Great Percussion Site!

Do you want to become a percussionist?  Do you NOT have the money to seek a private tutor?  Well, don't despair!!  There is a wonderful site my "band" teacher told me about called www.vicfirth.com/education/ that is your complete guide to being a great percussionist!! I know for me, at least, it is a life-saver, as I aspire one day to be a percussionist in the honors band group in my school.  In order to achieve that, though, I'd have to know how to play percussion instruments besides the marimba.  So I've started taking notes on various instruments- here's a couple of Did You Knows? for the week:

Did you know?  A gong has a definite pitch, whether as a tam-tam does not.

Did you know? You only play on one side of a concert bass drum- the other side is the resonant side and should be tuned lower than the beating side.

Did you know?  Jingles made out of tin on a tambourine will not produce the right sound in a concert setting.

Taking Initiative

Today, I was walking in the hallway to visit my choir teacher (yes, I admit: I'm a BIG music geek.  Probably not the biggest, and DEFINITELY not the most talented, but I like to play music.  A lot), and I met one of the teachers in charge of a science competition thingy in the hallway.  I asked him a seemingly innocent question of when practice tests would be available, and it got turned on its head, suddenly becoming my fault that I lack the initiative to go seek practice tests that aren't always available in the first place!!  Not to mention the fact that I don't consider myself a person who "lacks initiative"- I spend my lunches in a band room practicing mallets just so I can get better and not drag everyone else in percussion ensemble behind.  And to make up for the fact that I don't personally take band class.  But then, I looked at it from his standpoint- a random science teacher who hardly knows what I do and why I do it would not know these things.  In fact, when he's around, I'm not always in tip-top shape when it comes to initiative- I stopped going to his "club" when I realized it was nothing but a chess and science olympiad club, neither of which I was eligible to do (well, the chess was a waste of time), and I don't always score well on the competition tests. I'm going to use this opportunity to reflect where I'm taking "initiative" and where I'm not:
Yes, I am taking initiative:
Percussion
Blogging (when I can)
Keeping up with schoolwork

No, I'm not taking initiative:
Those science tests.  I really need to pick them up.
Searching for Volunteer Opportunities and actually applying for them.
Searching for an Internship
Learning Chinese

And everything else I'd say falls in the middle.  So maybe, he did have a point.  Just about the wrong things- just because I don't chase after one thing doesn't mean I'm a lazy bump on the log.  What do YOU think about "taking initiative"?