Drums Alive!: Drumtastic and Beyond

• Tereasa Evans
• Posted 7/2/21
• 0 comments

Have you ever seen YouTube videos of smiling faces “drumming” on stability balls using drumsticks and wondered WHAT IS THIS!?? Most likely, you found a Drums Alive video! Drums Alive is a unique program combining fitness, music, and movement, and it has been proven to increase health and wellness among its participants.

Drums Alive was founded by Carrie Ekins out of necessity. She suffered a serious hip injury which caused her mobility and regular way of life to come to a halt. While in rehab, she began to “drum” on boxes and other objects to get her upper body moving. Eventually, this led to her desire to research the connections between the effects of drumming, brain activity, and how drumming impacts healing. Out of the darkness, she healed and pioneered a movement-based activity to promote wellness. Thus, the emergence of the whole brain-and-body program was designed as Drums Alive.

Drums Alive can be found in elementary and middle school classrooms, after-school and recreational music and movement centers, fitness centers, and more. It is designed to get the heart pumping, smiles flowing, and increase overall wellness!

What is the Drums Alive program all about?

The Drums Alive program offers many different curriculum and training programs that combine fitness, drumming, music, and educational concepts to enhance physical, social, and emotional wellness. The curriculum and/or training programming includes various “modules” for different participants and applications. The most popular modules for Music Educators and/or Music Therapists are the Drumtastic, Ability Beats, and Rhythm in Motion programs.

Drumtastic

The Drumtastic program is rich with over 100 lessons integrating kinesthetic awareness, cardiovascular conditioning, and following National Core Music Standards.

Lesson objectives include:

• Creating
• Performing
• Responding
• Connecting

And most lessons integrate the following musical concepts:

• Form
• Tempo
• Steady beat/rhythm
• Movement-loco-motor and non-locomotor

Designed for:

• Music, PE, cross-curricular classrooms Grades K-8
• Music therapy for groups and/or individuals
• Recreational music-making for before or after school programs-ages 6 and up

The Drumtastic Curriculum contains many options to fit your budget needs! Let’s decide together:

• How do you like to access your lessons?
• Do you like having all your manipulatives ready to go and accessible?

Many of these factors will help you decide which kit is right for you!

Drumtastic Full Curriculum Kits are the complete instructional kit with over 100 lessons and are offered in multiple formats and add-ons.

This is perfect for the teacher who wants to fully immerse in the Drumtastic programming!

• Curriculum Kit A comes with an online subscription and Kids Beat Vol. 1 digital download.
  • Perks of this Kit — all digitally accessible!
• Curriculum Kit B comes with all the components from Kit A and a Teacher’s Manual with over 100 lesson plans.
  • Perks of this Kit — you get the digital component AND a printed manual containing every lesson plan.
• Curriculum Kit C includes all the components of Kit B plus a Teacher Resource Box with over 300 Activity Skill Cards.
  • Perks of this Kit — you get the digital components, a printed manual containing every lesson plan, AND a resource box containing all of the teaching resources and manipulatives accompanying the lessons. You won’t have to print any off or cut anything out. It’s all ready to use!

Drumtastic Curriculum Mini Kits are a smaller version of the full curriculum, including 15 lesson plans that are taken directly from the full curriculum kits.
The Mini Kits are perfect for the teacher that wants a small taste of what Drumtastic can offer!

• Curriculum Mini Kit A has an online subscription and Kids Beat Vol. 1 digital download.
  • Perks of this Kit — all digitally accessible
• Curriculum Mini Kit B comes with all the components from Kit A and Teacher’s Manual with 15 lesson plans.
  • Perks of this Kit — you get the digital component AND a printed manual containing every lesson plan.

Remind me (you ask): What comes with the online subscription?

Each online subscription includes the following (and remember, each full AND mini kit comes with an online subscription!):

• Access to the Drums Alive website for one year which includes:
  • Over 140 downloadable/streaming film clips and activity demonstrations
  • Choreography videos
  • Music
  • Teaching resources and support
  • Digital download for Kids Beats Volume 1

Now that you know the curriculum you might need, let’s talk about equipment!