This may be a dumb question...

[blade123]

...but how exactly do you practice concert percussion?
I am staying after school to practice and I am going through scales on marimba and songs.
But for snare, timpani, triangle, cymbals, etc.
How do you practice them? I've heard books, but are books and songs it?

[DrummerEH]

This is not a dumb question, this is a great question that percussionists of all skill levels struggle with and wonder about since we must all ask how we should spend our time and all have to ask what's beneficial to practice and how much focus should go to things that are beneficial.
First you should ask yourself some questions:
1. What are your goals? Do you want to be purely an orchestra or band player? Do you want to be a solo marimba player? Do you want to play world percussion? Do you study drum set too, and if so will your drum set studies take more time then you percussion studies?
2. How much experience do you have with percussion? Consider where your skills are compared to others.
3. Are you hoping to be a professional musician with percussion as your main instrument or are you going to just be a semi-pro or just have music as a hobby?
Once you answer these questions I could give you a better answer but without knowing anything about you I can't answer something as broad as what you should practice.

[blade123]

This is not a dumb question, this is a great question that percussionists of all skill levels struggle with and wonder about since we must all ask how we should spend our time and all have to ask what's beneficial to practice and how much focus should go to things that are beneficial.
First you should ask yourself some questions:
1. What are your goals? Do you want to be purely an orchestra or band player? Do you want to be a solo marimba player? Do you want to play world percussion? Do you study drum set too, and if so will your drum set studies take more time then you percussion studies?
2. How much experience do you have with percussion? Consider where your skills are compared to others.
3. Are you hoping to be a professional musician with percussion as your main instrument or are you going to just be a semi-pro or just have music as a hobby?
Once you answer these questions I could give you a better answer but without knowing anything about you I can't answer something as broad as what you should practice.
Goals? I just want to get better in general. Actually...my goal is to HAVE a goal. I like orchestral and set drumming, not so much hand or world drumming but I don't mind working on hand drumming.

2. I am an intermediate player, not great but getting there.

3. I want to be a semi-professional musician. I want to gig, teach, and be in the scene, but I don't want it to be my main form of income.

[DrumYoda]

There are a number of books of orchestral excerpts that have been published so that you can practice the various instrumental parts to the standard music in the repertoire. An excellent source for these is Steve Weiss Music.

[blade123]

There are a number of books of orchestral excerpts that have been published so that you can practice the various instrumental parts to the standard music in the repertoire. An excellent source for these is Steve Weiss Music.
So...books?

[Marimba6]

Yeah, in a nutshell. Books and lots of really cheap CDs.

Buy books of the literature that you are interested in. Once you have the excerpts in hand practice them. Then hit the classical section of your nearest used CD store with your list of excerpts in hand, buy the CDs you need. Listen to the CDs, then attempt to count and play along with them. If you cannot afford CDs, check youtube. There are a lot of recordings available. Listening to the music before you play it will help your interpretation. Set up a metronome and just practice reading for 10 -20 minutes a day. Read through 2 snare etudes, then read through 2 mallet etudes. Doing all of those things just a little everyday will improve your abilities.

[blade123]

Thanks for the help.
I've been getting more into theory and studying that like crazy, but that's more general than specifically concert.
Any good books/pieces you recommend?

[Ehrin]

Grover Percussion has some cool technique videos on their site. www.groverpro.com I've found it is better to practice technique rather than application when it comes to orchestral percussion. It's nice to be able to play a part, but it's better to have a technique down so next time you can sight read the part perfectly. Here are some exercises that I go through:

Tambourine: practice thumb, finger, and shake rolls. Try to get a consistant sound. Practice fast passages using the knee/fist method. Do this with the tambourine upside down and right side up. Practice picking up and putting the tambourine down silently. Work on dynamics by changing fingers and finger position.

Triangle: Work on basic triangle stroke at differant dynamics. Work on palm muting/open closed technique.

Snare: Work on long consistant buzz rolls with hard and soft stops. Work on rudiments.

Crash cymbals: Work on consistant crashes. Work on fast, consecutive crashes with and without chokes in between. Work on effects. (scrapes, chimes, etc...)

Sus Cymbal: work on swells, consistant rolls, and crashes with and without chokes.

Timpani: Work on consistant stroke from drum to drum. Work on tuning without needing a pipe/tuner. (tune drums in 4ths and 5ths by ear.)

These are just some of the things I do when practicing. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me with them and I will do my best to help.