Mallet Warm-ups

xxvenom13xx · #1 (**permalink**) 08-04-2010, 10:13 PM

Ok, so I know that this is Drumset Connect, but I am currently only able to play percussion such as the xylophone and such due to my ankle condition.

Right now I am teaching high-school kids from my old school mallets, and am trying to write warm-ups that are interesting and not boring, yet teach them to move around the keyboard with ease.

I have made a double stops exercises, scales/green scales exercises, and doubles with different notes. Does anyone think I should incorporate rudiments such as paradiddles and double strokes into my warm-ups?

This is elementary marching music, and I am making a majority of it the B flat major, C major, A flat major, F major, and G major scales.

If anyone has any suggestions on teaching these nutcases, please tell me!

xxvenom13xx · #2 (**permalink**) 08-05-2010, 07:12 AM

Let me guess, NOBODY likes mallets?

dragpyre · #3 (**permalink**) 08-05-2010, 09:47 AM

I'm not trying to be mean, but this website is DrumSetConnect, not MalletConnect or Percussion Paradise. I doubt many people will bite. But i might be wrong...

sorry

xxvenom13xx · #4 (**permalink**) 08-05-2010, 05:41 PM

I kind of stated that, but since mallet is a percussion instrument I figured at least one person could give me pointers, ya dig?

Bo Eder · #5 (**permalink**) 08-05-2010, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xxvenom13xx

Ok, so I know that this is Drumset Connect, but I am currently only able to play percussion such as the xylophone and such due to my ankle condition.

Right now I am teaching high-school kids from my old school mallets, and am trying to write warm-ups that are interesting and not boring, yet teach them to move around the keyboard with ease.

I have made a double stops exercises, scales/green scales exercises, and doubles with different notes. Does anyone think I should incorporate rudiments such as paradiddles and double strokes into my warm-ups?

This is elementary marching music, and I am making a majority of it the B flat major, C major, A flat major, F major, and G major scales.

If anyone has any suggestions on teaching these nutcases, please tell me!

I admire your determination. I spent a good 5 years teaching HS drum lines after graduating HS and having done my time in a drum corps (Anaheim Kingsmen).

What I had found to be good was to take the exercises the drum line was working on and write out melodies using the same exercises, so when they played as a group, the mallets had something to play with the drum line. This could be scales, or rudiments on one note (minus the flams or drags for now). You may already be doing that but that's what I did back in the day. And of course, just having them play music is also a good approach since they have to learn notes anyway, it'll be applied rudiments to the music they have in hand, and that works too.

Perhaps you could get an easy Bach piano book (Like Anna Magdelena's Notebook), and split the parts up and use those as reading exercises. Plus it gives them more music to be playing, which on that level, is really what they need to be doing. Don't spend too much time on the theoretical, I'm sure you guys have football games you need to be getting ready for!

xxvenom13xx · #6 (**permalink**) 08-05-2010, 09:23 PM

Ha, thank you Bo!

I'm only here teaching until next Thursday to teach til I go to my band camp, so I'm getting their chops ready for what is to come.

I had them do a rolling exercise today as their chops exercise, holding each roll on a scale for two measures each while trying to keeps a steady, consistent, single stroke roll.

We played through 2 out of 4 pieces...

I had them do a single stroke green scale exercise in the C Major Scale to get them used to moving their hands over eachother faster.

Am I doing good or mediocre?

Bo Eder · #7 (**permalink**) 08-06-2010, 01:09 AM

Good or mediocre depends on how good they get.

I would say so long as they had stuff to work on and worked consistently, and learned how to work when they were on their own away from the rest of the line, you would have taught them great. It sucks to be mallet player sometimes, you're always off working on something on your own, and it's really obvious when the player can't play his instrument, there's usually only one (as in, one vibraphone, or one xylophone, as opposed to 30 clarinets or 15 flutes...) and a bad note really sticks out!

I would think your job is really to teach them how to teach themselves.

xxvenom13xx · #8 (**permalink**) 08-06-2010, 05:55 AM

The only problem is two of them have the maturity level of a five year old and think I'm joking when told to get set and when to shut up.

I'm seriously thinking about instilling push-ups as punishment.

Bo Eder · #9 (**permalink**) 08-06-2010, 03:27 PM

I used to do that too. Then you know how bad they are as musicians by how strong they're getting!

xxvenom13xx · #10 (**permalink**) 08-06-2010, 05:23 PM

Ha.

It's kind of funny because today I hit one of them and all of a sudden they started playing well.

I guess that that is good punishment(:<

But today we got through the third song and I was so happy!

We had a long chops exercise and got their wrists hurting...

Then I made them do eights up the C and A flat Major scales.

It was awesome! They listened(: