Workshops: Making and Playing Percussion Instruments out of Found Objects
Curriculum Objectives:
• To develop participants' ability to interpret music and sound by ear
• To enhance participants' ability to communicate non-verbally
• To expose participants to many different instruments and the sounds they make
• To teach the steps associated with the development of percussion
• To emphasize an appreciation of the environment
• To learn creative ways to reuse obsolete objects
Program Description:
Participants will create and learn to play a variety of percussion instruments out of found objects. They will experience the qualities of color, tone and texture that percussion instruments create and explore the reason they create such different sounds.
The family of percussion instruments, although formally divided into two groups (idiophones and membranophones), can be informally divided into four groups for a more basic understanding of percussion. Anything that can be rubbed, scraped, shaken or struck to create a pulse creates percussion. Brian will briefly discuss types of sound, helping the students to see, hear and feel the color, tone and texture of percussion instruments. Following this introduction, the students will begin making four different instruments: sandpaper blocks, picnic plate drums with mallets, sum pump guiro with sticks, and either film canister or plate shakers. Each of these represents one of the four basic groups of percussion.
After they finish making the instruments, the students will practice some basic techniques. All will learn rudimentary short and long strokes, the guiro players will learn Brazilian and Cuban techniques, and the ensemble will play together as a drum circle.
Throughout the program, Brian will remind the participants to pay close attention to their own environments, so that they will learn to listen for all the different rhythms and percussive sounds around them. For example, one person might hear rhythm and percussion in a gas pump, another in the turn signal of a car, and a third in the sound of a jackhammer.
Additional materials provided to instructors for classroom use:
• Detailed outline of presentation
• Charts outlining percussion instrument families (membranophones/idiophones)
• World map showing geographic distribution of world instruments
• Multiple choice pre- or post-quiz
• Lesson-reinforcing games: Crossword puzzle and Connect-the-dots
Capacity:
• 16–20 people as a fully participatory program (60 minutes), or
• full assembly program with demonstration for larger audience (45-60 minutes)
Recommended Ages: 3 and up
Background:
Brian Melick, drummer and multi-hand percussionist, has taught workshops and masterclasses throughout the Northeast and Canada. He has been a featured facilitator at Music Therapists International Conferences and Percussive Arts Society's International Conventions, and serves on the World Percussive Committee for the Percussive Arts Society. He has taught people of all ages, from pre-schoolers to senior citizens, whose musical education ranged from none to years of study. Much-demanded, highly participatory workshops include Introduction to the World of Percussion and Rhythm, The World of Udu Drums, and Making and Playing Percussion Instruments out of Found Objects. Educators have used Brian's workshops as illustrations in such diverse fields as physics, social studies, art, history, environmentalism and religion, as well as music. Creating music from found objects reinforces curricula about recycling, stressing the interconnectedness of the natural and man-made worlds. The importance of percussion as a vehicle to express man's spiritual beliefs emerges through exploration of the Nigerian Udu Drums.
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For more information on workshop and fee schedule, please contact Mrs. Martha Stamm, Educational Program Coordinator, by email at marthastamm@verizon.net
- Making and Playing Percussion Instruments out of Found Objects (Jul 19, 2007)