My percussion students need 5 snare drums, a concert bass drum and various axillary percussion instruments, along with mallets, sticks, stick bags and 10 curriculum packs.
Percussive Metamorphosis; Drummers to Percussionists....
I am the band director for a 7-12 inner city school where most students receive free or reduced lunch. Many of my students have to work jobs themselves to help pay household bills, as well as serve as child care for siblings.
12 to 125 in 4 years....we have built it...and they have come. The next step is to change the culture of thinking in my young percussion students. After the movie "Drum Line" came out, drum line competitions, snare drum tricks, and marching band became a craze to young minds curious about percussion. The movie not only brought to light the comradery of band, it gave power to the students who chose to play a percussion instrument.
What happened is, boys and girls from all around wanted to emulate that power by learning to "play the drums"....most of my students learned how to play the drum set in their church at a VERY young age. The skill is passed down through the generations. These children are taught by rote.
By the time they get to my classroom, the children have a had no refining whatsoever about the beauty of percussive arts. Many do not know what the term "percussionist" means! Most of my students are minority, and I personally feel as though they are looked upon as "DUMBERS" because all they know is walking the halls with a pair of marching sticks hanging out of their bags!! So I have committed myself to changing the culture of thought.
The solution is for my students to have appropriate percussion equipment to use. I need mallets, sticks, carrying bags and equipment to facilitate my students in moving to the next level.
YOU will make it possible for my inner city students to be afforded the best, just as their counterparts a zip code away. We are a performing arts school...we have a beautiful place for a percussion studio...we just need the manipulative's to make it work!!
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