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Teach Your Students to Thrive and Survive as a Marimba Player
Kevin Lucas | May 4, 2021Kevin Lucas details the realities of musical career paths for your mallet percussionists and offers some hard-earned personal advice for marimba players. Read More... -
Taiko Drumming: A Cultural Japanese Art Form
Kevin Lucas | April 6, 2021For the April 2021 issue of SBO, Kevin Lucas interviewed the leader of Madison Japanese Taiko Drumming Group BENI Daiko, Junko Yamauchi. She describes Taiko as "musical expression that combines mental discipline and physical demand...Our goal is to teach and give experience of traditional Japanese culture for everyone, plus having fun!" Read More... -
Top Ten Tips Composing for Marimba
Kevin Lucas | March 6, 2021Composing a song on any instrument can be a challenge. It can be very frustrating getting the creative juices flowing. I will go through some steps to help your students move forward in this process. Creativity is one of the most lacking topics taught in percussion pedagogy. I feel that this is a neglected topic […] Read More... -
Marimba and Muscle Memory
Kevin Lucas | February 5, 2021Applying the concept of muscle memory to marimba pedagogy is extremely important for the development of your students. This is even more crucial since there is no direct contact between the performer and the marimba. A pianist can feel and touch the keys, creating a more intimate connection to the instrument. A marimba player must have a built-in knowledge as to where the keys are, as well as understand spaced intervals and distancing. Read More... -
An Interview with UCF Fine Arts Dean/Professor of Percussion Jeff Moore
Mike Lawson | January 8, 2021Please tell the readers a brief history of you as an artist and educator.
For my undergraduate degree in Music Education, I went to the University of North Texas where I studied with Bob Schietroma, Ron Fink, and Ed Soph. I went to the University of Wisconsin for my Master’s Degree in Percussion Performance and studied with James H. Latimer.
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The Ancient History of the Marimba to the Modern Day
Mike Lawson | December 3, 2020
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The marimba could possibly be the oldest instrument on Earth. The exact year of its origin isn’t known, but it goes back thousands of years into ancient Africa. The diatonic scale that would eventually be invented in Western music was centuries into the future. As a result, the marimba tones were made up of notes that would not be recognizable to our ear. -
Preparing a Multi-Percussion Work
Mike Lawson | October 28, 2020There is nothing conventional about preparing a multi-percussion work. It requires a lot of planning and organization, as well as a degree of understanding regarding the work itself. As most band programs focus on individual percussion instruments, combining many instruments at one time is a challenge for your students, yet it offers amazing musical development.
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Promark SPYR: A New Mallet Line for a New Time
Mike Lawson | October 1, 2020
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The SPYR series from Promark by D’Addario is a collaboration with world-renowned percussionists, designers, and educators Kevin Shah and Tony Nunez. The series covers the complete spectrum of sounds. -
African Drums in Percussion
Mike Lawson | September 2, 2020In Western culture, we have been mostly accustomed to the European style of music, which has a major focus on deep harmonies and melodies that has influenced orchestral and band music.
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Marching Snare Drum Fundamentals
Mike Lawson | July 31, 2020
As marching season approaches, it is very important to have a good grasp on the basics of marching snare drum technique. I am going to go over some of the fundamentals that will help your snare line this marching season.
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Recording Techniques for Marimba
Mike Lawson | July 15, 2020The apocalypse is a perfect time for your students to make a marimba recording! This is a great time to be creative and get some new sounds released. Recording a marimba is not easy because it is a very unconventional instrument and even many engineers have limited experience. I will give you some hints you can pass on to your students as well as recording engineers.
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Percussionists Don’t Just ‘Hit’ Things: A Guide to the Numerous Percussion Strokes
Mike Lawson | June 15, 2020Many people, including some teachers I have met, assume percussionists just hit or strike a drum or mallet instrument. This assumption cannot be farther from the truth.
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