Overview of Percussion Needs

Over the time our percussionists are in the program, they should be accumulating a collection of sticks and mallets to accommodate the many different instruments and sounds they will have to perform. A percussionist that collects all of the recommendations below will have most of the mallets and sticks required for anything they will encounter in High School Band. Students should use permanent ink to mark all of their own sticks/bags/equipment with some sort of identification.

6th Grade --Get these for your first year in band

All of these options can be substituted with similar items from other brands

Instruments

• Mallet instrument 
• Snare Drum and/or Practice Pad

Sticks and Mallets

• Vic Firth SD1 Snare Drum Sticks
  • The Vic Firth SD1 General sticks have really become the standard for students and concert percussionists.  The length and thickness makes them easy to hold, they have excellent balance and the round tips give them a smooth and consistent rebound.  In addition to classical applications these sticks also work well with many other musical styles and practice pad work
• American Custom® Keyboard M3 - Medium -
  • Mallets feature a medium mushroom head for all-around playing on xylophone and marimba
• American Custom® Keyboard M6 -
  • Hard Phenolic 1" ball for all-around playing on bells and xylophone
• Basic Stick Bag
  • A bag made to hold sticks and mallets. It is designed to hang open on various instruments, making accessing various sticks and mallets easy during performance
• Drum Key
  • Tunes drums and is used for adjustment on a lot of different percussion stands

Bell Kit (Mallet Instrument)

Snare Drum

American Custom® Keyboard M3

American Custom® Keyboard M6

SD1 Snare Drum Sticks

Practice Pad

Stick Bag and Drum Key

---

Add these in 7th Grade

All of these options can be substituted with similar items from other brands

Sticks and Mallets

• Musser Blue Xylophone Mallets (Birch Sticks)
  • Better tone for playing xylophone
• Timpani Mallets--Vic Firth Staccato T3 
  • Great first mallet for general timpani playing
• Vibraphone Mallets--Balter Pro Vibe Rattan 23R--Medium 
• Pitch Pipe for Tuning Timpani (F-F or C-C)
• Triangle Beater (I usually make one for the students)
• Triangle Clip (can be made using clip from hardware store)

Triangle Clip

Triangle Beater

Pitch Pipe

Musser Blue with Birch Sticks

Vic Firth Staccato T3 Timpani Mallet

---

Add these in 8th Grade

All of these options can be substituted with similar items from other brands

Sticks and Mallets

• Drum Set Sticks--Vic Firth American Classic 5A
  • Great all purpose drum set stick
• Timpani Mallets--Vic Firth T1 
  • Slightly softer than the T3 they should already own. Produces a warm sound on the drum.
• Set of Softer Marimba Mallets
• Wire Snare Drum Brushes 

Other considerations

• Purchase a snare drum if you don't have one yet
• Consider a xylophone or marimba to replace your bell kit. There are instruments in the $1500 range that are a huge upgrade from the bell kit.
• 4 or 5 piece Drum Set (If space is a concern there are many great electronic drum sets. They take up less space and are a lot easier on the ears during practice in the house)

Wire Brushes

4 octave student marimba (optional)

3 Octave Student Marimba (Cheaper optional upgrade)