Organizations

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pasPas.org

Pas is the most crucial organization for any percussionist. Not only do they provide a monthly newsletter with articles from the best percussionists and educators from around the world, but they also hold an annual convention called PASIC. This event is the single best thing you can do for your percussion education. Once you become a member, you also get online access to all the newsletters for the last 50 years! If you are not a member, run (do not walk), to their website and sign up now.

Marimba.orgMarimba.org

marimba.org is really the only website devoted to the marimba besides this one. It contains a huge database of players, instruments, music, and event dates. Recently the site has suffered a database snafu and a lot of the data from the last few years have been lost. They are however rebuilding!

dciDCI.org

Although many concert marimbists don’t think too highly of drum corps, the marching arts is how most marimbists develop an interest in the instrument. In fact almost all pit members in drum crops are percussion majors at a major college/university. Drum corps may not be the best place to develop sight reading and interpretation, but it is a great place to develop accute listening skills and insane chops. Contrary to popular beleif, people don’t do drum corps to solely to develop as a musican. They do it because it’s a crazy hard/fun/insane experience that is life changing. They do it to tour the country and play for thousands of people. They do it because it’s hardcore.

WGIWGI.org

WGI is the sort of an indoor version of DCI but without the brass. It really gives percussionists a place to showcase their talent due to the upfront and personal nature. Also due to the indoor setting it tends to be more “artsy”, personal, and performance based compared to DCI, although recently DCI has been been heavily influenced by WGI and has incoorperated more of these concepts into their shows.

PMOPercussion Music Online

PMO is a percussion music database with tons of useful information on percussion literature. It is a relativly new website and many aspects of it are confusing. Firstly it says access to the forums are free, but when you try to go to a forum it says you need to upgrade your account to a “gold” membership and won’t even let you look at them. It is a paid membership service at $30 bucks a year and is probably has the most value to educators.