Drumming Club

                                                             Making the Drum Sticks

Drum sticks are most commonly made from woods such as hickory, maple and oak. Standard lengths for sticks are around 15-16 inches. We made our sticks out of wooden dowels. The children had a chance to use some hand tools and the power bench sander(that was a popular tool)! They cut, sanded, and customized their sticks with hockey tape grips. Some children also used the wood burning kit to go a step further and put their initials on their sticks. Throughout the classes we had many stick casualties, due to soft wood and some heavy tapping!

 

                                                                       Drumming

At the start of the first class the children were asked what they wanted to learn from the club? Many said that they wanted to learn how to play the drums! I explained to them that it would take a lot of work to learn to play the drums, and that the objective of the club was to introduce simple beats, show them some different drum patterns, teach them some drumming techniques and to have a lot of fun. And that is what we did! We worked on timing, tempo, sound and even did some fun tricks, like stick flipping and bucket lifts for a bigger bass sound!

Club date: October 2015

Drumming instructors: Mr. Bordush, Mr. Doty and Mr. Battle