This semester I decided to take on learning and developing some the basic snare rudiments. This was a really challenging road because snare is something I consider to be far out of my comfort zone. However, I also found it to be really rewarding. My new found skills are certainly not perfect but I have come a long way from where I started and I’m proud of what I accomplished.Throughout this journey I was able to experience the process of learning and practicing these rudiments, something that I know will help me when teaching my future percussionist students.

I had a goal of being able to play basic rudiments smoothly and without tension and I feel I have reached that. I also planned to be able to play some specific exercises at 90 bpm. I feel I achieved this too on all the planned exercises except one. The most challenging of the final exercises was a roll exercise, specifically exercise 5 from snare rudiments. Once I started to learn the exercise I found it was more difficult than expected. I decided to adapt slightly and lower the tempo to 75 bpm instead to better match my current skill level. I am taking care to see this not as a failure but instead an opportunity for growth. I hold myself to high standards but I also think it is important to recognize that sometimes there are aspects of what I want to achieve that go beyond my current skill level. I am going to keep this exercise as a future goal for myself. At this point I am able to play rolls but I lack some precision at higher tempos, this is something I want to work on for the future because I think it will help further develop my skills!

Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I feel I have really strengthened my own understanding of the world of percussion. There is still so much to learn and I am hoping to continue building these skills as I develop my teaching over the years. Here is my final snare performance video:

 

 

My professional growth plan was a focus on developing a resource for myself on jazz pedagogy, assessment tasks, repertoire, and recordings. This was a ton of fun to make and I really enjoyed taking a dive into a genre and ensemble type outside of my strengths. I listened to a lot of jazz throughout the second half of the semester and took time to explore what was out there. This document is finished for the time being, however, I plan to keep it as a living document throughout my career so I can continue to add more ideas as I learn and experience them. You can access the document here: Jazz Ped Resource PGP

What a whirlwind of a semester. I have done a ton of personal learning and I am so excited to apply my new skills to the music classroom. If there is one thing I have learned throughout this experience it is the importance of continuing my musical and professional growth beyond university!

 

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash