Worship Musician August 2020 | Page 107
PERCUSSION
FUNDAMENTAL FRIENDS | Mark Shelton
While sight-reading a song in a rehearsal, your
eyes glance ahead on the chart and see the
words, TWO-BAR SOLO. Your brain suddenly
recalls a paradiddle-based lick that you made
up last week. Seconds later, your hands start
to improvise around that lick with every note in
proper relationship to the click that’s thumping
in your ear. After eight beats your solo ends
and you continue through the song. An inner
voice whispers, "Aren't you glad you practiced
that stuff?"
What do you include in your practice sessions?
Preparing your assigned music for rehearsals
and worship events should rank high on your
practice schedule, but make sure to devote
time to the fundamentals of music-making.
Maintaining the basics allows you to more
easily express your musical ideas.
Here are a few of the musical fundamentals to
review frequently along with some helpful tips
and resources.
CLICK ACCURACY
The click is here to stay. The ability to perform
with a click has become a common requirement
in many musical settings including worship
services, recording sessions, video productions,
and concerts. Turn on your metronome and
concentrate on sharpening your click skills. The
beginning of a practice session is a good time
to warm up both physically and mentally with
easy rhythms and simple movements that will
allow you to focus attention on click precision.
RHYTHMIC SUBDIVISION
The spaces between the clicks deserve
attention. Incorrect spacing of notes within
a beat causes rushing and dragging. If your
metronome can produce sound on subdivisions
of the beat, make use of that feature to practice
correct rhythmic spacing.
SIGHT READING
Even in our quick-delivery technology world,
there are still musical situations that require
sight reading a chart at a rehearsal or recording
session. Improve your sight reading skills by
frequently playing through a page or two of
unfamiliar music during a practice session.
Keep sight reading material handy so that you
can quickly incorporate it into your practice
time.
Sharpen your sight-reading with these classic
books:
• Modern School for Snare Drum by Morris
Goldenberg
• Modern School for Xylophone, Marimba,
Vibraphone by Morris Goldenberg
• Rhythmical Articulation by Pasquale Bona
RUDIMENTS
How's your ratamacue? Are you keeping the
grace notes close to the drum head when
playing alternating flams?
Rudiments such as the flam and drag, along
with the single stroke, double stroke, and buzz
rolls, are essential elements in our western
culture stick-drumming. Rudiments can also
be shaped into rhythmic licks and applied to
a variety of percussion instruments including
congas, timbales, and drum set.
A regular dose of rudiments will help maintain
your drumming health. I highly recommend a
weekly brush up on all forty of the Percussive
Arts Society International Drum Rudiments.
Download a free copy of the rudiments at
www.pas.org
SCALES
Are you called upon regularly to play keyboard
percussion on choir anthems? Perhaps you
occasionally play the hook to a worship song
on the glockenspiel, or maybe you find yourself
hammering out a chimes melody during the
Christmas season. Since most of the music
we encounter is organized around a system of
scales, it's a good idea to routinely insert scale
studies into your practice mix.
The Source by Steve Barta is a collection of
traditional and contemporary scales. After
you've reviewed the major and minor scales,
flip open The Source and work on the blues
scale or the Mixolydian mode.
IMPROVISATION
Creating spontaneous music is fun plus it
prepares you for those moments when you
are called on to improvise in a rehearsal or
performance. Make it a point to inject some
focused noodling into your practice routine.
Keep in mind that you can use your improv time
to reinforce other areas of musical study.
• Improvise variations based on a rudiment
that you've been practicing.
• Make up a melody using a scale that you
recently memorized.
Music fundamentals are your friends. Maintain
a good relationship with them and they will
assist you in expressing your musical ideas.
Visit those friends frequently.
Get a weekly dose of percussion education on
#percussiontiptuesday with Mark Shelton on
Instagram @marksheltonperc
©2020 Mark Shelton Productions / Percussion For Worship
Mark Shelton
A freelance musician and educational consultant
based in Dallas/Fort Worth. Performance credits
include North Carolina Symphony, Gateway
Worship, Daystar Singers & Band, TALEA, Wichita
Falls Orchestra, Tin Roof Tango, and Dallas Wind
Symphony.
www.marksheltonmusic.com
percussionforworship.blogspot.com
August 2020
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