Category Archives: India

What Is Your Country’s National Instrument?

You probably know that different countries have different languages. And diverse cultures have different holidays and foods. But did you know that almost all countries in the world have a national instrument?

What’s A National Instrument?

What is a national instrument? It can be an instrument discovered or played in a country, like the South African vuvuzela horn. It can also be a musical instrument that holds cultural and symbolic importance for a state, a nation or a particular race or ethnicity of people. Some are drums, some are stringed instruments, some are percussion instruments but all hold a special significance to the citizens of that country and represents the unique character of the people it is identified with.

For instance, think about a balalaika from Russia or the ukulele from Hawaii. Can a country have more then one national instrument? Yes, several countries have multiple instruments listed as their national instruments. For instance, Greece has an ancient national instrument – the lyre, and also a modern one, the bouzouki. Peru has both the Afro-Peruvian cajón (box drum) and the Andean charango, a stringed instrument made from the shell of an armadillo.

Discovering Cultures Through Music

Instruments are a really fun starting point for discovering and learning about world cultures. Perhaps you have relatives or ancestors from another culture. Music is a great starting point for sharing that culture with your kids. Perhaps you’ll travel to another country, here’s a fun way to find out more about what you’ll see and hear in advance. Likewise, if you’re simply exploring the world from the comfort of your couch, finding out about national instruments is a great way to discover the many wonders of the musical world.

Below is a link to the Wikipedia compilation page of national instruments. This is a great source because each countries entry has a clickable link to learn more. Also below are links to free coloring pages and to one kids E-book where you can color your way around the world with unique musical instruments like the sitar from India or goat toe-nail rattles from Bolivia.

What’s your country’s national instrument? Did you already know it? I’d love to hear from you about this!

Links and Resources

Wikipedia’s List of National Instruments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_instruments_%28music%29

Australia – What Is A Didgeridoo https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-is-a-Didgeridoo-2816257

Ancient Egypt – Color A Sistrum – https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Color-An-Ancient-Egyptian-Rattle-The-Sistrum-2166721

South Africa  – Make Your Own Vuvuzela Stadium Horn  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Vuvuzela-Make-Play-Your-Own-South-African-Stadium-Horn-1242716

Russia  -Balalaika –Poster and Coloring Page  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Balalaika-Mini-Poster-and-Coloring-Page-917136

Hawaii  – Ukulele Poster and Coloring Page  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Ukulele-A-Stringed-Instrument-from-Hawaii-Mini-Poster-and-Coloring-Page-1095283

Peru – Make Your Own Cajón - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Cajon-Make-And-Play-Your-Own-Box-Drum-1236616

Peru – Charango – Poster and Coloring Page  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Charango-An-Instrument-from-South-America-Mini-Poster-and-Coloring-Page-613417

Argentina and Brazil – Guitar Coloring Page https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guitar-Coloring-Page-649967

Let’s Color A World Of Music – 12 Instrument E-Book https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/LETS-COLOR-A-WORLD-OF-MUSIC-1253263

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Posted in Australian Music, Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, First Instruments, Hispanic Music, Homeschool Musical Fun, India, Multicultural Music

Tagged ancient instruments, Balalaika, bouzouki, cajon, Charango, coloring books for kids, culture and music, Daria, Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou, Didgeridoo, Easy Instruments kids, international kids music, kids books music, kids music book, lyra, multicultural music, national instruments, Sistrum, ukulele, unusual instruments, Vuvuzela, world music, world music with daria, wqorld music instruments

Free Music Resources For Back To School

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, a homeschooler or a parent who loves sharing music, you’ve probably already found the wonderful site – TeachersPayTeachers. It’s filled with all kinds of resources including a huge amount of freebies and fun for all aspects of teaching, not just music.

If you follow me on TPT here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music you’re welcome to enjoy my fantastic back-to-school freebies. At this time of year, I generally set four of my top-selling items to “0” so my followers and friends can take advantage of these resources as they plan ahead to the coming year.

WHAT’S FREE THIS YEAR?

You can get my Parent’s Choice Award-winning children’s music cd – Beautiful Rainbow World – including songs from 12 world cultures. There’s a pack of mini-posters of world music instruments from all across the globe plus two instrument-making craft activities. Until Friday (August 24^th),follow me on TPT and you can download these items for free:

ADD SOME MULTICULTURAL MUSIC TO YOUR CLASSROOM https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Multicultural-Music-CD-Beautiful-Rainbow-World-by-DARIA-1189106

WHO DOESN’T LOVE POSTERS AND MINI-POSTERS? https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/World-Music-Instrument-Mini-Posters-2182210

PERFECT FOR NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH (NOVEMBER) https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Native-American-Turtle-Shell-Rattle-Craft-Using-Recycled-Materials-600715

EXCELLENT FOR NEW YEAR AND CHINESE NEW YEAR FUN https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monkey-Drum-Chinese-New-Year-Drum-Craft-1748044

WHAT ELSE IS NEW IN DARIA’s TPT STORE?

We’ve also just added two fun mini-courses that share the Instruments Of India along with Ancient Instruments From The Middle East. There’s gorgeous coloring pages of darbuka drums, sitars and handbells along with crafts to make Indian ankle bells, dhol drums or even an Egyptian sistrum that dates back to the time of the pyramids! Plus there’s lots of songs, lyric sheets, sheet music, activities, E-books and more.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Instruments-of-India-Mini-Course-2682389

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ancient-Instruments-From-The-Middle-East-Mini-Lesson-2127995

Just drop by and become a follower, here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music

UPDATE: Did you miss the free items because the sale is over? If you are a teacher or homeschooling family on a limited budget, drop DARIA a line at dariamusic at yahoo dot com. She can often send along a free copy of one of her resources for your classroom!

And happy planning for the school or homeschool year for 2016/2017!

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Posted in Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Homeschool Musical Fun, India, Multicultural Music, Native American Music

Tagged Back to school freebies, Back to school resources, childrens music projects, classroom world music resources, Daria, Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou, homeschool music resources, homeschool resources, multicultural craft activities, multicultural music, multicultural music resources, music craft activities, music E-books, music for toddlers, music resources classroom teachers, music resources homeschoolers, music resources parents, teaching tolerance through music, world music for kids, world music with daria, young children and music

Color The Musical Instruments – All The Way Around The World!

Who doesn’t love to color? No matter how young or old you area, it’s fun to get out a set of crayons or colored pencils and personalize a perfect page! And if you can also learn about other cultures in the process, all the better!

We’ve just released this e-book that’s actually a compilation of readers’ favorite musical instrument pages from the WORLD MUSIC WITH DARIA website. Called “Let’s Color … A World Of Music!” there are 12 pages including common favorites like the guitar as well as more unique instruments such as the balalaika from Russia, the sitar from India or the panpipes (zampoñas) from South America.

In addition to coloring fun, you can also use this book as a creative way to learn about other cultures. For instance, if you listen to any classical or traditional music from China, you’ll probably hear an erhu. In “Let’s Color … A World Of Music!” you can not only see what it looks like but find out what it is made of and how it is played as well.

Exploring the culture of India? You can learn about a sitar or a two-headed drum from Northern India called a dhol. If you’re taking a virtual trip to the Andes, you can find a miniature guitar made from shell of an armadillo or a special rattle (called chapchas) made from the toenails of sheep or goats.

Best of all, during June and July 2014, you can get your copy free at the link below. And in the meantime, here’s a list of the 12 instruments you can discover and enjoy:

Balalaika

Bombo

Cajón

Chapchas

Charango

Dhol

Sistrum

Erhu, Guitar, Sitar, Ukulele and Zampoñas.

“Let’s Color … A World Of Music!” From TeachersPayTeachers

http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/chinese-mandarin/color-the-musical-instruments-all-the-way-around-the-world/

This post was originally published in 2014 with a “free E-book offer. If you’re a teacher or parent on a limited budget and want a free Educator’s copy, please e-mail dariamusic at yahoo dot com.

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Posted in Chinese (Mandarin), Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, First Instruments, Hawaiian Music, Hispanic Music, Homeschool Musical Fun, India, Multicultural Music, Simple Instruments

Tagged Balalaika, Bombo, cajon, Chapchas, Charango, childrens music., Coloring Pages, Daria, Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou, Dhol, erhu, Guitar, kids coloring pages, Music for children, musical instruments to color, Sistrum, Sitar, ukulele, unusual percussion, world music with daria, young children and music, zampoñas

Sharing The Culture Of India With Your Children

We’re pleased to have a guest post this month by noted Indian-American Author, Meera Sriram. In this short article Meera shares ways she stays in touch with her birth culture and makes it a welcome and enriching part of her children’s lives.

It’s been almost two decades for me and my husband in a country on the other side of the world. We had our challenges, big and small – navigating through grad school, finding what we liked to do for a living and adapting to new ways of life in the U.S. But little did we realize that the climb in the learning curve was yet to come. The joys of parenthood came with the responsibility of keeping our children aware of our roots in India, and to constantly foster a connection between two diametric continents.
As an effort in that direction, we have been spending most of our summers with family in India. Besides providing great cultural immersion, it also helps my children find answers to why we do certain things the way we do in our home in the U.S. But how do we keep them in touch while we go about our lives here? Food is one way. I often put in the extra effort to learn and prepare traditional recipes besides standard fare. Books have hugely helped us learn about the places and people of India. Holidays and family traditions periodically help us celebrate our culture and customs in fun ways. To add to this list is music. While I come from a family of well-trained classical musicians, my knowledge of Indian classical music is still limited (strange, but that’s a story for another day-:) And since we don’t watch Bollywood, film music is not the staple. However we do expose our children to classical (Carnatic) music and Indian film music now and then. But there are some songs that cannot be boxed into either of these, but have better appealed to their senses. They have also opened up beautiful passages to connect with the music and culture of India. Here are some of them:

Favorite Songs For Sharing With Kids

Both my kids have been soothed to sleep by the comforting and melodious songs in this collection of traditional lullabies by Bombay Jayashri. Interestingly, each song is in a different regional language of India.
Karadi Rhymes was my first find to consciously introduce cultural elements of India to my first born, when she was a toddler. The songs are set to folksy tunes and the lyrics bring out the flavor of the country through simple themes like mangoes, chai and Diwali.

Vaishnava jan to tene (Preview) is a song I often listen to which caught the attention of the kids as well. Interestingly, one of the reasons for this song’s claim to fame is that it was a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi. Maybe this tidbit is why they are fascinated? I’d never know!

Lately, our palette has grown to include fusion music as well, the kind where East meets West. Some recent favorites are A.R. Rehman’s Zariya (Preview) , Maatibaani feat. JoyShanthi (Preview) , Karthick Iyer’s Clown’s junket (Preview) and Shankar Tucker’s Jaane Kaise (Preview) .

Vande Mataram is an eternal favorite at home – a patriotic song that celebrates the diverse landscapes and people of India with amazing visuals that reinforce the love for the land. Here’s a Youtube version of that song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPpSgRqtRc

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Color The Instruments From India!

You can find coloring pages including the dhol drum and the Indian sitar on DARIA’s world music for kids site, in the activity and craft section here:

http://www.dariamusic.com/crafts.php

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Posted in Early Learning With Music, India, Multicultural Music, Uncategorized

Tagged Dhol, favorite songs from India, India, meera sriram, multicultural music, Music of India, sharing culture, Vande Mataram, world music with daria

Make And Play Your Own Dhol Drum

Almost every culture has a special kind of drum to call its own. In Northern India, the dhol is a two-headed drum worn around the neck, often decorated in very beautiful ways. It is played with two beaters (sticks) and can be a fun way of encouraging coordination between right hand and left hand as well as exploring new rhythms or the culture of India.

Supplies

To create a homemade version of a dhol drum, you need a few simple supplies:

Round (cylindrical) cardboard container (from oatmeal, bread crumbs, corn meal, etc.)

Felt, construction paper or poster board (large enough piece to fit around the cylinder).

Duct tape

Piece of sturdy ribbon, bric-brac, old belt or recycled strap from a purse.

2 pencils

2 plastic spoons

Materials for decoration (if desired)

Crayons, markers, stickers, or glitter and glue.

Yarn for tassels

Make Your Own Dhol

Start by cutting a length of ribbon or strap so that the “drum” that will fit comfortably over your child’s head and hang at about stomach height. Duct tape the strap into place onto the cylinder.

Next, cut a length of felt, construction paper or poster board to fit over the cylinder. Decorate it with crayons, markers, glitter and glue or similar materials, if desired.

When you’ve completed your design, tape the felt or paper into place.

Create two beaters for the drum. Since sticks can be a safety hazard with young children, I encourage parents, teachers and caregivers to tape two plastic spoons to unsharpened pencils and use them as beaters. They are the right length for dhol drum beaters and don’t leave any sharp edges exposed.

Tassles?

Many dhol are decorated with colorful tassels. If you want to add some to your drum, simply wind your favorite colors of yarn around a small length of cardboard. Slip the yarn off the cardboard, and tie one side creating the “head” of the tassel. Then cut the strings on the opposite side so they will hang down as fringe.

And attach to your drum!

Playing the Dhol

Allow your child to put the drum “on” and experiment with striking each side with a beater.

Try striking back and forth slowly and then more quickly.