Full disclaimer and self-inoculation:
I like drums, I like percussion.
Egg shakers are the BEST.
I have the greatest respect for anybody who can sit behind a drum kit or a pair of spoons and make it groove.
I am fully aware that in a band, it really doesn't matter who thinks they are the leader.
The drummer is the leader.
And I’m all for good leadership.
Caution: Some children have severe reactions to loud sounds, especially group drum activities. These sensory issues will require a music teacher to modify the volume of percussive activities from class to class. Be on the lookout for kids who don’t handle loud sounds well and act accordingly.
Now, onward to the topic of drums and percussion in the elementary general music classroom.
Confession: I did not allocate the “usual” amount of time to drums and percussion in my music room.
I just didn't.
I knew I had a finite number of minutes within the school year and chose to allocate larger slices of the time pie to fine motor rather than gross motor.
For example, Boomwackers are popular but took on more and more of a Cro-magnum patina in our classes the more the kids excelled at piano.
I primarily used drums as a vehicle for rhythmic dictation, reading, composing, and arranging.
Drums were the candy of the program many days and were often added to other established non-percussion activities.
Kids love their drums!
One aspect of drums I leaned on was adding timpani and bass drums to all of my general music classrooms when possible. I even had tubular bells one year! Any instrument that added color to our classroom creations was all right by me.
Because they were treated as a color, not as a “be all/end all” instrument, with the exception of xylophone, I made a conscious effort to embed percussion instruments in most vocal, guitar, piano, and recorder instruction time.
Before kids ever had the opportunity to play drums, they sat and tapped either their left thigh with their left hand or their right thigh with their right hand.
That's how we first approached rhythms in a “drum” format: our body was the instrument.
The few times I had access to a drum set and could elementally demonstrate how they worked to a class of little kids, I followed immediately with how I could sit in a chair with no drums and approximate the feel of a drum kit by independently tapping my feet of the floor and my open hands on my thighs. I encouraged kids to do the same to any rhythmic music they enjoyed where ever it was appropriate to do: on their bus ride home from school, in their bed room, etc.
Next, we introduced drumsticks with a matched grip.
Usually, my music rooms were carpeted so we simply tapped our sticks on the rug. Next up, we would use old books as our drums.
The beauty of rugs and books is that there is very little bounce and the kids can put a lot of energy into their playing.
When they finally actually had a drum in front of themselves, we had to dial back some of the energy.
Paint can buckets were also a big favorite.
One crucial management hurdle is learning how to keep sticks quiet when they're not to be engaged with drums.
The simplest way I had was saying “sticks on the floor in the shape of a T!”.
The expectation was that students would immediately put the sticks on the floor in the shape of an uppercase T. If they didn't or if they continued to touch or fuss with their sticks, the sticks were taken for a short period of time, as in this well-worn call-and-answer from our classes:
Mr. Holmes (pointing at the sticks on the floor): “You touch?”
The class (pointing at Mr. Holmes): “You take!”
The shape on the floor wasn't always a T.
I went through all the letters of the alphabet that only required two sticks to shape and had the kids make that image on the floor with their drumsticks.
At the end of our drumming or stick activity, I would often say “come up and get a third stick and put your sticks down in the floor in the shape of an F”.
We would eventually add a fourth stick and you would think that I had given them a pot of gold.
We made all the letters of the alphabet as well as different shapes.
Next would be collaborating with a person sitting near them, first making two and three letter words and then progressing to objects like rocket ships, trees, and boats with their sticks.
One of the best aspects of wrapping up a stick or drum activity this way is that there's no sound other than the excitement of the kids collaborating and designing objects.
For the finale, I would simply say “you decide what you want to make and make it with as many people in our classes that you want to”.
They would inevitably form castles, monsters, and other large objects.
My feeling was that if we were going to use sticks and drums, we would use them in as many ways as possible to ignite our imaginations as well as propel our musical skill levels.
I like drums, I like percussion.
Egg shakers are the BEST.
I have the greatest respect for anybody who can sit behind a drum kit or a pair of spoons and make it groove.
I am fully aware that in a band, it really doesn't matter who thinks they are the leader.
The drummer is the leader.
And I’m all for good leadership.
Caution: Some children have severe reactions to loud sounds, especially group drum activities. These sensory issues will require a music teacher to modify the volume of percussive activities from class to class. Be on the lookout for kids who don’t handle loud sounds well and act accordingly.
Now, onward to the topic of drums and percussion in the elementary general music classroom.
Confession: I did not allocate the “usual” amount of time to drums and percussion in my music room.
I just didn't.
I knew I had a finite number of minutes within the school year and chose to allocate larger slices of the time pie to fine motor rather than gross motor.
For example, Boomwackers are popular but took on more and more of a Cro-magnum patina in our classes the more the kids excelled at piano.
I primarily used drums as a vehicle for rhythmic dictation, reading, composing, and arranging.
Drums were the candy of the program many days and were often added to other established non-percussion activities.
Kids love their drums!
One aspect of drums I leaned on was adding timpani and bass drums to all of my general music classrooms when possible. I even had tubular bells one year! Any instrument that added color to our classroom creations was all right by me.
Because they were treated as a color, not as a “be all/end all” instrument, with the exception of xylophone, I made a conscious effort to embed percussion instruments in most vocal, guitar, piano, and recorder instruction time.
Before kids ever had the opportunity to play drums, they sat and tapped either their left thigh with their left hand or their right thigh with their right hand.
That's how we first approached rhythms in a “drum” format: our body was the instrument.
The few times I had access to a drum set and could elementally demonstrate how they worked to a class of little kids, I followed immediately with how I could sit in a chair with no drums and approximate the feel of a drum kit by independently tapping my feet of the floor and my open hands on my thighs. I encouraged kids to do the same to any rhythmic music they enjoyed where ever it was appropriate to do: on their bus ride home from school, in their bed room, etc.
Next, we introduced drumsticks with a matched grip.
Usually, my music rooms were carpeted so we simply tapped our sticks on the rug. Next up, we would use old books as our drums.
The beauty of rugs and books is that there is very little bounce and the kids can put a lot of energy into their playing.
When they finally actually had a drum in front of themselves, we had to dial back some of the energy.
Paint can buckets were also a big favorite.
One crucial management hurdle is learning how to keep sticks quiet when they're not to be engaged with drums.
The simplest way I had was saying “sticks on the floor in the shape of a T!”.
The expectation was that students would immediately put the sticks on the floor in the shape of an uppercase T. If they didn't or if they continued to touch or fuss with their sticks, the sticks were taken for a short period of time, as in this well-worn call-and-answer from our classes:
Mr. Holmes (pointing at the sticks on the floor): “You touch?”
The class (pointing at Mr. Holmes): “You take!”
The shape on the floor wasn't always a T.
I went through all the letters of the alphabet that only required two sticks to shape and had the kids make that image on the floor with their drumsticks.
At the end of our drumming or stick activity, I would often say “come up and get a third stick and put your sticks down in the floor in the shape of an F”.
We would eventually add a fourth stick and you would think that I had given them a pot of gold.
We made all the letters of the alphabet as well as different shapes.
Next would be collaborating with a person sitting near them, first making two and three letter words and then progressing to objects like rocket ships, trees, and boats with their sticks.
One of the best aspects of wrapping up a stick or drum activity this way is that there's no sound other than the excitement of the kids collaborating and designing objects.
For the finale, I would simply say “you decide what you want to make and make it with as many people in our classes that you want to”.
They would inevitably form castles, monsters, and other large objects.
My feeling was that if we were going to use sticks and drums, we would use them in as many ways as possible to ignite our imaginations as well as propel our musical skill levels.
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