Category Archives: Percussion

2017/6 Group exercise – Key stage 2

Following on from the last post about the beanbag/percussion game, I tried the same thing with the next class who were Year 3 and 3 (aged 7 and 8). I moved through the preliminary steps more swiftly, and added an extra … Continue reading

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91/100 The Christmas Nativity – The Big Day

And it all went splendidly! It felt like a proper, informal, on-the-edge of chaos performance, and all the more enchanting for that. It had its “moments”, but whispered instructions from strategically placed staff at crucial moments prevented any major crises. … Continue reading

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82/100 A New Way to be Scared – Handbells

Who would have thought that handbells could be so scary? It all looks so easy…  here’s a “flashmob” in Hawaii which you can listen to on youtube: (it’s only three minutes long) I love that resonant sound. I used to … Continue reading

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80/100 Percussion Band at Christmas

  I’m trying to arrange percussion parts for the Nativity/carol service at the end of term, and I will have NO TIME to practice with the children until the last few days before the event…. notice the state of my … Continue reading

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68/100 Mexican Wave (3) – Clearing up the Instruments

The “Mexican Wave” idea is proving to be a fertile area for posts! Last week, I faced the usual problem of ending a lesson with thirty children, each holding an instrument. There are various methods of achieving this without some kind … Continue reading

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60/100 The Rhythm Clock

A rhythm clock is a pattern of 12 rhythms arranged in a circle like the hours on a clock. Like this:   You can project this image on a whiteboard, and then start all kinds of fun learning activities. First … Continue reading

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51/100 Recycling – listen and copy percussion game

I make no apologies for recycling an old post here – this site has been up and running for about 5 years and I’ve reached the point where I have forgotten more ideas than I realised. I was tracking back … Continue reading

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41/100 Milk bottle ganza/shakers

Have you spotted that school milk is now being delivered to the infant classes in mini-sized plastic bottles? It won’t take long for me to collect a class set of shakers. They need a decent amount of washing to get … Continue reading

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