Percussionists: Specific Reputation In The Music World

Percussionists have a specific reputation in the music world. They're loud. They're immature. All they do is bang on stuff. For some percussionists, this generalization is spot on. These people call themselves "drummers", and in doing this, they limit their musical capabilities to three instruments: the snare drum, bass drum, and drum set. As kids advance through school, the drummers get weeded out. The parts become more difficult, more practice time is expected, and the instrument variety expands. By ninth grade, only percussionists remain. Percussionists who can alternate between playing timbales, bata drums, and shakarees without batting an eye.
By the time I entered my freshman year, I could look at almost any rhythm and be able to play
I began to get a feel for where all those tiny bars were. It would be nice for me to tell you that after this long struggle, I mastered the xylophone because of my determination and strenuous practice. In reality, however, I understand that there are an infinite number of scales, patterns, techniques and rhythms that I have yet to be exposed to. While I can never truly “master” an instrument, I believe people learn more from their struggles than their successes. My experience with the xylophone opened my eyes to the fact that, while I may be a percussionist, I can’t expect myself to be able to play every instrument. I realized that this lesson transcends music, and that no matter how much experience someone thinks they have with something, there is always room for improvement. This realization was quite humbling for my ninth grade self, and since then, I’ve told myself that I’m never truly done learning. This belief motivated me to retake the SAT’s despite being satisfied with my first score. I knew I could do better, so I decided to work with my tutor to improve my math score. Because I put in this effort, I increased my score by 150 points. I knew that I hadn’t mastered the SAT’s, just like I hadn’t mastered being a percussionist. In life, there will always be more challenges, another piece of xylophone sheet music for me to