Hey marimba and xylophone students: here are some reflections on recent campus visits, social media trending, and why listening to music was and is important to me.

It is not news to me that there’s a divide between the classical departments, jazz departments, and whatever other departments exist in music schools now. Of the most obvious, to me, is that the jazz musicians rely on recorded music for repertoire, whereas the classical musicians rely on sheet music. While as a student I have had much success in classical music departments (I have a DMA, so I safely say I passed a lot of classes), and less success in jazz departments (I think my Berklee “rating” was a 0, which is lower than the worst rating you could actually get. The jury found my skills exceptionally poor). – I don’t consider myself a great classical musician or even a passable jazz musician.  Yet, I manage to make music with both classical musicians and jazz musicians.

Recently I have been making a number of college campus visits and giving xylophone classes. One of my observations has been that students (in my case, classical percussion students) are glued to the page and trying to “get it right.” They would like to have the right technique, play the right notes, and have some awareness about the style they’re playing in.  Good. Here’s my problem: these things are terribly uninteresting, uninspiring, and explain why almost nobody takes up the xylophone as a solo instrument. There’s not really a precedent for getting it right, so why worry? The xylophone IS a relatively odd bird. So are many of the other percussion instruments we throw into the bag of “stuff you should know.” It’s all quite strange. Don’t believe me? Take whatever you’re working on, and go play it for your school’s string studio. Better yet, go play it in the park (close enough to people so you can see how they react, or don’t). 

Why not take this as an opportunity to be strange and proud about it?! You have complete freedom to pursue any avenue on a large group of instruments, and with relatively little practice you can become one of the world’s top practitioners of the instrument.

Another observation I’ve made while doing campus visits is that while students seem entirely overworked (I call it the “college freak-out,” where I give my students answers to tests an they still freak out over the work required to physically fill it In – but we have other exams to be studying for now!), there is a frightening lack of listening. That is to say there is a lack of both listening to recordings to know great performers and great performances, and simply listening in the moment. A recent rehearsal involved 32 measures of an ensemble playing a beat off of me without most of the ensemble realizing what was happening – they were looking at and playing their parts, not listening.

I like to blame Facebook/Youtube/Snapchat/Instalala culture on the shortened attention span and lack of listening skills. So many of us are anxiously flopping around social media outlets in order to catch a glimpse of today’s trend or somehow create a name for yourself (myself?). What are worse are the social media gurus who have ideas to teach about branding, monetizing, etc.; odds are you already have more views than them. Being famous or clicked on has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the material you’re seeing. Imagine Casals’ Bach Cello Suites released on Youtube (without a video!!), the poor guy would be pounced on by Maru’s box videos in no time (no disrespect to Maru). 

Please. If you want to be famous, do something that many more people care about – like skipping the snare drum, timpani and marimba and maybe trying acting or politics?

That said – I’d be curious what folks considered important recordings, and if there’s a list out there.  I know Robert Van Sice has done a lot to create videos of the marimba repertoire he finds important as performed by his students on the Vic Firth website. How about before then?  Do people listen to Van Sice’s recordings?  In marimba-land my influences with Gordon Stout’s two LPs (Music for Marimba, I think 1 and 2…perhaps out of print, ok – fine, but it shouldn’t be that hard to find them!), William Moersch’s New Music for Marimba, Leigh Howard Stevens’ Bach on Marimba and Marimba When, Keiko Abe’s Marimba Fantasy, Nancy Zeltsman’s Woodcuts, Julie Spencer’s Ask, Beverly Johnston’s Marimbach and Impact --- the list goes on.  Some of these recordings may be long out of print (I think Steve Weiss sells most for $5, if you can track down a CD player), but what’s more disturbing is the amount of percussion majors who haven’t heard of and heard these performers!

Regarding xylophone I frequently make the mistake of assuming every student has heard NEXUS’ recordings Ragtime Concert and NEXUS Plays the Novelty Music of George Hamilton Green. Then there’s the 6-CD Green Brother’ collection or Masters of the Xylophone. That’s a lot of George Hamilton Green, Jr. and Joe Green.  Recordings of other great xylophonists (and there are many) are easily accessible, but take some self-educating by asking around. It’s no wonder that the autodidact is attracted to the xylophone; very few people are around to teach it. 

Of course my ideas about music were much more informed by non-percussionists, but those recordings were easier to find, and still are. I hope percussionists are taking the time to listen to non-percussion recordings that have had a tremendous impact on the larger music world for more than a century now. So much wonderful music has been made that has nothing to do with being able to read music and paying bills by playing night after night.  That’s the disconnect I find between the training students are receiving and actual opportunities available to them outside of school.

Even though I primarily play xylophone now, I listened to a lot of marimba recordings throughout high school and college that really informed my playing.  I was fortunate not to have access to 100s of online tutorials, or other various types of teaching, which seem more related to get-rich-quick schemes than actual teaching. My teachers were patient, and often lessons felt like they went nowhere, but that’s quite impossible. I haven’t been quick to know what direction to go in – in fact, most of the time I feel like my career has been nothing but the creation of a very long list of things I don’t want to do, very very very very rarely leaving me something that seems appealing and worthwhile. But PLEASE, do things that you believe are appealing and worthwhile!!

I understand doing things because your teacher told you to do them, but the sooner you can really take ownership over your own thoughts and actions as a musician --- well, now we’re talking!