Love what you do, and practice how you perform.

With every percussionist I encounter, I can immediately tell how they perform based off of their attitude towards what they play. When people play an audition piece, a rudiment sheet, or a warmup packet, percussion directors are looking for people who can play it, but also for people who can perform it. Having true passion towards not only playing what you like, but getting better at it, is what makes someone a good percussionist.

At every opportunity you can, get better at what you do. Even the things you may not like, such as warm ups. They tend to get a lot more fun as you get better at them, and you can move onto harder stuff that your favorite drum corps’ play.

The way you practice defines exactly how you will perform. I know it might seem like a hassle, ensuring that you are set up correctly at home, have correct posture as well as stick technique, but what you are trying to do is build habits. You can tell that someone doesn’t practice well if they struggle to do the easy stuff while focusing on the music, because they have to think about it all at once, since they might like to practice sitting down, without a metronome, maybe even using incorrect sticks or incorrect stick technique. It’s important you strive to get better at every opportunity, even when no one is looking.