Editor's note: All opinions, columns and letters reflect the views of the individual writer and not necessarily those of the IDS or its staffers.
You’d think that finding instruments in a music school would be easy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way for percussion.
I’m a part of the All-Campus Band, and since I’m new to this ensemble, I didn’t know what to expect. The All-Campus Band is a part of the Jacobs School of Music, and is open to any student, regardless of major, who wants to continue playing in an ensemble. The band has 80 members, and we meet every Monday night to rehearse pieces for our concert at the end of the semester.
Coming from my high school band program where all the percussion equipment was provided for us, I was quite shocked to find that it wasn’t the case here. I can kind of understand this, but it’s still frustrating.
The All-Campus Band is the only band on campus open to everyone, which puts it on the backburner a bit. But I get it. Jacobs’ students get top priority when it comes to practice rooms, rehearsal spaces and instruments, and I have no problem with that. They should get top priority: it’s literally what they’re paying for. My only issue with that, though, is that the All-Campus Band can’t obtain certain instruments for rehearsals, especially percussion instruments.
I understand that we won’t have everything for the first rehearsal. That makes sense. We get the big instruments –– bass drum, mallet instruments, timpanis, chimes, snare drums –– but auxiliary instruments, which are percussion toys that make special sounds –– tambourines, triangles, whistles –– can be unpredictable, so I wasn’t too bothered, and neither was anyone else, about not being able to have these. For the second rehearsal though? Ok, I kind of get it. But at the end of the first rehearsal, we made a list of all the auxiliary we would need to give to the band directors. We were hoping they’d be able to get them for the next rehearsal, but lo and behold, they weren’t there. We even lost access to one of the percussion lockers, to add insult to injury.
I learned this is normal. I figured as much after seeing the unsurprised faces of the other percussionists when we saw no tambourines, bongos, tenor drums, or cymbals in sight, but when we thankfully obtained the necessary instruments at our third rehearsal, I noticed a few of the percussionists were quite shocked. I asked them what it’s typically like, and they told me that they don’t usually get these instruments until the night of the concert. Excuse me, what?
For 10 whole rehearsals, they couldn’t play on actual auxiliary. That’s insane. Some auxiliary instruments don’t require a lot of practice to sound good. For me, I’ve been clapping my tambourine part, and when I was able to play on the actual tambourine, it wasn’t too bad. But for instruments like temple blocks or bongos, it’s different. You have to practice hitting the right pitches for temple blocks or hitting the right placement on the drums for bongos. They need practice, so not being fully immersed in the part is really frustrating. I’ve been in that situation at times, and it is not fun.
Another thing I have heard from others is that equipment mysteriously goes missing and is sometimes never seen again. That happened at our previous rehearsal: chimes that were there before are now gone and replaced with a different set. I know these instruments have to be shared with multiple groups of people, but I feel like there should be a better system. At least a heads up to the All-Campus Band directors or even a little written note on the percussion locker to let us know when things are gone, and if they’ll ever return, would be greatly appreciated.
Even putting a schedule in place that gives the instruments to certain groups for certain times would help. A schedule would allow us to have the instruments we need for our allotted time, and since the All-Campus Band only rehearses once a week for an hour and a half, I don’t think it would interfere with other groups that much. We would have to talk with other band directors and percussion students about it, but I think we could make it work.
More funding for the All-Campus Band would be amazing, too. Having the band’s own set of auxiliary instruments would provide so much more relief and freedom. And with that, we wouldn’t have to stay in the dark about when we would get these instruments, nor fear our equipment will go missing until the night of our concert.
It’s unfortunate that this has to be a worry for us, especially in a music school. Like I said before, it seems the All-Campus Band is seen as the runt, and I think it’s a little unfair. We are a band. We are a part of the music program. We should have access to equipment, and faster access, too. I’m thankful things seem to be getting better though, since we were able to attain auxiliary instruments faster than ever. And I hope that it’ll keep improving, because the All-Campus Band deserves love too.
Evelyn Strauss (she/her) is a freshman studying international studies and human biology.
