I remember in Jr High, during band practice, whacking a kids knuckles as he was playing concert bass drum.

He screamed during the rehearsal and was reprimanded by the teacher.

The rest of the section could not stop laughing. Everyone hated the kid. It turnes out we are still friends.

Other then that I played more percussion in college since I was in a percussion ensemble. Ended up 1st Marimba, so I played a lot of mallets.

The Slingerland tympani worked that way and they had the worst pedals to tune tympani.

I also had a teacher that took me through each percussion instrument from the triangle, slap stick, cow bell, wood block, and every small traps item to all of the bigger instruments on how to hold them and play them correctly in that setting..

Also how important it was to set everything up a certain way and to have everything easy to play and get to.. More then one time someone would put a tambourine on a chair and it would fall on the floor..

In fact, I have sketches of a system that would attach to a black music stand that would hold sticks, mallets and triangle beaters. It was going to be made of plastic and clip on to the edge of the stand.

Each instrument was unique and I have seen whole solos just for the tambourine! Very cool instrument in itself..

So, not much to offer to the discussion, but a reflection on my percussion days..

David