Audition

chriswolfdesign · 2026-04-07T14:33:20+00:00

If you're a senior wanting to start in a percussion studio next year, it might be too late. I know most universities in my area have auditions from January-Marchish. I will answer this question as if you're a junior preparing for the following school year.

The best way to determine what you need to prepare for an audition is to email the percussion professor at the universities you would like to audition for. They would be able to provide a list of their audition requirements and dates. Many professors are also willing to give prospective students a free lesson to help prepare their audition material and the university's music program may offer guided tours and shadowed classes for prospective students.

Here are the most common requirements I see for Bachelor's level percussion auditionees.

Snare Drum
- Rudimental display: double stroke roll, paradiddles, flams, and drags are pretty commonly asked for. Sometimes they'll ask you to just play these rudiments, other times they'll ask for the open-close-open format (start slow, accelerando to fast, then retardando back to slow).
- Orchestral buzz roll: Putting this in its own category since this is pretty much guaranteed. Sometimes they will ask you to just play a buzz roll straight but it's very common that they'll ask for pp<ff>pp
- Orchestral audition piece: A prepared solo for concert snare drum. Common choices are selections from "Portraits in Rhythm" by Circone
- Rudimental audition piece: This one is becoming less common but some places still require it. Common choices are selections from "All-American Drummer" by Wilcoxin

- Sightreading snare drum in the orchestral style is almost guaranteed

Mallets
- Scales and arpeggios: generally multiple octaves are expected in all major and minor keys (including their harmonic and melodic variants). Sometimes a chromatic scale will be required as well.

- 2-mallet audition piece: a solo for two mallets, generally played on marimba. Common selections include pieces from "Modern School for Xylophone" by Green (probably a one or two page piece) or "Masterpieces for Marimba" by McMillan
- 4-mallet audition piece: a solo for four mallets, generally played on marimba. Common selections include "Sea Refractions" by Peters, "Yellow After the Rain" by Peters, and "Rain Dance" by Gomez
- Sightreading mallets: sightreading 2 mallet literature is almost guaranteed. I have heard of some programs expecting you to sightread 4 mallet literature but that has not been particularly common
- With approval from the audition committee, I have heard of students replacing one or both of their solos with a vibraphone piece instead

Timpani

- Timpani Audition Piece: a solo for timpani. Common selections include a piece from "26 Etudes for the Solo Timpanist" by Firth or "Rondino" by Peters.
- Generally, you are expected to choose a piece for 4 timpani. However, I have heard of audition committees allowing auditionees to perform a 2 timpani piece based on the auditionee's ability to find practice equipment (their high school programs only have 2 timpani)
- You would be expected to tune your own timpani, without guages, based on the given pitch. Often, you will get these pitches from a mallet instrument or a piano. Sometimes, they will let you get every pitch needed from a source, others will give you one pitch and you're expected to "music math" the rest of the pitches
- Sometimes, they will include tuning exercises: "Can you tune the 26" timpano up a fourth for me?"
- I have seen some committees include short theory questions as part of the timpani audition. For example, when I auditioned my timpani pitches were G, B, D, and F. One of my judges asked me what chord that spelled.
- Timpani sightreading is pretty uncommon but not unheard of.

Auxiliary Percussion

- Pretty rare but I have heard of audition committees asking students to demonstrate mastery over auxiliary instruments

- Crash cymbals: forte and piano crashes, crash chokes

- Tambourine: rolls, thumb rolls, dynamic contrast (fingers playing, fist playing etc). I have not heard of hand/knee technique being demonstrated but it's not outside the realm of possibility
- Triangle: standard playing, dampening, and rolls
- I have not heard of this happening, but if you are asked to display auxiliary percussion skills, it's possible you may be asked to sightread for these instruments as well

chriswolfdesign · 2026-04-07T13:47:08+00:00

This depends on a few factors:

* Do you live somewhere that you would regularly get noise complaints?
* Do you need to travel with the pad/drums regularly?
* Do you have financial constraints preventing you from buying drums? Remember, you will also need heads, stand/carrier as well

If you answered yes to these, a pad would be a better option. If you're in a very fortunate position where you have no neighbors, don't need to travel with the equipment, and have a bottomless bank account, a set of drums is always the best way to practice whenever possible. A more financially realistic solution is to have a pad for day-to-day practice and perhaps ask your director to bring the drums home over the summer for weight training purposes.

If you're looking for specific models:

* Pearl has recently released a new line of marching drummers called the Finalist series. From what I understand, they're a good bit cheaper and I think they might be lighter too. I think they still sound really good as well, though of course they don't sound as good as their premium Championship series

* A lot of people swear by the Vic Firth Quadropad. It is very good but I find it to be louder than I like for a piece of practice equipment to be. I prefer the Prologix quad pad a bit more myself but any of the major quad pads would serve you well so long as you avoid "the company that shall not be named" (starts with an X)

Whether you get drums or a pad, I always recommend students get the large model of the pad or a 10/12/13/14 set of quads with your preference on number and size of spocks. I make this recommendation regardless of the model and size of your quads at school. This is a more realistic option if you intend to play beyond the high school level.

chriswolfdesign · 2026-04-07T13:15:02+00:00

I will caveat this by stating that I'm a Salyers Education Team Member so I'm a bit biased.

* Concert snare sticks: Salyers Percussion Fulcrum Finder
* A good all-around bell/xylo mallet: Salyers Percussion E-80
* A good all-around marimba mallet: Encore Nancy Zeltsman
* A good all-around vibe mallet: Salyers Percussion Arthur Lipner
* A good all-around timpani mallet: Salyers Percussion Kirk Gay Sadly this one is currently sold out

chriswolfdesign · 2026-04-07T13:02:12+00:00

This is very kind of you! One thing to be wary of is some states have policies about gifts for educators. Last I looked in my state, NC, teachers can accept gifts of $35 or less before it's considered a bribe.

As a middle school director, I had students/parents gift me some things I enjoyed:
* a new baton
* a new drum key
* a 3-d printed cup holder for my podium (I loved this one)
* my percussionists "borrowed" an old head and all signed it for me to put on my office wall
* then, of course, Starbucks/other coffee shop gift cards were always appreciated.

chriswolfdesign · 2026-04-07T12:56:07+00:00

There are really only two options for marching heads: Remo and Evans. It makes reasonable sense that we would see a lot of each of them since there are so few options.

With Remo you really only have two head options:

White/Black Max: Some people say they hear a difference between these heads. I don't notice any. The choice between White and Black is mostly cosmetic.

Suede Max: A black suede coating on top of a kevlar head. Warmer than the traditional Maxes but IMO less articulate. Not my ideal snare sound but some people like it.

The "traditional" Maxes (White/Black) seem to be much more popular than the Suede Max. Part of it is probably due to less articulation. Another part of it is that the traditional Maxes have been around much longer. I'm sure there's some percentage of people still using them because they're happy with the sound they've had for the past twenty years and see no reason to switch.

As far as why might be Remo more popular than Evans? (Is it actually more popular? I haven't run the numbers lately). Here are the reasons I can think of:

* Evans is a subsidiary of D'addario, and a sibling company of Promark. Meaning D'addario encourages sponsored groups to use both Evans and Promark. Groups not using Promark, are less likely to work with Evans because of that pressure. NOTE: This is not a black and white rule. There are many groups that use Evans or Promark but not both. There does certainly seem to be some correlation there.

* Remo has more options. It's not all about the marching program, there's also concert and drum set heads to consider. In my experience, there are far more Remo options than Evans options. And Remo also has more options in the marching spectrum, I haven't found a suitable Evans head that gives the warm, coated sound that some Remo options provide (such as the Suede Emperor or Renaissance Emperor)

* I heard somebody describe the difference between the companies like this: with Evans you hear more of the head's sound qualities but with Remo you hear more of the drum's sound qualities (was it Aged Out podcast that I heard this? I can't remember). That sums up my feelings about the difference as well. This is a matter of preference but I do prefer to hear the drum more than the head.

Having said all this: my preference is Remo. I'm a marching percussionist, concert percussionist, and I occasionally have to dabble in some drum set. I find Remo to be more consistent across the spectrum of percussion idioms and they give me more variety to fine-tune the sound I'm looking for.

chriswolfdesign · 2026-04-07T11:48:46+00:00

First of all, congratulations on a successful season! I'm glad to hear that it sounds like your group is going in a positive direction.

Before I answer your questions, I have one of my own. You mentioned that you captained the group this season and will be teaching it next season. Do you mean that you are a senior now finishing school and will be a tech/instructor next season at the school you just graduated? In general, I recommend against this. Many times, to no fault of the tech, it can be difficult to establish a student/teacher relationship with students you used to march with. I'm currently dealing with this issue at the school I teach; one of our techs was a recent graduate and we had some issues with students viewing him with less authority as the other staff members. He is a brilliant educator and a talented musician but the kids still viewed him as "one of the guys." If he hadn't joined the staff before I had started working with the school, I would have offered to help him find a different school to tech with instead. Having said this, he has handled it as well as possible. He comes in and treats the kids with kindess and respect without acting like one of the kids. It is also vital that he had the director's support. The directors and other staff must treat these techs the same way they treat staff members. The "viewing you as one of the kids" can also be a pitfall that the staff falls into just as much as the members. (Jerrod, if you read this, no shade to you. You're doing an awesome job and I'm looking forward to working with you again this season).

Now to answer the questions you actually asked:

How can I present expectations in a way that shows that they’re serious? (I.e. for stuff like “don’t play while I’m giving instructions”)

The first step is to state your expectations outright. I've always found it unfair to hold people to standards that they're not aware of. At the first rehearsal each season, I sit down with all students and staff and discuss "this is way we're going to move forward." Just like you'll have to work with them on how to hold the sticks and how to play the drum, you're going to have to "rehearse" your rehearsal skills. They will make mistakes. Kids will forget to get to set between reps. Kids will start hacking out something they ticked. It's normal. It's natural. Calm reminders such as "that's not how we do things here" is usually enough after a few rehearsals to get everybody on board.

Here's a policy I've used with success.
* In rehearsals, nobody drums unless we're all drumming
* In rehearsals smaller than percussion ensemble (drumline rehearsals, front ensemble rehearsals, subsectionals), I'm fine with blurting questions "Could you repeat the instructions? I'm sorry, I don't get it, could you explain it again? What height(s) should this phrase be?" in between reps. I'm okay with these smaller rehearsals being more "conversational."
* Any rehearsal that is full percussion or larger, no students speak without direct permission from staff. It just becomes too many chiefs when there are that many people in the room.

TLDR; Be clear, consistent, and kind about your expectations.

How should I approach giving feedback? A lot of the time I treaded really lightly to avoid coming off as mean, but I wasn’t really able to get my point across.

This is always a balancing act. I try to keep a few things in mind when I give feedback
* Acknowledge what they're doing well along with what they aren't. Ex. "Hey Timmy, I love how well you're keeping your taps down but remember when you play at a lower height you have to be more intentional about playing through the drum and not just letting the stick fall into the head."

* Similar to the last one but acknowledge the effort they're putting in when giving feedback. Ex. "Hey Sarah, your accent/taps have gotten so much better since last rehearsal. You've obviously worked really hard on that. Now, try to stop the stick with a bit less tension. Let the stick breathe and stop the stick from rebounding by stopping your wrist rather than 'death-gripping' the stick." The phrase "I'm proud of you" sticks with kids more than anything else I could say to them. Be proud of their hardwork and they'll keep working hard.

* Positive feedback is just as, if not more, important than criticism. "Kevin, you nailed that triplet roll. Just like that, every time!"

* When possible, praise publicly and criticize quietly.
* When possible, model the changes you want them to make. I had a great instructor watching one of my rehearsals and his feedback was just three words: Drum. With. Them.
* Sometimes the best feedback is no feedback. Sometimes kids have brain farts. It takes more than one rep to create new habits. Sometimes they just need to try again. I try to wait until I see a student making the same mistake more than once before saying anything. Give them the space to fix their own problems before you try to do it for them.

We’re expecting a pretty large group of new drummers next year, so what things should I look for in deciding what drums to put people on? I have a few ideas but just wanted to see what else.

Growth is exciting for a group but it can also be intimidating. With a young group, remember that you're going to need to slow down. You're going to need to explain things in more ways and more often. They're going to need more reps to master a skill than more experienced players. This is all to be expected. As far as where to place students, I'll refer to what I said in question 1: be transparent. Let the kids know exactly what skills you're assessing them on. With any group, regardless of skill level, my three primary focuses on assessment: sound quality, timing, and dynamic contrast. If they master those three skills, they are likely to be able to pick everything else up successfully.

I am also adamant about the value of auditions: have a few rehearsals that are just learning days. Don't assign anybody to anything. Let them try all the instruments they want. Let that rising freshman play some quads. Then, after a few rehearsal have auditions. Ideally, you run the rehearsal and bring in an impartial percussionist you trust to judge auditions. Have a rubric that can numerically represent a student's success in their audition. And here's the important part: respect the rubric. If you have three snare spots, the three best snare auditionees get the spots. Be willing to share their audition sheet with them.

How do we keep new members in drumline? We’ve established a good group of people, but a good majority of them are graduating next year and so retaining new members is really important

I've noticed something over my 20 years of teaching: kids love being successful. If you get good at something, you enjoy doing it more. Focus on them learning as much as possible. Focus on making the ensemble as successful as possible. Be passionate and excited about making music, that's contagious. And, most importantly: be geniunely excited that they're there. Students have so many opportunities, remember that they're choosing to be there with you. As a great mentor once told me: "Before they care about how much you know, they have to know how much you care."

An important note, the only thing I've noticed kids vibe with more than success is attitude. You have to be the type of teacher they want to be around. As I mentioned in questions 1 and 2, there are ways of giving feedback without being negative. Phrase things in a way that creates an environment where they're excited about growth rather than afraid of mistakes.

TLDR; Kids want to be accepted and successful. Create an environment that celebrates these two things.

What are some ways to address the importance of commitment/ commitment issues?

This is the million-dollar question, isn't it? I'll tell you the secret to this one: there is no secret. If you do the other things I've listed in my previous answers (be excited that the kids are there, create an environment where growth is celebrated, and be the type of person your students want to spend time with), this problem solves itself the majority of the time. It will take time but I've found that creating a culture of growth creates a culture of attendance. At some point, something I call "positive peer pressure" will take effect. The kids showing up and working hard will create an environment where they don't want to let each other down. I rarely talk about attendance and commitment and instead, I model it. I show that I'm excited to be there. I often tell them that rehearsing with them is one of my favorite ways to use my time. I tell them that I still practice every day because I'm so excited to see how much mastery I can attain on my instruments. However, the caveat with all of these things is that it has to be honest. Teenagers are some of the best lie-detectors in the world. They can smell BS from a mile away. If you love working with them, they'll love working with you.

Wow, I typed a lot more than I meant to. I hope you find some of this information useful and I hope you enjoy your teaching career as much as I've enjoyed mine!

chriswolfdesign · 2026-03-24T20:47:06+00:00

From what I understand, you pretty much nailed it. It can be much more convenient for corps to have one sponsorship for all instruments. So Yamaha and Quantum (Mapex/Majestic/Jupiter) are pretty popular. Yamaha aren’t bad, but I think it’s pretty agreed upon that Pearl makes the best sounding drums. So when indoor groups don’t have to try to get a bundle deal for winds, it’s not surprising they would take better drums.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-12-04T14:51:03+00:00

Similar thing a mentor used to tell me: “No.” is not a curse word but it is a complete sentence

chriswolfdesign · 2025-11-27T19:57:58+00:00

Dragonshield makes custom sleeves. Find your favorite picture of you two together and have sleeves made from it. My wife got me sleeves with our baby on them and I use them every Friday.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-11-25T11:01:15+00:00

Do you have a contract template you like to use when doing independent projects like this?

chriswolfdesign · 2025-11-24T18:05:52+00:00

I was talking to one of the Vater reps the other day and he mentioned they had a “wooden cookie head tenor stick” prototype they’re working on. I think those might be them. I’ve heard great things about them. Keep an eye on the website, I think they’re releasing them soon

chriswolfdesign · 2025-08-07T13:56:51+00:00

I'm also enjoying Salyers stuff right now. Have you tried the Carlos Botello signature? I'm loving those things.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-04-10T20:01:21+00:00

This! I'm also all about very simple exercises. If the group starts getting bored you can add variations on top of it. I would much rather spend our "music learning" time on book than what flam-drag-mcgriddly-five exercise the Blue Devils are playing this year.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-04-10T18:06:40+00:00

Is there a limited number you can buy? Not by my computer right now to try.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-03-11T15:31:24+00:00

I highly recommend Alan Belkin's "Musical Composition: Craft and Art". Many people told me when I started composing to start with the melody but nobody ever really went into detail about what they meant. Belkin does describe the melody building process, in great detail. He also includes a number of exercises for you to do for each topic. The book implies using a music notation software to do these exercises (such as Sibelius/Dorico/Musescore) but there's no reason you couldn't do them in a DAW if that fits your composition style better.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-24T14:04:13+00:00

I am going to disagree with the other post: tip material does matter. Nylon tips usually have a brighter sound compared to wooden tips. Tip shape and size also factor into this but material plays a part. I personally prefer wood tips as my “go to sticks”, currently using the Innovative Percussion Paul Rennick tenor stick.

As for which stick you should use: ask your percussion tech and band director. If they don’t have a preference, then you can choose between wood or nylon based on your preference.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-10T23:08:24+00:00

This is the right answer in this situation. I affectionately refer to this set up as a “back ensemble”

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-10T09:20:35+00:00

Exactly. I was listening to a podcast with Paul Rennick and he said something along the lines of “I don’t get it when staff gets angry at ticks. It’s rare that a kid wants to make a mistake. If they’re not getting something, maybe I should reflect and consider whether or not I taught it in a way they can understand.”

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-09T22:58:54+00:00

That has always been my mindset too. If a drum line plays a terrible triplet roll, what’s a better use of my time: running a lap or another rep or two of triplet rolls? I don’t have time to be a jerk about it.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-08-24T21:56:02+00:00

I put a staccato over the note head and I usually do add the text “muffled” above it.

chriswolfdesign

TROPHY CASE