Music
Indian Cultural Drumming - Two Lessons
Lesson 1.
For our contribution to the Diwali Festival Arts Inquiry, we are going to learn about Drumming and compose some drumming music that will be performed in our presentation we are preparing to show the foundation students.
In a moment you will see a You Tube clip of an Indian girl playing the drum with great skill to inspire you and give you an idea of the sounds you can make with a drum and how to make them.
Questioning
- What did she use to make different sounds on the drums?
- What things can we use to make drums? (Containers, our body, tables….)
ACTIVITY
We have materials here for you to use to experiment with to use to make drums. (Plastic leather and fabric squares, various pipes and tubs and cans, sticky tape, thick elastic bands…)
See what sounds you can make, you have 10 minutes.
Sitting in a circle with handmade drums, students participate in experimentation.
- On your home made drum, what is the loudest sound you can make?
- The softest?
- On your home made drum, what is the sound you can make if you beat it in the middle?
- On the edge?
- On your home made drum, what is the sound you can make if you beat it with one finger?
- With four fingers?
- With your whole hand?
- Think about what your favourite sound was.
Now we are going to watch a You Tube clip where you will learn about different groups of beats or OSTINATOS.
- Let’s try making open strokes and base strokes.
- Now let’s try monkeys, chimpanzees, sandpipers, alligators, hyenas.
Students sit in a circle and have a go at making the beats, following the teachers lead and guidance.
- Now I want you to get into pairs and work out different ostinatos, a group of drum beats you can repeat over and over. Show your partner.
Next week we will be composing our music piece we will be performing for the foundation students. While you are drumming, some students will be performing with their lanterns. At the end of our performance, the start of the dancers’ music will merge with the end of our drumming.
We will be having a rehearsal before we perform for foundation students.
DIFFERENTIATION
Streamlining – For students requiring support, assist them with applying a layer of cling wrap onto a medium metal mixing bowl and direct them to experiment with making sounds.
Extending – Provide student with a second drum to practice coordinating playing with two drums.
ASSESSMENT
Formative assessment is achieved though observation of student understanding of making 2 – 3 different sounds with their hand on the drum.
Lesson 2
Today we are going to collaborate together to work out our drumming composition.
- Who knows what collaborate means?
- We are going to watch a video of the ostinatos we made last week.
Play video of students drumming from previous lesson.
- In a moment we will each play our own ostinatos. Then we will collaborate to work out a pleasing order for your ostinatos to be played in. Give students a minute to practice.
Students each play their ostinatos and then break into groups of 6 to work out the order they will be played in.
Group reforms and the groups of six perform for class in turn.
Collaborating with other students, an order is determined for drumming at the performance.
Now we are going to watch a very short You Tube video showing us how the same ostinatos can be played slow, medium or fast.
- Have a go at making your ostinatos slow, medium and fast. How fast can you go?! (Teacher to film for reference next week).
- Now we are going to practice an ostinato we can all do. We will practice starting with one person, then someone will join him, then another until we are all playing the same ostinato.
Students sit in a circle, one nominated student starts, after four ostinato, his neighbour joins him. The next and so on. Students keep the beat slow so everyone can join in. When everyone can hold the rhythm, speed is increased.
DIFFERENTIATION
Streamlining – For students requiring support, assist them with applying a layer of cling wrap onto a medium sized plastic mixing bowl and direct them to experiment with making sounds. Ask them what the difference is between the metal and plastic bowl drums.
Extending – Provide student with drum sticks to play on one or two drums to practice coordinated playing.
ASSESSMENT
Summative assessment is achieved through observation of students maintaining a consistent drum beat, in synchronisation with other students and/or not speeding up or slowing down.
‘Making music is an integral part of being human and Gardner (1999) lists musical intelligence as one of the eight ways of knowing’ (Gardner, 1999) (Dinham, 2011, pg. 265).
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© Copyright Ingrid Schmidt