How to have an effective Drum Ensemble in your school

This Article shows you the sheet music you need, and the steps you need to take to have a highly effective and enjoyable drum ensemble at your school – even if all you’ve got is one broken drum kit!

Dear Friend and Percussion Educator,

I’m guessing that you’ve arrived at this page because you’ve got a bunch of drummers who you’ve got to somehow turn into musicians – is that right?

Well on this page I’m going to share with you how I’ve managed to turn groups of drummers who “only like heavy metal music” into committed ensemble members who list percussion ensemble as one of their most important activities of the week!

I did it time and time again in my teaching career – so it wasn’t an accident!

It came down to choosing effective music.

Music that they would enjoy – and that they could associate with.

At first, I believed that percussion ensemble MUST contain tuned percussion – and that’s I would persist with arrangements featuring xylophones and marimbas all the time.

After a series of disastrous performances and many frustrating rehearsals I decided to simplify the process. I decided that the best way of having an ensemble was for each player to start with one drum. After all, I’d been given a group of boys only – and they were all interested in only one thing.. playing the drums! Therefore I decided to let them! I had to throw away my pre-conceptions of what percussion ensemble should be, and have a “drum ensemble” instead.

For this, I’d written a little piece called summon the spirits – a taiko drumming inspired piece which was written in fairly simple 4 beats to the bar rhythm, and I discovered that you could double the parts as many times as possible.

It turned out to be a bit “hit”! Suddenly the ensemble was getting asked to perform it all over the place – at music festivals, special event concerts… all sorts. And this was just because of one piece!

The students I had in this ensemble were really quite talented, so the next year I decided to write something that I thought would really challenge them.. but still with only a limited range of drums… And that is when I wrote possibly my best ever drum work “And the Mountains Rising…”

After that one it was time to move away from a taiko style into something more contemporary – and that’s when I decided to write something in a dance style. The Dance program at the school was going well, so we decided to work together on it.. and created “Tribal Beat Sound System”.

After that the drum ensemble was going so well that I was even approached by a school to start a simple drum corps. I had no idea what I was doing with a drum corps – but got started with a few snares, a few tenors and basses.

I then wrote a few more pieces for drum corps.. but I’ve since discovered that these pieces work equally well without marching corps drums.. you can play them with standard drums, or even on junk percussion… it really doesn’t matter!

The thing is… you don’t need lots of equipment!

You need basically one drum per player.. which means that if you have five drummers you can do it with one five piece drum set! Most schools have two or three drum sets in different rooms, so all you need to do is bring them all into one room and you’ve got an ensemble!

Add in a couple of pairs of cheap Roto Toms and perhaps a concert bass drum and you’ll have a complete and functioning drum ensemble!

Here is my suggested list for a drum ensemble:

• One set of three small roto toms (6”, 8”, 10”)
• One set of two medium roto toms (12”, 14”)
• 1 set of bongos (plastic heads)
• 1 set of congas
• 2 pairs of tom toms on stands (or mounted on drum set bass drum)
• 2+ floor toms
• Concert Bass Drum

This will give you enough for 8-10 players – which is about the size of ensemble that works the best.

You can check out all the sheet music I’ve mentioned on this page by following the links below – however for a limited time I’m offering all this Drum Ensemble music for a package price of $87 – you save $47.75 on the price of all of these pieces purchased individually.

Here is what is included in the “Drum Ensemble Super Package”