Description
Music connects human beings in ways that are communicative and continuous. In many instances, this connection can be created through performing with a music ensemble. Percussion ensembles have captured the public’s imagination in films like Drumline with their depictions of hard work and sacrifice. However, the real world of percussion ensembles offer potential insight into more aspects of the role music participation can play in the organizational and educational lives of competitors and teachers. Specifically, marching indoor percussion ensembles have produced fierce competition and inspired crowds of thousands of spectators. In order to become simultaneously competitive and entertaining, these ensembles will endure intense rehearsals to perfect their craft. During these rehearsals, instructors ideally aim to hold their students to the highest possible standard of excellence. In accomplishing this, staff and members communicate in ways that elicit a highly militaristic, formulaic, and often stressful educational climate. Not only is this communication phenomenon known to be explicitly expected by members involved in percussion organizations, but this environment can directly contradict the virtually unanimous feeling of music as an entity of flow and comfort. Importantly, there is a distinct lack of research utilizing the musical context in communication scholarship. Using elements of Structuration Theory as a theoretical lens, this study shows how staff and performers communicatively construct and maintain the organizational culture of competitive, indoor percussion ensembles. This study also reveals that the presence of competition influences communication patterns among members and instructors. I explore the “vibe” of group dynamics through ethnographic methods: conducting interviews with percussion instructors, involving autoethnographic writing and self-reflexivity considering my own experiences with performing and teaching, and interpreting fieldnotes from observations of the high school percussion ensemble that I teach. Keywords: organizational culture, competition, ethnography, music education, structuration
