I sat on the outside deck of a coffee shop, overlooking the Chattahoochee river near Atlanta on a perfect day in June. I was sipping probably the best frappuccino I’d ever had, and my girlfriend (now wife!) sat across from me. This was one of our favorite date spots when we were in college, and this summer afternoon was the perfect moment to drink coffee to the sounds of a river. But then I received a text that instantly reversed the carefree mood.

My wife and I were both in music school together, and our university was launching a marching band the coming fall. I had opted to stay out of marching band for a few reasons: Number one, it was a huge time commitment on weekends, and I was already a gigging drumset player at the time. I didn’t want to sacrifice my paying drumset gigs to go play in marching band. Number two, I’d never even been in marching band before. Never in high school, and I literally had zero interest. Number three, I was entering my junior year of...

The envelope sat on the kitchen table, staring up at me. This was it. This moment would decide my future. What was about to take place would set into motion the course of the rest of my life… what friends I’d have, what kind of music career I’d have, where I’d live…who I’d marry. All of this would be determined by one of two words: …pleased… or …regret… Which would it be?

Hundreds of emotions coursed through my unemotional persona on this spring afternoon my senior year of high school. Would my dream college accept me? Will plan A work? I had worked so hard for this. I had practiced like crazy all through my senior year, preparing for a music school audition I honestly had no business attempting. I had never played percussion before, yet I had signed up for a percussion audition. I had never played jazz drumset before, yet I auditioned for the drumset program. My high school drum teacher had put me through a crash...

I felt the stress completely crushing me, weighing down on my shoulders and paralyzing me. I had no idea what to do or what decision to make, and every option felt equally discouraging. I was at a crossroads, having to decide whether or not to pursue a major life path…. and it was only Wednesday of my first week of school.

I was crazy enough to go to music school in college and major in percussion performance. I had no actual percussion experience, I’d never played in band or orchestra, and I’d never played drumset in jazz band. But I wanted to take on a challenge and do it all for the first time since I knew I wanted to do music for a living after school.

Monday afternoon of that first week of school was wind ensemble rehearsal. I went to a school that had what you could probably call a “regionally renowned” wind ensemble. The group played very well, performed at prestigious events, and put on fantastic concerts every semester. The group’s...

Learning the marimba in college actually made me a better drummer in two different ways, and I think these are relevant lessons to share with you guys even if you’ve never been into classical percussion.

I imagine some of you guys saw that title, though, and were like - “what in the world is a marimba??” In case you’ve never been involved in the percussion world of timpani, xylophone, chimes, marimba, and all the crazy stuff that makes up the percussion section in an orchestra… Here’s what a marimba is (the marimba is on the right, and a xylophone is on the left):

This was the "backstage" additional practice space in our music building. I spent a lot of time back there!

Most folks recognize a xylophone when they see one. Think of the marimba as a “bass xylophone” - basically a xylophone that goes much lower and therefore has much larger wooden bars. These bars are usually made of rosewood, and they’re not cheap....

I made the worst mistake of my music career a few years ago when I was in college. This wasn’t a “musical” mistake or a performance mistake. This was a huge no-no that violated all the rules of Professionalism 101.

I attended a small in-state school, and I was blessed to have lots of scholarship opportunities that paid my way through college. Though small, this school had a fantastic, accredited music program with world-class faculty. We had all the standard ensembles that music schools have, from jazz band to wind ensemble to orchestra, musical theater, marching band, choir...you name it.

Because the school was fairly small and there were only a handful of percussion majors, most of us percussionists were involved in nearly all of the ensembles to some degree. Wind ensemble was the big one, which all scholarship music students had to be a part of. (For those unfamiliar, “wind ensemble” is basically an orchestra without the strings. AKA...