Percussion Manual

F. Michael Combs

General Info

Year: 1977
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Wadsworth
Cost: Book Cost - $26.63   |   Supplemental Books - $0.00

Overview

This book works through the different main percussion instruments and how to play and them in a well thought out way. Along with that, it also has a variety of playing exercises in it to help the beginning student and teacher be able to work out of it, with simple and concise information, and a well-structured format for what instruments to start on. It is mostly for beginning percussion students to high school level, and would be a great book for band teachers to use as a reference guide to percussion.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 SNARE DRUM STUDY 1
Chapter 2 MARCHING PERCUSSION 81
Chapter 3 TIMPANI STUDY 88
Chapter 4 KEYBOARD MALLET PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS 100
Chapter 5 PERCUSSION ACCESSORIES 109
Chapter 6 MULTIPLE PERCUSSION 120
Chapter 7 THE DRUM SET 125
Chapter 8 ORGANIZATION OF THE PERCUSSION SECTION 132
Chapter 9 TEACHERS' GUIDE TO BEGINNING PERCUSSION 134
Appendix A RECOMMENDED PERCUSSION METHODS AND TEXTS 136
Appendix B RECOMMENDED SOLO AND ENSEMBLE LITERATURE FOR PERCUSSION 140
Appendix C PERCUSSION RECORDINGS AND VIDEOS 151
Appendix D FOREIGN TERMINOLOGY FOR PERCUSSION 156
Appendix E PERCUSSION DEALERS, MANUFACTURERS, AND DISTRIBUTORS 158
Appendix F PERCUSSIVE ARTS SOCIETY (PAS) MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM 165
Index 167

Reviews

Student Reviews

"This book works through the different main percussion instruments and how to play and them in a well thought out way. Along with that, it also has a variety of playing exercises in it to help the beginning student and teacher be able to work out of it, with simple and concise information, and a well-structured format for what instruments to start on. I found it interesting that it skipped from snare to marching drums, it gives more of a middle to high school progression to the percussion section. Not all schools can afford a front ensemble, so it seems to follow a more school-oriented approach, or a school practical approach as opposed to a fundamental approach to learning percussion. It lays out the rest of the book in a very fundamental way, however. It had good explanations I feel to how to play the instruments, but it lacked some vital information about care and maintenance and focused more on the fundamentals of playing. It does focus on the snare drum for a large majority of the book, which I feel is to better work with beginning students, its posses a vast variety of exercises to play to work up to being able to play rolls, flams, and basic playing techniques. I will say that the biggest draw back for the book, while it does work with every sub-section, it doesn’t work with each sub-section of percussion as extensively as it does with snare drum. This I feel will in the wrong hands, put in in the mind of the instructor a difference in opinion of importance of the instruments. It had good information on how to set up the sections. There is good information in this book, as far as mallets, books, and materials to further the students learning, but limited information in the grand scheme of things on some instruments to be able to just rely on the book alone to be able to help students succeed in the percussive arts. This I feel would put more strain on an instructor on how to teach out of this, and if a college student were to use it in a pedagogy class, it would not have enough information to be able to give them a good teaching experience with it in a percussion section. This book would be better for teaching beginning students how to play some of the instruments with careful instruction from the teachers as opposed to instructing the teacher how to work with percussionists. Therefore, it received the rating of three-stars." -Thomas Scott

Works for Percussion by this Author

Combs, Michael F. Percussion Manual. Belmont CA., Wadsworth Publ. Co., 1977.
Combs, Michael F. Percussion Manual, Second Edition.