Colin Bell - Music

“Teaching Your Percussion Students, Practically and Effectively”. I will be presenting the above-titled workshop at the 2026 NJMEA Conference in Atlantic City on Friday, February 20th at 3:15pm.

This is a hands-on workshop. Every participant is given a pair of drumsticks, and will play with me as I walk everyone through my percussion curriculum. The goal is to raise confidence and knowledge with percussion education in public schools.

Percussion requires more of a rote approach than your standard method book approach with winds and strings. In the beginning stages, percussion students need to play material that is beyond their music reading ability. There are important concepts, metaphors and lingo that need to be covered. You will not find this in a method book series. I will also be previewing my new percussion curriculum, “Proven Percussion”, at the conference.

In order to contribute to quality percussion education, I’ve created a web-based, video curriculum that is short on words, rich in video content, full of PDFs and a comprehensive approach that a teacher can implement within the parameters of their instrumental music program. This is what I’ve used for over 20 years, and it has lead to generations of talented percussion students and ensembles. For that reason, I’ve named it “Proven Percussion”, because it is just that: proven in the trenches of schools, grade 4-12.

Join me at the NJMEA conference and participate in the workshop!

The workshop is being provided in partnership with the Mobile Music Lab, powered by the Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps. Check out the video to see this amazing vehicle and program. It will be parked right there on the vendor floor. It has a kitchen AND music studio right on the truck! I’ll be hanging there in-between workshops...let’s talk shop.

“Teaching Your Percussion Students, Practically and Effectively”
NJMEA Conference 2026, Atlantic City
Friday, February 20th, 2026
3:15pm