Correction added

Terence Mayhue’s 8th birthday present was a snare drum.

The drum was the start of his love for percussion.

Mayhue is the director of the Percussion Ensemble, which will perform April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in McAfee Gymnasium’s South Auditorium.

Mayhue said he was constantly surrounded by music as a child; his mother was also a percussionist. In 7th grade he started organized percussion lessons, he continued this throughout high school and college. When Mayhue went to college at Millikin University, he continued with percussion.

Mayhue was involved with jazz groups, the wind symphony and the Latin symphony during his college years.

“I was involved with anything having to do with percussion,” Mayhue said.

Mayhue believes audiences like percussion performances because the different instruments provide a variety of sounds.

“The audience tends to like percussion because of the wide variety of sound colors,” Mayhue said. “It’s a unique palate of hundreds of sounds.”

In addition to directing the Eastern Percussion Ensemble, Mayhue directs the Latin Ensemble.

Percussion has two different types: traditional percussion and Latin, Mayhue said.

“Latin percussion is more pop, more commercialized,” he said. “I tend to like the more commercialized type but there is some great concert music as well.”

Eastern’s percussion program is a total percussion program, as opposed to a specialized percussion program. A total percussion program teaches all percussion instruments and a specialized percussion program teaches specific instruments.

“After graduation students will be more diversified and hireable because they can function in numerous roles,” Mayhue said. “Percussionists need to wear a lot of hats.”

Patrick Rheingruber, a senior music education and music performance major has been involved in the Eastern Percussion Ensemble and Eastern Latin Ensemble – both under the direction of Mayhue – for five years. He has also been taking private lessons with Mayhue since he started at Eastern.

“Learning the different instruments and styles of percussion helps in the future because you never truly know where you will be after graduation, and having a full background of knowledge will help you adjust and succeed in any situation,” said Rheingruber.

Mayhue said the average percussionist knows a little over 200 instruments.

Given the amount of knowledge percussionists need to know, there are characteristics Mayhue likes his students to possess. Mayhue says he looks for students who possess both passion and work ethic to be in the percussion ensembles.

“Hard work will get you anywhere,” Mayhue said

Mayhue likes to see students get confidence by developing their musicality.

He gave an example of a previous student, Adam Smith, who was able to gain confidence by music.

“He came from being an introverted person to know being a band teacher,” Mayhue said.

“I like to see them express themselves as musicians.”

Benjamin Hall, a senior instrumental music education and percussion major, is in both Eastern Percussion and Latin Ensembles and also takes private lessons from Mayhue.

Hall said Mayhue is an extraordinary technician during individual lessons and cares that tenacity over to larger classes.

“He is also a great musician and master motivator during our large ensemble rehearsals,” Hall said.

Ashley Mefford can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].