Body Percussion Teaches Rhythm and More
Why Body Percussion
There is a cadence in my voice calling the commands. There is a beat on each student’s body that gives them muscle memory and regular memory in participation. They are feeling the beat, playing the beat and coordinating it both with audio and visual with their classmates.
We start by making a little wall with our left hand over our right knee. Then we use our right hand to pat our knee, the “wall” and back to our knee.
“Right, up down.” (Spoken in 3 quarter beats)
Then we reverse it. Right-hand makes the wall above our left knee so we can pat our knee, the “wall” and back to the knee.
“Left, up-down.” (Another 3 quarter beats.)
Then right-hand raises its palm up to the right shoulder.
The left hand follows with palm up to the left shoulder as the right-hand returns to the knee, palm up. Then left-hand returns to the knee, palm up before we flip right hand over to knee, and then LH hand finally flips over to knee.
“Right, Left, Open, Open, flip, flop.”
6 counts total on this part.
Keeping the beat steady and slow, we practice as a group until it sounds like only one person is doing it. We love to practice with our eyes closed so they can hear the uniformity.
Once a student can do this, the application to their rhythm in their pieces paper becomes easier. When they can first learn to play it on their lap, right hand on the right leg, left hand on left leg then they are more confident playing it on the keys. This truly works. And it’s fun.
Games make learning rhythm so much fun
Body percussion is a game that challenges us to see ‘how much faster can we take this beat’ before it begins to fall apart. They learn the value of steadiness and uniformity.
Students report practicing in their cars after lessons and before returning to class again. Parents tell me they’ve had to still their child’s percussion in church or ask for them to practice ‘outside’
instead of in the car during a long wait at a fast food drive-through. So now I warn my students to not drive their parents crazy with it.
This week I had one student volunteer, “my teacher probably feels the same way as some of the kid’s parents because I taught all my friends at recess. We can’t stop doing it in school.” Is there any doubt that the fun we have small group lessons can really teach rhythm? My students are turning around and teaching their siblings and school friends at recess how to find the beat and keep it together.
If you’d like to see a short video of us practicing this in class, drop me a note here hello@CoralieHarless.com and I will be happy to share it with you.
