Drumming for Kids and Teens at Schools
Playfully Learning for Life
Hardly any other instrument has such an attraction for kids and teens (and adults!) as the drum – for many good reasons…
Drumming means:
- To have a communication with others
- To move
- To experience the power of community
- To feel your own rhythm
Drumming supports:
- Cooperation versus competition – in an immediate and playful way
- The development of creativity
- The evolution of individuality and self-worth
- The feeling of rhythm and the power of concentration and motor coordination
- Creativity without pressure to perform
- Transformation of aggression to constructive life energy
Group drumming is a wonderfully playful and encouraging adventure!
Harmonizing with your individual needs, we will explore basic rhythms, venture into word and movement plays and dive deeper into the fascinating and multi-layered world of drum rhythms.
The step-by-step approach, together with singing traditional songs and exploring humorous exercises, will allow kids, even without any musical proficiency, to make progress in a very short space of time.
Drum circles can be used in schools to improve the emotional climate and to help prevent violence. A drum circle event could be in the form of either an action week or several ongoing meetings — with the climax of a performance at the end.
Drums and other percussion instruments will be provided during the course.
Elements for Events and Ongoing Courses
Drum Circle (Kids from 10 years) 1 – 2 hours
We will play African rhythms on djembes and the big bass drums which are played by kids in Africa. Small percussion instruments and playful rhythm exercises, rap and traditional songs invite the kids into another world – which soon turns into something very familiar.
How so much music can be created in so short a time is always astonishing.
Drumming Band (Kids from 10 years)
Semester Course: weekly or twice a month
African and South American rhythms played on djembes, congas and bass drums form the basis of this project. Easy rhythms and songs with short arrangements and breaks lead the group into the world of drumming with a lot of playfulness and joy.
The possibility to practice the grooves over an extended time bonds the team and can culminate in a lively show at the end of a semester…
Rhythm Gang (Kids from 10 years)
Semester Course: weekly or twice a month
The rhythmical contents for this group come from the music styles of Disco-Reggae, Funk and Hip-Hop, as well as arrangements from Afro-Samba.
Initially using djembes, bass drums and small percussion, the playing can then be enriched and transformed by using anything that chatters and rattles — as in ‘Stomp’.
These elements can easily be performed and gives the group a wide variety of expression. The program is ‘loaded and groovy’!
Elements for Event Weeks
Feel the Beat
In collaboration with the teachers we will work out an individual program suited to the participants. The world of rhythm will run like a golden musical thread through this special week.
The students will experience themselves as drummers, as part of a body percussion-orchestra, as an African choir or as an innovative ‘Stomp’ formation.
Dance, the building of masks and the reciting of ancient tales can easily complement and enrich this exciting event.
Building your own Cajon / Drum Performance
The ‘musical box’, the cajon, has quickly established itself as a compact, very versatile little drum set. The idea for this project arose out of collaboration with the Swiss cajon builder, Christian Probst.
Creating your own drum establishes a very special relationship with the instrument. One’s own individual power is induced and is afterwards clearly present and almost tangible. The path of how an instrument is created out of unfinished elements offers plenty of hands-on experience and the special atmosphere shortly before playing the first tones on the just-finished cajon is more than exciting.
Afterwards we will play, practice and explore the many percussive possibilities. Simple arrangements soon build into a powerful pulse. In a final show the whole place will ‘rock’!
The newly-built instruments can then also be made available to the whole school.
More information from Christian Probst: www.cajon.ch