Written by Wenger Guest Author Shilo Stroman, Senior Instructor of Percussion and Jazz at Colorado State University
5 Tips for Taking Care of Your Marching Percussion Instruments
Marching Percussion needs a bit more daily and weekly maintenance than concert percussion equipment. This is due to being outdoors, moving equipment across grass, dirt and pavement and transportation of gear in moving trucks/trailers. To prolong the life of your instruments and most importantly sound great at performances, here are 5 tips and 2 checklists to help guide you.
To download checklists, please submit the form at the bottom of the article.
1. The Maintenance Kit
Create a maintenance kit that travels to every performance. This kit includes the following:
• Drum keys
• White lithium grease for tension rods
• WD40 for lubricating wheels
• Spray cleaner and rags for cleaning
• Tools needed for all instruments
• A variety of tape for last second emergencies
• Spare parts for every instrument (tension rods, carrier parts, para cord for stringing keyboard bars, wing nuts/felts for cymbals etc) .
All of this should be stored in a tool box with wheels. Extra drumheads, electronic cables, power cords are also a must when traveling to performances.
2. Tarps and Blankets
Purchase tarps and moving blankets for extreme weather. Tarps are obviously needed for rain, snow and sleet to cover instruments. Being from Colorado, tarps are ALWAYS close by at rehearsals and performances as changes in the weather are often quick! Moving blankets are a two for one purchase. They can be used for covering instruments during storage and transportation. They can also be used during intense sunlight to cover keyboard instruments and cymbals in between reps of music. This will prolong the life of the instruments and in the case of cymbals, keeps them cool so students avoid burning their hands when dampening. Nothing should ride in the truck without a case or cover.
3. Tuning
Tune every rehearsal/performance. Most of the time, this simply means turning a few tension rods, maintaining the tuning of the drums and NOT a start from scratch every day. This process is more complicated days/weeks after applying new drumheads or the drums have been out in the sun and the heads stretched. Maintaining tuning will also increase the life of your heads.
Directors tune the winds every day, drums should be no different! Its also a good opportunity to check other aspects of each instrument. If there are any loose nuts/bolts, drumheads that have a rip, broken rims etc. I tell all students to be mindful of their instrument and check these things on a regular basis. There’s nothing worse than you’re loading the truck and a carrier part is missing or a head is broken.
4. Mallets and Sticks
Use “stick tape” to prolong the life of snare, quad and bass drum implements. Any electrical tape purchased at a local hardware store and wrapped carefully will prolong the battery implements. You can also use different colors to match your show concept!
The sticks, mallets for battery instruments will generally be stored in their instrument cases. For the keyboards in the front ensemble, I hang mallet bags on the instruments and the mallets can stay in there during transport. You can also use a large plastic tub from Target etc. for all mallet storage. I use this for taking extra sticks/mallets to performances and/or at school.
5. Train Your Parents
Have at least one day where parents attend a “mock” show day and they learn how to wrap sound cables, properly move instruments and practice on and off the field timing. Often times, the parents are more nervous at shows than the students. So, its a good idea to make them comfortable with the logistics of a show day. Unloading the truck, moving to warm up, moving to staging, getting on the field, getting off the field and back to the truck.
I once had a group of band parents make a color coded, to-scale schematic of how to load the equipment trucks! They did this after seeing all of the gear on our “mock” show day. Very cool!
Off-Season Storage
The tips above are important items to consider during your busy marching season, but just as important is keeping your instruments and equipment clean, safe, and organized during the off-season. Investing in a durable and flexible storage system will save you time at the beginning and end of every season, and will allow you to avoid the frustration of finding equipment damaged or missing.
Wenger’s GearBoss Shelving is a great solution for percussion storage because you can move the shelves up or down easily, to fit your specific instruments and gear. The shelving is solid and durable, with nice deep shelves that will fit drum cases. If you opt for the open shelving, you can also hang harnesses from the front edge of the shelving.
If you’re still cramming instruments and gear into an extra practice room or closet, do yourself a favor and invest in a top quality storage system.
Please submit the form below in order to download the checklists.
You can connect with Shilo Stroman on these channels:
Instagram: @strodrum
Twitter: @the_stro
