Let's talk percussion. This past weekend I spent an amazing three days watching percussion ensembles from colleges all over the Northwest preform at the NW Percussion Festival in Eugene, Oregon. There were colleges from California, Oregon, Washington, and even Idaho. It was completely amazing and totally overwhelming in the best way. However, spending all this time being surrounded by my fellow percussionists made me consider misconceptions that many people have about percussion, and the stereotypes that our chosen field contains.

For starters, let's talk about gender and percussion. Traditionally, percussion has been seen as a male dominated section (when I say section, I mean the division of instruments into different fields, such as woodwinds, brass, etc.). It can be easy to see why it might have started that way, traditional instruments associated with percussion can be seem bold and harsh, not something that a woman would take up 100 years ago or so. However, times have changed, and percussion has seen a steady increase in female percussionists, especially recently. Despite this, percussion is still a predominantly male section. I have the privilege of being part of a rare percussion ensemble at Willamette University, in that last year we were an all-female ensemble, and it wasn't until this Spring that we have had a male percussionist join. I have been gifted with a wonderful opportunity to not feel restricted by my gender in the area of music that I love. Unfortunately not everyone is able to feel the same way. At the NW Percussion Festival that I attended this weekend, there was no female percussion instructors. To clarify, the instructors are actually professors at their given college, typically the head of the department for Percussion at their college or the director of the percussion ensemble. While females were present in the ensembles themselves, I believe that it is significant that in the 14 colleges that were present this weekend, not one of them had a female director. I was lucky that my section leader in high school was a very skilled female percussionist, so I never felt trapped or stilted by my otherwise male-dominated section, which encouraged me to continue percussion at a college level. Unfortunately this can not be said for other female percussionists who don't go on to continue their craft because of gender conformity pressure or stereotypes that keep them down. While there were female percussionists performing this weekend, the difference in numbers between the two genders is staggering. Female percussionists are just as capable and skillful as male percussionists at their craft. If you need any proof, you should check out the Youtube videos posted below.

skip to 2:05 for the music to begin:

The other main misconception about percussion is what instruments percussion actually entails. I specifically only choose videos above that dealt with drums because the main stereotype in regards to women is that they are not capable of being good drummers. However, percussion includes a wide variety on instruments besides drums. For example, one large group of instruments in the percussion family are mallet instruments, which consists of the marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone, etc. Many have a bad habit of confusing the difference between the instruments, and more likely, many people don't know anything about them except that xylophone was the word used for "x" in a lot of alphabet books. Here is a picture of what they all look like:

The boards in both the front row and the very back row are marimbas; the keys are wood, with lower note keys being wider, with the keys getting progressively smaller the further up one gets. The middle instrument on the left that is gold/yellow is a vibraphone; its keys are made of metal, and it has a pedal that lets the sound sustain, similar to a piano. On the right side, the middle one closest to the back is a xylophone; its keys are made of wood and are high pitched, and unlike a marimba, the xylophone's keys are all the same size. The small silver board is a glockenspiel, otherwise referred to as bells; its keys are made of metal and is very high pitched, allowing for a twinkling noise to be produced. They all produce different sounds and are all equally unique. The point of this is to introduce a very large part of percussion, that is not a part of common knowledge or how we identify percussion. Percussion is thought to be solely focused on drums, and is a very loud, harsh, and inelegant thing. However the complete opposite is true. Yes, drums are loud and one of the great things about percussion instruments is that they are hardy and are able to stand up to the great force exerted upon them. However, we can also make beautiful and gentle music from percussion as well. Check out these beautiful pieces:

There are many other types of percussion instruments in addition to these boards. Instruments such as triangles, rainsticks, vibraslaps, wood blocks, temple blocks, anvils, cymbals, maracas, wind chimes, claves, etc. are all a part of the percussion family. Here is a video of a crazy piece using a number of percussion instruments:

I hope that all of this information has been helpful and has given everyone some food for thought. Percussion is something that is near and dear to me and I hope that this article helps in some small manner. I would love to have a day where I am not judged on my gender for doing something that I love, and that other would appreciate my section just as much as others. I will leave you with my favorite piece that I heard this weekend, called Fractalia by Owen Clayton Condon. Enjoy.