“Colin’s approach to percussion education is simple, masterful, and most importantly: practical. Percussion students often lack the fundamentals they need to be successful and well rounded; I have witnessed first hand Colin’s ability to train beginner to advanced music students - percussionist or not - and give them a high level understanding of technique, rhythmic accuracy, versatility, and nuance as a solo or ensemble performer.”
“Colin Bell’s unique approach to percussion education allows our teachers to teach the students more efficiently, making the student’s experience high quality and fun! His arrangements and compositions are accessible and achievable, while still appropriately challenging. All of this adds up to a high level of education, and presentation.”
Old Bridge Elementary Drumline at the 2019 DCI World Championships
Directed by Colin Bell and Tony Good
In the summer of 2019, the Old Bridge Elementary Drumline traveled to Indianapolis, IN to perform in the Soundsport International Food and Music Festival, the Drumline Battle, and to attend the 2019 DCI World Championships. In partnership with Keith Kelly and the DCI Fan Experience, the group traveled with over 50 people to experience DCI finals week. The group toured Lucas Oil Stadium, performed at numerous events all week, was a special guest at a Santa Clara Vanguard rehearsal, and stayed in beautiful accommodations. The trip was constantly engaging and enlightening, and our young drummers, and their families, became drum corps fans for life.
The top video is the group’s performance at the Soundsport International stage. The middle video is a feature interview and documentary from Tim Hinton of the Marching Roundtable Podcast, which gives an insight on our program, and more footage from the Drumline Battle performance. The bottom video is our very first performance of the week at the Drumline Battle competition.
From a teacher’s perspective, the trip was very rewarding. We found ourselves just as emotionally moved watching our elementary students perform as we would in a DCI or WGI finals performance. It was an emotional wrap up at the end, and the teachers, administration, students and parents who all worked hard to make this happen felt a huge sense of pride and accomplishment. The DCI Fan Experience, and Soundsport and Drumline Battle opportunities are ripe for anyone to participate. I can say confidently that everyone should bring their students to this. It’s an experience like no other, and your students will get to perform, and see the best drum corps performances in the world.
Old Bridge District Drum Solo
Annual drum solo performance, written by Colin Bell
A major part of the percussion curriculum in the Old Bridge elementary schools is providing the percussion students with their own path in terms of the concepts covered in the classroom, and performance opportunities. This means providing the percussion students with music and etudes that cater to their specific development needs, as opposed to a comprehensive band method approach.
The Old Bridge District Drum Solo is a large-scale example of this. All percussion students, grades 4-12, come together to play this every year. The music is arranged in a modular style. Each level of percussionist has a part written to their ability level. The interchangeable nature of the parts ensures that everyone is performing within their ability level, which leads to a successful ensemble performance. The only rehearsal that happens for this is a quick 30 minute session where the students all play together for the first time (bottom video).
Old Bridge Elementary Drumline
Directed by Colin Bell and Tony Good
The Old Bridge Elementary Drumline is an after-school program that includes 5th grade percussion students from all 12 elementary schools in the Old Bridge District. With a focus on non-competitive performance opportunities, it’s an audition-based group where students learn about hard work, high level execution of music, dedication to a team, and confident live performance. The group travels around town, playing in various public events. They also travel to larger international events, such as the DrumLine Battle event at the Drum Corps International World Championships in Indianapolis, IN.
International Education Outreach - Shanghai, China
As a guest of Motif Music, Colin Bell traveled to Shanghai with fellow Old Bridge Elementary Instrumental Music teacher Tony Good, and Old Bridge Director of Arts and Cultures, Anahita Keiller. The team presented an in-depth workshop across multiple days, covering the Old Bridge school district, it’s Mandarin language program, and the elementary instrumental music curriculum.
Here are clips from the Beginning Percussion Curriculum presentation at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Topics included here include the evaluation of new students, and “Day 1” concepts.
