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Dear Reader,

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Happy summer!

In 2021, I released Unsnared Drum on New Focus Recordings, an album of new works for snare drum from Nina Young, Tonia Ko, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Han Lash. It was an honor to collaborate over a number of years with these composers on music that re-frames the snare drum as a vehicle for solo expression. I’m so excited for percussionists to play these pieces and for curious listeners to get to know these composers.

Now, I’m thrilled to share what I’ve learned in the Unsnared Drum Performer’s Guide, available on my website.

Instead of giving strict instructions on how to play these pieces, I structured the guide to help musicians learn music more generally. My goal is to highlight how to bring music to life on stage in a communicative and expressive way.

I hope that this project has something for everyone, whether you’re a percussionist, performing musician, or just curious about music.

🧠 For Curious People:

• Get a glimpse into the collaborative process and how musicians learn and interpret new music.
• Discover multi-modal learning concepts that link musical study, humanities research, and cognitive neurology.
• Enjoy long-form nerd-out videos.

🎹 For Performers:

• Learn how to leverage long-term collaboration to develop impactful new repertoire.
• Understand what makes a great interpretation of a piece of music.
• Create learning goals that support peak performance.
• Enhance learning efficiency through analysis of character, style, and musical details.
• Develop rich mental representations to reduce performance anxiety and hone intuition.

🥁 Specifically for Percussionists:

• Gain insights into Amy, Tonia, Nina, and Han’s compositional styles to learn these pieces more quickly and effectively.
• Get essential performance practice information from each of the composers.
• Specific tips and tricks from me, including:
  • Recommended instruments, implements, and technology
  • A guide to setting up electronics for live performance
  • Practice tips and exercises developed from the repertoire

Big thanks to Chris Goulet and Jorge Costa for the video and audio recording of this project (at ASU’s Fusion on First Studio), and to Oktaven Audio and Four/Ten Media for the album audio and video. Extra big thanks for the support from Vic Firth Drumsticks, Pearl Drums, Remo Percussion, and Black Swamp Percussion. Oh, and a big thanks to Laura Grey and greystudio for the album imagery (and for allowing me to shamelessly rip off modernist architecture).

I hope you enjoy this project as much as I do!

Mike

​PS: If you want MORE content about long-term collaboration, check out my article for Percussive Notes about the topic.​

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