11/20/2021
An embarrassing part of being an African-American percussion teacher and percussionist is that I play snare drum very well using a traditional grip which is derived from the bu****it and unnecessarily racist U.S. Military Band. Damn the U.S. Military. The military band drummers used traditional grip to angle the left hand to the slant of the drum which hangs over the drummer’s shoulder by a thick uneven harness. This marching traditional has been passed down and now most marching drum-lines, jazz drummers, and especially HBCU drum-lines use this playing style. I honestly hate all ties to colonialism and though I don’t plan on changing my grip because it’s worked for me, I do want other folks to be informed of these American percussion origins stories to think critically about their learning experience and to understand how racism and colonialism has infiltrated the way we learn percussion in this country!🥁💐🙏🏾
percussionist
