory of Music, […]