Sound Innovations for Concert Band: Ensemble Development for Advanced Concert Band: Percussion 2 Book

This percussion 2 book pulls from compositions by twelve of the most respected voices writing for concert band today, meaning your ensemble rehearses music with genuine pedagogical substance rather than generic filler. The 399 exercises progress logically through keys and difficulty levels, giving you flexibility to target specific ensemble needs in a single rehearsal or build a semester-long curriculum around thematic concepts.

The exercises move beyond mechanical accuracy into genuine musicmaking. Working through pieces by composers like Robert Sheldon and David Gillingham gives your percussion section the experience of playing music written with real artistic intention, not just academic routine.

Percussion 2 players in advanced concert bands seeking focused ensemble development beyond the intermediate level. This book serves directors who want their percussion sections to build sophistication in ensemble listening, intonation, and musicality while maintaining rhythmic precision.

• Start with the chorales written by recognizable composers to help your percussion section understand how their parts contribute to the overall band sound; playing alongside better-written harmonic contexts builds musicianship faster than isolated technical drills.
• Group several exercises in the same key together across multiple rehearsals rather than jumping between keys, allowing students to internalize tonality and reduce the cognitive load of sight-reading unfamiliar key signatures.
• Use the variety of difficulty levels within each category to differentiate during sectional rehearsals, assigning adjacent exercises to mixed-ability groups so percussionists at different levels work on the same musical concept.

Use this as your primary resource for sectional warm-ups during concert band season, rotating through the chorale collection to introduce your ensemble to contemporary band composers. The logical organization lets you pull exercises that align with whatever repertoire you're programming, reinforcing similar technical or harmonic concepts across rehearsals.

• Reading and playing in varied keys with fluency
• Balancing individual lines within ensemble textures
• Responding to harmonic context and chord function
• Sustaining tone quality and intonation at advanced dynamic ranges
• Interpreting articulation and phrasing in original compositions