African Drumming

“I really liked creating different rhythms and beats.”
(Ainslee G, 6A)

“Learning about the history of the drum and its different parts was interesting.”
(Ava I, 5/6A)

“I enjoyed making different sounds.”
(Bailey W, 5/6A)

“I loved working out a rhythm in my group.”
(Max B, 5A)

Today we had the African Drumming incursion. We learnt about the Djembe drum which is made of wood, rope and animal hide. Some of them had a dot painting on the side of the base, similar to Aboriginal art, and some of them had a carving on them. It’s hollow on the inside and the animal hide is very taught. When you play it you can’t have the base flat on the floor, so we held it between our legs pointing away or towards us, or sat on it while laying the drum on its side. You can flick, scratch or hit the skin. You hit it in the centre for a base or on the side to create a tone or skim your palm across for another kind of sound. We copied the teacher do different combinations of sounds. Then we got to make up a sounds for the syllables in our name. Then in small groups we made up our own combinations and shared with the class.