The entire back of the room is dedicated to the percussion section. It was a part of the room that nobody but the drummers had to walk through. Gave me the illusion of control.

First, we have the drum set. Used for Jazz Band, rock band, pep rallies and occasionally in concert band. We had several sets, some donated by parents (what parent doesn't want a drum set in the house?). Ms Vasco and I worked hard to keep them in good condition. Of course, our budget for repairs and maintenence was $0. Now that I look at this picture, those are some big ass tom toms there.

Next we have a nice group of larger percussion pitched instruments. First, we have a lovely set of orchestral chimes (tubular bells). There are markings on them that indicate that they were manufactured in the 1940s. However, when played properly with the correct hammer (yes, a hammer made of wood and leather) they sound great. There are two mallet instruments, a xylophone has bars made of wood, and orchestra bells, made of steel bars. We always had a handful of percussionists who would actually put in the work to learn to play mallet instruments. Ms. Vasco acquired a few take-home orchestra bell sets (our budget at work?). Some kids got pretty good at it.

In the back corner is a pretty decent gong (the gong originated in China, is properly called a tam tam in the western world). Kids (and adults) love to hit the gong. Of course we had no money in the budget for a proper gong mallet but almost anything would do.

The gong was also an important element in one of out classroom protocols (education administrators love to use the word protocols) - when I told a (usually bad) joke, the drummers were required to do the "ba-dum! ca-ching!" thing on the drums. If the class was a lesson group without drummers, after the joke, the kids would vocalize "ba-dum!" and I would throw an eraser at the gong in the far corner of the room for the required "ca-ching! It's hard to accurately throw an eraser that far. When I invariably missed, I would continue to throw dry erase pens or whatever was in reach until I connected - "gong!!!!!!!" Only then class could resume.

Next to the gong there is a table kind of thing on a red X stand. The table top is actually a cover from a road case. The rest of the road case belonged to my friend's band and was stolen thirty years ago from a seedy hotel bar. It sat in my garage for a few decades before being upcycled for classroom use. This is the auxilliary percussion table. It is home for tambourines, cabasa, vibra-slap, maracas, triangles etc.

Finally, the bass drum. Because we had so many more drummers than drum parts, we would double and triple up, 2-3 kids to a part. We only used one bass drum in my band. There was a big boomy concert bass drum in the building. I preferred this smaller, tighter drum with more of a rock sound. In the words of Popeye, "I yam what I yam."

We will discuss the artwork on the wall in a coming picture.