Summer has finally arrived. Here in Minnesota, that means we are guaranteed at least 3 weeks of sunshine before it starts to snow again.
If you are like me, during the school year you mentally keep a list of things you want to incorporate or improve in your teaching. Kind of a “music teaching related things I want to do but don’t have time to focus on because the school year is so crazy, so I’ll optimistically plan to do them this summer” type of list. And if you teach K-12 general music, you invariably teach drumming of some sort during the year, so maybe you want to be a better drum teacher to your students come this fall.
I’m good at making the list, but I’m less good at following through with all the goals on it during the summer. If getting more comfortable with percussion is one of your goals this summer, I’m here to help. Here are 5 free resources to improve your comfort level with drumming.
1. Play this. Get a pair of sticks, something to hit (a drum, phone book, pillow, mouse pad) and play along with this video.
If you are like me, during the school year you mentally keep a list of things you want to incorporate or improve in your teaching. Kind of a “music teaching related things I want to do but don’t have time to focus on because the school year is so crazy, so I’ll optimistically plan to do them this summer” type of list. And if you teach K-12 general music, you invariably teach drumming of some sort during the year, so maybe you want to be a better drum teacher to your students come this fall.
I’m good at making the list, but I’m less good at following through with all the goals on it during the summer. If getting more comfortable with percussion is one of your goals this summer, I’m here to help. Here are 5 free resources to improve your comfort level with drumming.
1. Play this. Get a pair of sticks, something to hit (a drum, phone book, pillow, mouse pad) and play along with this video.
When you are bored with that one, move on to these:
Goal: Make your hands work better when playing with sticks. This will help you identify poor technique in your students and help to diagnose when technique is interfering with rhythm and vice versa.