LESSON PLAN: Classroom as Drum Set
Objective
Students will be able to play a drum set by learning the fundamental coordination involved in playing it. This gives a teacher more resources in arranging songs by allowing more students to participate in the percussion part. It also allows classrooms without a drum set to add these sounds with improvised instruments.
Resources
Sheets of paper, cardboard boxes, shakers or home-made shakers, handout titled “Drum Patterns”
Procedures
Demonstrate playing several of the drum patterns from the handout. Place a piece of cardboard underneath of your right foot to imitate the sound of a kick drum and a piece of paper on your lap over the right leg to imitate the sound of the snare. When you demonstrate these patterns, use only the kick and snare part, no cymbals. Therefore you’ll only be using your right foot and left hand.
Ask students to put a piece of cardboard underneath their right foot and a piece of paper on their desk or lap on the left leg.
Count everyone in with a subdivided beat, saying “1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +” over and over. Play a couple of the patterns on the handout using just the kick and snare parts. Repeat each pattern at least four times to help everyone get the hang of this simple coordination.
If you have a drum set, go over to it and demonstrate playing these patterns they are all now familiar with using your right foot for the kick drum and left hand for the snare. Invite a couple of students to come up and try out playing some of these basic patterns as well, to see how easy it is now that they’ve got the basic coordination down.
Once they’re comfortable playing patterns this way, run down all of the patterns on the handout, playing each one twice.
Adding a cymbal (high hat or ride cymbal) with the right hand to this patterns is difficult at first. It’s a good idea to divide the class for this, having one half play the cymbal part (on a shaker, a home-made shaker, or by tapping their guitar picks or pencils on the metal leg of their desk or chair) while the other half does the kick and snare part. This is an outstanding listening activity for them to coordinate with each other.
Have kids try playing the cymbal, kick and snare parts altogether. You may want to break this down by adding one beat at a time in the first pattern you try this. After they can play their first pattern this way, the rest will be easy. Everything they’ve learned to do here will easily transfer over to the actual drum set, allowing students to take turns playing the drums on different songs.
National Core Arts Standards (Music)
Anchor Standard 4: Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
Example: General Music MU:Pr4.2.4 b. When analyzing selected music, read and perform using iconic and/or standard notation.Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation. Example: General Music MU:Pr5.1.3 a. Apply teacher-provided and collaboratively-developed criteria and feedback to evaluate accuracy of ensemble performances.
Common Core Correlation: Generate and analyze patterns. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.OA.C.5
Generate a number or shape pattern that follows a given rule. Identify apparent features of the pattern that were not explicit in the rule itself.