Tag Archives: drums for kids

Love Bucket Drumming? Try Mini-Bucket Drumming!

Do you have a young drummer in the house?

You’ll love this simple but awesome drum craft! It’s based on the idea of bucket drumming – taking an unexpected item like a paint bucket and turning it into a drum.  But instead of buckets, this craft reuses coffee cans and here’s what it looks and sounds like.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle a Coffee Can

Start with a regular coffee can, find two unsharpened pencils and tap away. Or kente clothg drum projectyou can print out one of our drum “skins” to color and personalize with your young drummer.

The design we’ve created is based on kente cloth, and each color is symbolic of a trait like beauty and strength.

Two Beaters, Two Heads or Use Your Hands

Try tapping the drum with both sides of the unsharpened pencil. Each will create a different sound. Notice that most coffee cans have a metal side and a plastic one as well. Both sides will also offer a different tone when played. Need more ideas for beaters? Check out our MYO drum beater post below.

rhythm tree playing tubeDrum Roll, Please!

A great way to develop motor skills is learning to create a drum roll. Try this by tapping – slowly at first, but consistently – left stick, right stick, etc. Start slowly and build your speed for an impressive sounding drum roll!

Bang on the Drum All Day

Here are some playing tips and suggestions:

Tap with your hand

Play free form to your favorite music

Tap to the beat of your favorite music

Make several drums and play them together

Make a DIY bongo drum set and try hand drumming (activity pdf below).

Find other objects to add to a drum kit

Pots and Pans?

The classic image of a child at play with drums is one of playing pots and pans. I wwdop - too cool!like to caution parents here that the sound from striking a metal pot with a wooden spoon can be potentially damaging to a child’s hearing – or a parent’s sanity.

Instead of a wooden spoon and metal pots and pans, try cardboard boxes, plastic bowls or containers. If you have a washboard, break that out, too and play if with spoons, a whisk or a wooden spoon.

And – by all means…rock on!

Links and Resources

Kente Drum Coloring Page https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kente-Cloth-For-A-Drum-Craft-Coloring-Page-4248662

playing bongosKente Drum Activity on TPT https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kente-Cloth-African-Drum-Craft-3525491

What Do The Colors in Kente Cloth Mean? https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kente-Cloth-What-Do-The-Colors-Mean-4250185

MYO Bongo Drum  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Latin-American-Instruments-Make-And-Play-Bongo-Drums-1430615

MYO washboard post http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/babies-and-music/play-a-washboard-with-your-child/

MTO Drum Beater http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/classroom-music/make-a-little-drum-beater-for-a-big-drum/

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Posted in African Music, Classroom Music, Family Fun, First Instruments, Homeschool Musical Fun, Music and Hearing, Musical Crafts, Simple Instruments

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Make An Irish Drum – Tutorial Free This Week!

Need a last minute St. Patrick’s Day craft?  You’ll love to make and play this easy Irish drum. And learn a bit about it’s history and culture as well.

To get your free copy, just head over to my TeachersPayTeachers store, where’s Screen shot 2017-03-15 at 1.38.20 PMit’s marked down to “0” until March 19th. And while you’re there – would you kindly follow me on TPT to get monthly notices of what’s new and other musicals freebies and goodies you might like. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Irish-Drum-Make-and-Play-Your-Own-Bodhran-and-Tipper-2410657

Don’t have time to get the tutorial?  Here’s an older post that tells you all about the bodhrán (pronounced bow-ron) drum.

http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/uncategorized/make-your-own-bodhran-irish-drum/

Wishing you have a happy, healthy and green St. Patrick’s Day!

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Posted in Celtic Music, Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, First Instruments, Homeschool Musical Fun, Multicultural Music, Simple Instruments

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What Was That Drum Seen In Moana?

Screen shot 2017-03-02 at 4.00.45 PM

Lots of young children and those of us who are kids at heart have fallen in love with the latest Disney animated film set in the Pacific Islands, called Moana.  If you haven’t seen it yet; I promise, no spoilers here!

While enjoying the film, music-lovers will notice a unique drum makes a brief appearance and helps our young heroine discover an important aspect of the Pacific Island Slit Drumhistory of her people.  To most Westerns eyes, this sideways, longer wooden drum may look a bit unusual.  Were you wondering what it was?  Although we don’t get a good look at it, it’s most likely inspired by the slit drums or a log drums found throughout the Pacific Islands.

The drum pictured above is very similar to the one seen in the movie.  Made in Papau, New Guinea, this elaborately carved slit drum is placed on two wooden rests and played by striking the top (open) area.  Unpainted and left it’s natural color, the inner carved area is rubbed with white lime, making the beautiful traditional designs stand out.  You’ll notice lots of similarities between the artwork and the tattoos in the movie and the carvings seen on the drum here!

Although you can’t walk into a museum and see this drum first-hand, you can check out it’s complete information page on the Brooklyn Museum website, where it is part of an “Arts of the Pacific Islands.”  You can also check out the link below that shares another similar drum from Tokelau, three islands that are north of New Zealand and East of Australia.  The Wikipedia page on the music of Tokelau has some very helpful background about this drum as part of communal singing and dancing rites and rituals, used to not only bring the people of the island together but to preserve and share ancestral history, just like we see in this latest movie about a strong young woman finding her way and saving her people!

Slit DrumIntrigued by this type of drum and want to share it with your child?  There are definitely kid size slit drums; like the one pictured here, that any child can use to rock their world!

Links and Resources

Complete Drum Description From The Brooklyn Museum
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/66604

Brooklyn Museum’s Arts of the Pacific Islands” Exhibition
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/collections/23

Slit Drums And Music Of Tokelau
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Tokelau

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Posted in First Instruments, Hawaiian Music, Music And Community, Simple Instruments

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Make A Little Drum Beater For A Big Drum!

kids playing pueblo drumNovember is Native American Heritage month and it’s a great time to step right up and play a big drum!

Whether it’s a pow-wow drum, a pueblo drum (as seen here) or another drum you have, you’ll need a special stick to play that drum. And here’s how you can make an easy version, perfect for small hands with big hearts!

Pencil Mini-Drum Beaters -Materials Needed

One pencil per child

Colorful electrical or washi tape

Pipe cleaners (optional)

Feathers (optional)

pencil drum beatersStart with colorful (unsharpened) pencils. Wrap the pencil side with the electrical or washi tape and add feathers with pipe cleaners if desired.

These smaller beaters are the perfect size for young children to hold and will make it easier for them to tap or play a drum.

Playing Any Drum

Use your drum beater to play a frameless pow-wow drum (instructions below) or tap out a beat on any drum you might have around the classroom or house.

Don’t have a drum handy? No problem, I suggest you find a round container, like a sturdy laundry hamper or large plastic container and improvise a drum. Overturned pots and pans will work as well, but can be really loud and possibly have an adverse effect on young children’s hearing.

Playing A Pow-Wow Drum

pencil beater on drumTo play a Native American pow-wow drum, each drummer will need one beater.  The goal is to play in unison, with everyone’s beater hitting the drum head at the same time.  This can be a wonderful way to teach cooperation and listening skills as the sound of the drum is amazing and powerful when everyone strikes together!

Want to hear a real pow-wow drum and a pow-wow drum song.  Check out the Starfeather Group who you can hear in the links below.

Can you play along to those powerful songs?

Links and Resources

pow wow drumHear a Pow-wow Drum  http://www.dariamusic.com/drum.php

Make a (Frameless) Pow-Wow Drum  http://www.dariamusic.com/make_Drum.php

Color a Pow-wow Drum – Printable and Online http://www.dariamusic.com/drum.php

You are welcome At A Native American Pow-Wow (Post on Pow-Wow Etiquette) http://multiculturalkidblogs.com/2014/11/02/native-american-pow-wow/

Make A Native American Turtle Rattle From Recycled Materials https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Native-American-Turtle-Shell-Rattle-Craft-Using-Recycled-Materials-600715

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Posted in Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, First Instruments, Homeschool Musical Fun, Multicultural Music, Musical Crafts, Native American Music

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Doum – beka- Doum-beka – Doum! Middle Eastern Drums!

doumbek imageMusic is a great way to explore the world with your kids. If your cultural heritage is from the Middle East, doumbek and darbuka drums are probably part of the soundtrack of your life. If you’re adding music to your family’s fun or studying that region, then this easy-to-play drum is a great first instrument for any child.

Doumbeks and Darbukas

Both the doumbek and darbuka are goblet shaped played throughout the Middle boy and darbukaEast, Turkey and North Africa. There are lots of names for each drum and plenty of variations for the spelling of each name. For doumbeks, you might see “dumbec”, “dumbek” or “doumbec”.  Darbuka style drums are also called debuka, dumbelek tablah, tarabuka and toumperleki.

Historians think that these drums date back to Ancient Babylonia and that the name comes from the Arabic word “darba”, meaning “to strike”.

How Do You Play?

little girl plays darbukaOne of these simple Middle Eastern drums, there are three basic sounds. The “doum” sound comes from striking the drum in the center. Tapping the drum near the edge produces a higher sound called a “tek”. Tapping then muting the drum creates a third sound called a “pa”.

What If You Don’t Have a Drum?

Don’t have a drum? Although it may not sound exactly the same, you can also tap on a round container in these three different ways and make all the basics sounds you might hear on a doumbek or darbuka. You’d be surprised how good a “recycled drum” may sound when using even the most basic material found around your home or garage!

doumbek black and white imageColor A Doumbek!

Although some are plain, many doumbeks and goblet drums have beautiful folk or mosaic patterns that wrap around the body of the drum. In the coloring page below you can create your own colorful Middle Eastern drum.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Middle-Eastern-Drums-Doumbek-Background-Coloring-Page-2049118

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Posted in Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, Homeschool Musical Fun, Multicultural Music, Simple Instruments

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