As you may have heard, Maury was one of the recipients of Chancellor Henderson’s “Proving What’s Possible” grants this year! We were able to use this grant to acquire a variety of drums to expand our instrumentarium. Though we seem to be running out of room for students in the Music Room, I am extremely excited for the opportunities these drums will create for our students.
Last week we started getting to know our new frame drums. We can hold these in our hands or play them on the floor, making them a versatile instrument for the classroom. Because they are so portable, we will be able to play them and move at the same time, adding rhythm to our creative movement! Even when we’re playing them in our spots on the floor, these drums add an exciting new dimension to the rhythmic work we have been doing in class.
In addition to frame drums, we also received an assortment of tubanos. These drums were created especially with the elementary student in mind. They combine the qualities of several world drums, such as the conga, the djembe, etc. One of the best features of these drums is that they are open at the bottom, making it extremely easy to pull out bass sounds without tilting the drum!
The Music Room has been rocking this week, as all students Kindergarten through Fifth Grade have wen using the tubanos to make songs and poems we have been working on really come to life. Kindergarten used the different sizes of drums to tell the story of apples falling off a tree in a strong wind. First through Fifth has been discovering the many ways we can add some interest to the poems/songs we already know. First, we use a variety of tones and basses to accent important words/moments in our rhythms on the medium tubanos. Second, a simple accompaniment composed of basses on the low tubanos gives our piece a solid foundation. Finally, a complementary rhythm on the high tubanos rounds out the piece by filling in all the empty spaces. Some classes have already experimented with adding in movement and other instruments, but get ready for next week, when we will use movement, recorders, barred percussion, and unpitched percussion to augment our drumming!
Want a sample? Click on one of the links below. To get the full impact of those low tubanos, make sure you are connected to some decent speakers.
