Class Drum Kit - Another Great Activity For Your Music Lessons

[Arianna Chenoweth]

Equipment:
You can do this with no equipment at all - tap the floor for the kick
drum, slap your thigh for the snare and tap your shoulder for the hi-
hat (right hand across chest). There's a lot to be said for this
approach: less preparation, quieter, can be done anywhere, good
practice before letting them loose on the real thing etc etc - but
children prefer to play real instruments and make noise!
If you opt to use real percussion, you'll need something big for the
kick drum (big bass drum, perhaps), something with a contrasting sound
for the snare (side drum or tambourine, maybe) and something that
produces a neat click for the hi-hat (small cymbal, woodblock or even
drum stick on the back of a chair).
One child (or group) is to play the kick drum sound. One child (or
group) is to play the snare sound (and this is the hardest part as it
will be on the off-beat) (or back-beat) (as in "it's got a back-beat,
you can't lose it"). One child or group to be the hi-hat.
Hi-hat
Explain that this keeps going throughout the whole groove. The
simplest way to get this going is to count a steady 4 and make sure
that they play the hi-hat sound once on each beat:
click - click - click - click.
Once you get going you could do two quavers (eighth notes) for each
beat:
clickclick - clickclick - clickclick - clickclick.

A further refinement, which really does establish a cool feel, is to
emphasize the first of each pair:
loudsoft - loudsoft - loudsoft - loudsoft.
Kick Drum
Once the hi-hat is underway, introduce the kick drum (or bass drum)
sound on the first and third beats. Count aloud to help them to get
the beats in the right place:
One - and - three - and
Once they can do this (keep the hi-hat going), put two quaver hits on
the third beat: One - and - threethree - and
Children love this as it begins to sound like "We will rock you" (not
the carol)!
Snare
Keep the other two elements going and get your most able pupils to
play the snare sound only on the second and fourth beats:
And - two - and - four
That could take a bit of time and concentration but it will be worth
it because the effect will be a cool sound and smiles all round.
Altogether now
You could give each pupil an instrument and sort them into three
groups (bass, snare, hi-hat) for a whole-class drum sound. Or stick to
one small group at a time, while the others listen (they may need to
be occupied gainfully - ask them to sing, chant or draw a rock band).
If you have the time and enough instruments and sound-proofed spaces
you could separate the whole class into numerous groups of three (or
four: three drummers and a conductor) and send them off to perfect
their own drum sound. After ten minutes, call them all back and record
the results.



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