You’ve heard it. That ratchety sound that gives a song that unmistakable Latin groove. You get it from a percussion instrument called a guiro (pronounced gweer-oh). Technically speaking, it’s a scraped idiophone. Its beginnings are traced back to the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, who thought it would be a cool idea to scrape a [...]

Dame Evelyn Glennie took her rightful place on the worldwide stage during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Arguably the world’s best percussionist, the Scottish-born Glennie has been profoundly deaf since age 11, and in a 1999 interview for PBS NewsHour admits that “to sustain this type of career… It just requires [...]

November is International Drum Month (IDM). So print out this coupon from the Percussion Marketing Council (PMC). Fill it out. Mail it in, and they’ll send you a set of free sticks and cool drum stuff. Really. We’re not kidding. The PMC is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the advancement, understanding and enjoyment of drums [...]

Ya know that ba-dum-cchhh that often punctuates a bad joke or a pun? What’s that called? It’s called a sting. A young percussionist we know describes it as two snare drum hits and a cymbal crash. Some people know it as a rim shot…and in fact, one of those drum hits may actually be a [...]

Your  11-year old plays snare in his school band. He complains that his drum kit case is too big and too heavy to carry back and forth to school. Is there a better option for him? Yes. The standard beginner drum kit includes a snare drum, bells, a practice pad, stands, sticks, mallets, books and music stand [...]