The Myth of the Easy Band Percussionist

People commonly misperceive the role of a percussionist to be an easy one. The universal jabber among band students are often heard to be saying, "Percussionists don't have to do anything. They're the ones in the band that have it easy. All they do are hit drums and bang on things." This is an unfair misconception that often leads to the percussion victim to defend his/her position in band. Hopefully, this article will clear up this unjust myth, and promote the many percussionists that deserve to be recognized for their work.

Percussionists have earned a bad name among their peers, from being seen as lazy, to "the people that fool around in the back of band class," the stereotypical image has been put into mainstream society. True, percussionists like to fool around in class, throw stuff at each other, laugh and make jokes behind the teachers back. Commonly, percussionists like to throw in a bit of their own music into the piece that they are playing. But when required to perform their best, they do not fail, and their otherwise silly antics are transformed into seriousness and perfection.

Well you say, "Of course they're perfect! All they do is hit something, it's impossible to mess up!" On the contrary, a percussionist can mess up even on the smallest of instruments, including a triangle. Everything matters when you play your instrument. From tone to keeping the backbone rhythm of the band, percussionists actually have a very important job in the ensemble. Their jobs vary significantly, playing such percussion instruments such as the snare drum, the bass drum, tom toms, timpani, marimba, and xylophone, to the triangle, shaker, maracas, and such instruments that add color to the music.

True, it may take a higher skill level to play a flute or a trumpet, but the knowledge required by the percussionist is perhaps far more extensive than that of a single instrument. Percussionists need to know the "know-how" to every single percussion instrument, from knowing how to tune it, to knowing how to play the different strokes, to matching the mood of the piece, the extensive knowledge is essential to a percussionist's success.

Being a percussionist myself, I often found it extremely demeaning when someone degraded my role as a percussionist. And more often than not, I found myself defending the name of the percussionist, so it would not be "shot down" by the ignorance of others. Though this stereotypical view of percussionists will undoubtedly continue, perhaps one day, their efforts will be recognized as more than "drum banging."