3 minute read
PROMOTING WELLBEING THROUGH BODY PERCUSSION
This term has presented many challenges to music teachers. One of these is a need to promote student and teacher wellbeing, after months of various degrees of isolation and anxiety. Another is how to deliver meaningful music lessons with limited resources, often in non music teaching rooms whilst maintaining social distancing.
Throughout the summer Beat Goes On have delivered online body percussion CPD sessions and workshops for music hubs, arts organisations and educators across the world. We’ve aimed to equip participants with fun, engaging activities that draw upon participants’ own creative ideas and our many years experience delivering in-person workshops. As a former cast member of STOMP I ask how we can develop the visual element of rhythms, so that they look as good as they sound, and get bodies moving (also promoting physical wellbeing). Based on my collaborations with Pie Corbett of Talk4Writing I also explore the rhythmic potential of words, and how they can be used as a stimulus for composition.
Below are three activities that explore these areas. There are video demonstrations of each one. The ‘sound sequence’ activity is taken from my body percussion book Body Beats.
1-8 sound sequence (inspired by STOMP’s ‘Pipes’ routine)
In 8 small groups, each group is given a number between 1-8 and chooses one percussive sound to play on their number, resulting in 8 different sounds.
Start with everyone whispering the numbers 1-8 as a group in a loop.
Build the rhythm up, one group at a time, until all are playing.
Ask only groups with odd numbers, even numbers, prime numbers etc to continue, to create new rhythmic patterns.
Vary dynamics and tempi.
Shutting eyes can help to internalise the feel of the pulse. Keep this going for as long as you wish. I once did with this with a class for 25 minutes, and when the finished they commented on how happy, calm and peaceful they felt.
Here are a couple of grooves that work nicely together. The first is a variation of a ‘clave’ rhythm (a key element of Latin American music, that I explore in Body Beats). This groove has a lovely calming feel when performed at a steady tempo and provides positive momentum when performed faster.
Try building this groove up gradually:
just the stomps for four bars
add the click for four bars
add the clap for four bars full groove
The second groove is an example of the use of the rhythmic potential of words as a stimulus for composition. To model the idea, I’ve used the dictionary definition of ‘well-being’.
Students can of course create their own rhythmic sentences, perhaps with a theme of ‘my silver lining of lockdown’ or similar, and then develop these into body percussion routines.
When playing around with these two grooves you could try:
When playing around with these two grooves you could try:
clave (A) x 4 bars, wellbeing (B) x 4 bars, A and B x 8 bars, repeat all 16 bars
just the words on their own x 4 bars, just the body percussion on its own x 4 bars, together x 8 bars
varying dynamics, tempo, body timbres
giving students opportunities to lead the ensembles, using visual signals to cue and play with the above elements.
I hope you enjoy exploring these ideas with your students (or just for yourself ). All of these activities are adaptable to suit all ages.
Ollie Tunmer is a former Stomp cast member, founder of Beat Goes On, and author of Body Beats. @BeatGoesOnUk
Video demonstrations of all these grooves can be found in the main Primary Music Magazine desktop article
