Percussion is an odd musical beast to conquer. A brass player may specialize in trumpet, or a string player may specialize in violin, but a percussionist specializes in, well, percussion. As a professional performer, we are expected to be well-rounded performers on anything that we can hit. My goal in educating the percussionist is to help my students get to a high level of comfortability stepping up to any percussion instrument and playing it in any kind of setting.