Building Good Habits

Growing up I had two piano teachers. One focused on playing the correct notes at the correct time while the other one focused on my hand shape and position. With the first piano teacher, I was able to play music, however my sound seemed off. I felt like the notes I played didn't have the same force behind them as when other people played, and I felt as if the length of my notes were shorter than what other people were playing. It wasn't until my years in college where I took piano lessons with a new teacher who as she listened to be play a Bach prelude started noticing the same exact issues I saw with my own playing. She stopped my playing and then only looked at my hands. Right away she knew I understood how to read sheet music and how to get a sound to come out, but she understood that my poor technique was causing bad tone. It took an entire year to relearn my technique, but after changing up how I played, I was able to play with better tone.

Percussionists have a lot to think about. The way they need to move their fingers, wrists and arms in time to produce a sound. Add on top of that the fact that marching percussionists need to march, there's one important thing they need to do: keep time.

Keeping time let's the performer line up their feet with their hands for when they're on the field and playing their drums. Many rhythms they'll play on their instruments will not naturally fit within a simple quarter note metronome, so by having their brain trained to do complex things over their marching steps they will be able to have an easier time linking their beats to their feet movements.

A Great Side Effect

One thing I noticed from performers who performers who constantly mark time is their ability to also focus during rehearsals. Marking time not only trains the performer to sound better, but to also make their rehearsal etiquette much more disciplined. My favorite students are ones who are locked in and ready to work, and I especially see people who mark time consistently the ones most likely to want to work hard.

Build it up!

Like any other musical ability, marking time won't come naturally to most performers, especially to newer performers. My first time playing 3 2 claves while marking time was very gross with my feet basically having a mind of their own. Start with simple rhythms like quarter and eighth notes and slowly workup to polyrhythms with the feet such as drag triplets and fivelets. I also love making my students try to play triplets off the beat while marking time. After a while moving their feet while playing will become second nature. Keep on giving them opportunities to work on marking time!

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not... Genius will not... Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." — Calvin Coolidge