The Percussion Marketing Council (PMC) is gearing up to encourage even more people to play and learn drums with support from the NAMM Foundation.
This year’s NAMM grant helps PMC maintain established Experience Drumming! community grants, expand the Experience Bucket Drumming! program, support PlayDrums.com’s capabilities as an online hub for the percussion community, and further unify percussion manufacturers and retailers through International Drum Month activities.
For 2023, PMC expanded the reach of the percussion education events it supports, presenting admission-free local events that put drumsticks in the hands of more people of all ages. The community grant will enable our most engaged percussive arts facilitators to maintain and grow programs at schools and afterschool as well as at libraries, veteran centers, and senior centers.
Expanding access for more educators to create low- or no-cost group drumming opportunities, the PMC will sponsor an Experience Bucket Drumming! educational session, presented by David Birrow, author of The Bucket Book: A Junkyard Percussion Manual. The workshop to be held January 26, for attendees of the 2024 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, will instruct music educators on how to incorporate bucket drumming into their classrooms. In 2023, PMC hosted a free webinar session with Birrow. Nearly 100 music educators from 20 states registered, and each received a free copy of the book, which is published by PMC member Alfred Music. Positive feedback from those participants prompted PMC to offer the live program.
“The PMC is thankful for this year’s NAMM Foundation grant funding and support, which will help us expand Experience Drumming! programs and offer the Experience Bucket Drumming! one-hour educational session at the NAMM Show,” says PMC Executive Director Antoinette Follett. ”The annual NAMM Foundation grant is a reflection of generous ongoing support from NAMM members and participants of the NAMM Show.”
For nearly 30 years, the corporate members of the PMC have dedicated time and resources to boost public engagement with percussion instruments. The PMC recently engaged in a strategic planning initiative to envision and implement even greater reach and impact in the years to come. Its expanded board of directors and streamlined, turnkey program packages, are set to strengthen and sustain market development through hands-on education programs in 2024.
