Feel confident to express what’s in your heart rhythmically
Watch River Red Gum performance
When we focus building our rhythm skills it can overlap into many parts of our music making. Our djembe solos and xylophone melodies begin to increase in colour, tone, excitement and deeper musicality. My passion is for all of us to experience music in our life and by teaching these skills and techniques in Positive Music teacher training programs, I can help teachers develop the skills they need to successfully deliver drum circle programs for their community.
By focusing on the basics of music and bringing these elements into our drum practice and playing, it’s like planting little seeds of knowledge. We begin to understand the creative force and how sound and rhythm play together as a relationship. Knowledge and experience of this helps to elevate our creativity, builds our confidence, our desire to connect, explore and express what’s in our heart blossoms. There’s more to music than just notes on a page, right? Everyone is so unique and music can reflect this… yes?
Of course, we need to water those seeds with patience, guidance, nurture and care. I’m a huge advocate in improvisation, that’s one reason why I love facilitating drum circles. However, we need to grow our musical skills enough to rhythmically express what we feel. Build on this language. Now this depends, how far we would like to take this? When we begin the journey of improvisation, we’re really asking our self to be open to those elements that may feel uncomfortable… but that’s another conversation, I’ll keep for another time.
Simple rhythms and space within the music
I wanted to share with you my new classroom percussion ensemble music called River Red Gum! I’m new to composing! By having a background as a drummer, most of the music I have composed is highly rhythmical. Even though the melodies and untune percussion rhythms in this percussion song are simple, they are highly rhythmical, allowing the music to move forward with excitement and groove. This is a lovely classroom recourse to support any drummer, classroom teacher or drum student who are looking to improve timing, build rhythmical and percussion knowledge.
The percussion song is all about collaborating with each instrument – how all these rhythms and melodies work together beautifully as harmonious relationships.
All instrument parts in River Red Gum complement and enhance each instrument part, bringing together each player’s part in the music-making process. A rich tapestry of woven rhythms.
Let’s take a look at River Red Gum and how you can add this or parts of the percussion song to your repertoire.
Tuned ensemble percussion
River Red Gum includes soprano, alto and bass xylophone as the tuned percussion. The alto xylophone introduces the sweet melody and throughout the song it plays the roles of main melody and supporting role to the soprano solo’s and vice versa for the soprano, supporting the alto. They play a lovely relationship. Then we have the bass xylophone melody keeping it all together with the 6/8 long bell clave feel – just like a mother in the family, supporting all melodies and all untuned percussion rhythms.
Drums galore and hand-held percussion
Just like in a facilitated drum circle, all instruments play a part in the music-making. Most classroom music educators have a floor tom, djembe, conga, bell, triangle and possibly sleigh bells in their classroom. All of these instruments create beautiful textures and colours when composed.
Once again, the deepest drum pitch plays the supporting role, which is the floor tom. Simple rhythms but boy do they pack a punch. The floor tom grounds the percussion song and supports all other rhythms. Though when it comes after the djembe solo, the floor tom creates more energy and tension with beautiful rhythmical phrases. A delight for the new djembe part.
The djembe and conga rhythms have a beautiful rhythmical dialog together, allowing the rhythms to sit together in harmony. There are a couple of rhythms that each hand drum plays throughout each section of the song. And of course (my time spent in Africa studying from master djembe drummers) I wanted to include a simple yet powerful djembe solo, a lovely mixture of tones, basses and slaps, which is supported by a lovely conga rhythm underneath.
Let’s add in more textures to the percussion ensemble song! After the djembe solo, the introduction of the African go-go bell, triangle and sleigh bells. The African go-go bell is connected to the 6/8 clave feel. I use a technique that brings out a variety of sounds from the bell. I teach this bell technique and djembe, conga and in my teacher trainings for music educator.
Example of 6/8 clave in percussion song
All of these rhythms and parts are taught with my online River Red Gum workshop.
If you’re interested in the online workshop, please contact me and I will help you to gain access.
Learn the Hart of Drum Circle Facilitation and help build stronger communities through the power of group drumming and music-making.
Would you like to learn how to bring people of all ages together, connecting and building a sense of community through rhythm and music-making? For more information on Positive Music teacher trainings, please contact me today.
Have you found this post helpful?
If you found this post helpful, please help support my blog and music-making by purchasing from the store, student resource or sheet music. Or leave a comment in the comment box below, so others can find this post helpful. Every bit helps.
Thanks so much for your love and support, it means a lot and inspires me to continue helping people like you.