MUSIC 380E

Choral Percussion

To prepare you to teach basic percussion skills at the public school level to both instrumental students and choral students as well as to help you reach a high level of performance ability with regards to rhythm, counting, and exposure to a variety of percussion instruments. Additional objectives are to develop your abilities in writing/arranging percussion parts for choral works and becoming more familiar with choral repertory that utilizes percussion. Since this is a one semester course, please try to immerse yourself in percussion related activities by attending recitals and concerts where percussion is utilized.

Performance Skills

Students will demonstrate: an understanding of fundamental performance techniques for musical instruments common to the percussion family; rudimentary technique on many of the instruments labeled percussion, concentrating on those that are most common to today’s elementary and high school literature.

Teaching Skills

Students will demonstrate ability to teach beginning percussion students at the elementary or secondary school levels and to continue to provide them with an accepted, organized approach to learning and developing percussion techniques and skills.

Awareness of Pedagogy

Students will demonstrate familiarity with the history of each major instrument found in the percussion family, their acoustical properties and methods of sound production, and the idiosyncrasies of percussion music notation.