Anyone have a drum-circle for kids?

[OrganicallyGrown]

My son and I play djembe together. He's five, I'm thirty four.

Lately I've been thinking how great it would be for him to be more involved with music (and he expresses interest). Since we are both interested in drumming, I thought a kids drum circle would be neat.

Is anyone currently doing this so, can you recommend a good place to start in terms of resources - books, cds, etc. I'm no drumming expert, just like to fool around.

Love to hear other's experiences here.

warmly,
jenn

[Wilhemina]

No advice or info, just a bump because I'm interested too!

[KoalaMama]

We had our first drumming experience this weekend and I'm totally hooked! I would love to hear more from people who are doing this type of thing with kids.

[Sneezykids]

I'm subbing too. I have a professional pair of bongos that my kids like to play with but just *today* in fact LOL, I've been thinking of doing a circle with us three. Funny that I found this post!
I'm going to check w/ a friend of mine who does drum circles with adults...I'll post any info I can get from her.

[jrcronewillis]

Weird.
I was just thinking/talking today about doing a world percussion and drum circle event for our HS co-op. DS had mentioned that he wanted to do something like the Bluemen, and I was thinking how cool a lesson on cultural traditions of percussion could be with kids.

I can't wait to hear if anyone else has ideas!

Juliette

[OrganicallyGrown]

KoalaMama, tell us more about your experience. Was this with children?

[FiddleMama]

I used to do this in the school system- great fun!

Here are some excellent resources:
The Accidental Drum Circle
D.R.U.M.
Drum Circle Facilitation Video

I hope that helps!

[KoalaMama]

Originally Posted by OrganicallyGrown

KoalaMama, tell us more about your experience. Was this with children?

Yes! Our family went to the Royal Botanical Gardens on Saturday and there was a drumming show in one of the parks (happy surprise!). The group played for a while - about 20 min. - and then handed djembe drums out to the audience. We did some really fun follow-the-leader games, which turned into us playing songs with the group. I was amazed at how good it sounded with all us novices beating our drums. It was fabulous! My kids are 4.75 yrs and 2.5 yrs and they both had a blast. (Though I don't know if anyone had as much fun as I did. )

[TheJoyfulMom]

We often take our kids to a drum circle on the beach. They would love the opportunity to play with other kids. I think I will bring this up to our unschooling group. It would be lots of fun!

[AngelBee]

Sounds fun :

[muse]

I'm a music therapist and have facilitated many a drum circle. Now I do a lot of drumming at home with my kids, and recently we hired a percussion teacher to come in and lead a group of kids while parents got a break.

A few simple ideas:

- establish a beat together, let them explore their instrument and the sounds it can make
- leader establishes a beat, group tries to each find their own rhythm that fits in without copying
- explore dynamics; playing loud, soft, fast, slow etc to practice "locking in" together as a group. you can use some imagery to help with that; i.e. here comes a thunder storm, soft rain, etc
- very simple call and response; one person plays a short pattern, the rest of the group copies
- pass the beat; one person plays a pattern, next person takes that and makes it into their own, and so on around the circle
- musical conversations; two people play together having a "conversation" with their instruments, no words allowed
- take turns "conducting" the group; conductor stands in middle and with established hand signal has the group play louder, softer, faster, slower, start, stop, play in small and large groups and solos, etc
- have one person drum while others move to the music
- use words to explore different rhythms; i.e. play the beat of each syllable: pear, mango, coconut, watermelon

I'm sure once you get going you and the kids will come up with tons of ideas yourselves. Have fun!

[KoalaMama]

Thanks so much for that great post, Maya! It makes me want to start a drum circle tomorrow!!

[funkygranolamama]

http://www.azkrakatoa.com/FreeLesson...-Overview.html


We had a circle for spiral scouts recently. It was wonderful. The link above is what I'm using to learn how to play the drums. It's a great resource with so many different lessons. The guy is really easy to follow, too.

[OrganicallyGrown]

Yeah! Thanks everyone I'm getting super excited about getting a circle going.