Desk and Bucket Drumming

• Polina Mann
• Posted 8/11/21
• 0 comments

A Lesson Using Musicplay Online

Suggested Grades: 3-5 

National Core Arts Standards 

#4  Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation. 
#5  Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.  
#10 Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experience to make art. 
#11 Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding. 

Materials

• Drumsticks
• Rubber Pencil Grips (optional)
• Scissors
• Buckets
• Desks
• Musicplay Online Subscription
• Video: Stomp Out Loud

Suggested Teaching Process

Lesson One

• Pass out drumsticks and buckets to the students.
  • If you do not have buckets, desks work as a drumming surface.  
• Worried about extra loud noise? Use rubber pencil grips.
  • Cut them in half.  
  • Place them over the tip of the drumstick. 
  • These drastically reduce the noise. 
• Virtual learners can use wooden spoons or pencils as drumsticks. 
• View Denise Gagne’s video on the introduction to bucket drumming. (Teacher) 
• Demonstrate how to hold the drumsticks.  
• Model how to play each exercise without music. 
• Students echo. 
• Add music.  
• I recommend using exercises in the first lesson through number 14. 

Lesson Two

• Review exercises from lesson one, numbers 1–14.  
• Hand out the student composition worksheet. 
• Students compose eight beat patterns using Quarter and Paired Eighth Note, indicating sticking. 
• Students practice their patterns and then play for the class. 
• Use the accompaniment track provided in step 15.  

Lesson Three

• Students brainstorm different found sounds to use to make music. 
• Use leading questions.
  • Do we always need instruments to create music?  
  • What are some other materials that we can use to make music? 
• Generate a list of materials students can use to make music. 
• Show clips of the movie Stomp Out Loud.  This production demonstrates how everyday household objects become musical instruments. 

Extension

• Use excerpts from Stomp Out Loud in conjunction with any Earth Day lesson using found sounds.   
• Create instruments from everyday objects with students.  

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