Band students will be taking the stage using a variety of percussion instruments with the addition of a very unusual kind of instrument. The band will be holding its annual percussion concert in the PAC on May 2 at 7:30pm. Instruments will range from xylophones to toms and snares, and a little something extra as well.

“I’m going to be playing marimba in a quartet and in that we’re also playing toms, and in this one song, this is actually kind of interesting because we’re actually using brooms,” Connor Kraner, sophomore, said.

The piece calls for six performers to use push brooms on the stage to create rhythmic patterns by sweeping and hitting the floor

“One of the pieces they’re doing is done strictly with push brooms, hitting them on the sides, sweeping, and whatever.” Josh Thompson, band director, said. “Kind of like that group or musical, Stomp, where they have a whole scene using push brooms and they make it rhythmic and interesting. That’s stuff you would never get with a concert band.”

Students will play music they have learned throughout the year. Some students will do solos from their solo/ensemble contests. Since there are only 26 percussionists in the band, they don’t use class time to rehearse, which can cause some problems.

“For preparations, the most trouble we’ve had was probably getting everyone together to practice,” Kraner said. “We don’t use class time to rehearse the [percussion] concert, so it’s hard to find a time where everyone can make it, but so far we’ve been doing pretty well, we can usually meet once a week.”

According to Thompson, the percussion concerts always have a different atmosphere compared to the normal band concerts

“When they play with the band, they learn a certain type of percussion music,” Thompson said. “But there’s so much more out there and so many more things that can be done with percussion that you just don’t get with the full band.