Music is one of the parts of the people’s life. The modern world is rather fast and depressive, and people need some relax after a busy day. It is a common knowledge that instrumental music is the best in term of relaxation.
Every field of knowledge has its classification. Instruments, according to Gary Cook, are divided into three major groups: the strings, the winds and the percussion. The winds later were divided into wood-winds and brass. The percussion instruments are usually divided into two big groups: definite pitch (musical) and indefinite pitch (unmusical). The book of Gary Cook gives us more detailed information about the classification of percussion instruments: idiophones, membranophones, chordophones, and aerophones, which, in their turn, may be divided according to their musical characteristics into “tuned instruments”, “instruments of indefinite pitch” and “instruments usually considered to be of indefinite pitch but can be tuned. (2005, 2)
Selecting a percussion student for instrumental music program is rather difficult job to do. The task is easier if the teacher knows his students, their abilities and can chose the appropriate one by himself. The problem appears when the teacher takes the class for the first time. It is difficult for him/her to value students’ abilities and music talents.
The first step in a process for selecting a percussion student for your instrumental music program, to our opinion, is to state what goals the percussionist should reach. The practice shows that almost all students want to play drums. To chose appropriate student teacher should say that the percussionist he/she is going to choose in the end of the month. The teacher will get some information about the students: who of them has good rhythmic sense, musical sensitivity, who is a good listener, serious and independent worker till that time. All these qualities should be inhered in every musician, but in the percussionist in particular.
The other step is to choose those, who still want to become percussionists and to give preference to the most talented ones. The student should also be able to sit still for some time, what represents student’s self control and patience.
The typical instruments necessary to middle-school band are wind instruments and percussion instruments. The band may also have string basses and bass guitars; everything depends on the level of school band. As it was said above, the percussion instruments are divided into idiophones (the sound is produced through the vibration of their entire body), membranophones (the sound is produced through the vibration of a membrane, which is usually made of animal skin or plastic head), chordophones (the sound is produced though the vibration of strings which is “stretched over or through a resonating box that helps to amplify the sound” (Cook 2005, 3)), aerophones (the sound is produced through the vibration of an enclosed air column). (Cook 2005)
The wind instruments are divided into brass and woodwind (the sound is produced with the column of air by the player’s blowing in the mouthpiece of the instrument (Cook 2005). These are the most frequently used instruments in the middle school band in our opinion.
Elecrophone is one more type of percussion instruments. The sound is arranged with the help of microphones “with the acoustic instruments for sound amplification or reinforcement” in order to obtain a unique effect “when fed through filters, processors, mixers and amplifiers”. (Cook 2005)
In conclusion, the teacher’s organization of the school music program is rather difficult task to do, as many aspects should be considered.
Reference
Cook, Gary D. 2005. Teaching Percussion. Schirmer.