by: Isaac Williams

Percussion consists of more than hitting various objects with different sticks. It requires an immense amount of skill and focus. The percussion club meets every Tuesday during lunch and practices various percussion skills.

Matthew Petersen, the president of the percussion club, expresses his feelings about percussion.

“You don’t need to have experience whatsoever when it comes to percussion you just come in, grab something you’ve never seen before and hit it.” Matthew Petersen said.

Percussion requires the ability to feel a beat. You need to have a great sense of rhythm in order to be able to stay in time with everyone else in your drum circle. This is the main thing that is taught in the percussion club.

“For the most part [we teach] how to feel a beat. There’s a unity that comes when everyone is hitting something on the beat every single time,” Petersen says.

Being in the percussion club does not require much or any experience. You can just go and play with them during lunch on Tuesdays, and they will teach you all there is you need to know.

Walker Wood, a member of the percussion club, explains the amount of experience that he had before joining the percussion club.

“My grandma gave me a snare drum for one of my birthdays, and I just banged on it a little bit,” Wood says.