Printed from the MusicK8.com Idea Bank

Drum Circle

Submitted by Becky Luce, Windsor, Vermont

Idea posted 2003-11-07

I use drumming each week with my 6th graders, and there are a few things you can easily do.

Start a four-beat pattern and let each player pick it up, one at a time, going around the circle. When everyone has it, just keep it going for a while, being careful about not speeding up.
Same as above, but once it's been going a while, start another pattern. Everyone keeps playing the first pattern until the new pattern reaches them.
Split the group into two parts: have one group begin a pattern and repeat it, then add the second group with a complementing rhythm.
Play "What's for Dinner?" You, as the leader, play the two-beat pattern of dotted eighth, sixteenth, eighth, eighth while saying, "What's for dinner?" The students must answer within a two-beat pattern, for example: ti-ri-ti-ri ti-ti (that's the rhythm they'd play) for hamburgers and french fries. Lots of fun!