Using Jumbie Jams in the Classroom

• Paul Corbiere
• Posted 5/30/22
• 0 comments

Looking to add a little Caribbean flavor to your classroom without having to purchase a trip to The Islands?

This student instrument is affordable, accessible, and fun! It has become a popular and highly sought-after instrument of my general classroom. In striking it just one time, you are transported by the island sound of the Caribbean. This student-sized steel pan fits right alongside the other instruments in your classroom: drums, hand percussion, Orff instruments, recorders, and ukuleles! It can be featured as a solo instrument or part of the accompaniment.

Once you get one of these (or several!) instruments in your classroom, allow your students some exploratory time. As students try the instrument, remind them:

• Play the pan very gently (!).
• It is always wise to play slowly and steadily.
• Learn in small phrases with lots of repetition, and then combine smaller phrases to create the larger sections of a song.

Hitting too hard is the most common mistake students–and adults–make when playing a steel pan. Striking the instrument too hard will put the pan out of tune with itself (and the rest of the world!). At that point, you will have to have it re-tuned. Luckily, you can ship the instrument back to The Panyard Company and they will re-tune it for you. I have had 4 of these instruments in my classroom for the last 15 years and they are still in tune. Why? We don’t hit hard!!

When students are working on melodies, allow them to work out their sticking patterns – the order in which each hand/mallet strikes the instrument. The tones are laid out in a vastly different way and so students must learn to move around the pan swiftly while not striking the notes too hard. My advice? Keep your hand from crossing over each other. It’s OK to double or even triple notes on one hand (hitting twice or three times).

As students are learning these melodies, try working on melodic fragments and then stringing those fragments into the entire melody. Throughout the process, you may need to go back to a step, sometimes more than once. Make time for this!

Let’s explore an original piece of classroom ensemble music that features the Jumbie Jam steel pan as the lead instrument. Below is the Lead Pan sheet for my piece, Panaman. It includes the chords if you want to add ukulele, guitars, etc., to your arrangement.

This piece, Panaman, allows for pan players to work on getting an even sound, hand to hand. Play the melody in the A section with doubles (two hits per hand – LL RR LL RR etc.). Initially, with younger players, teach this part as quarter-notes (one hit per hand). Then, as they gain confidence by knowing the melody, teach them to double these notes (eighth-notes). Players should listen for the second hit on each double to make sure that the hits are both even. You can create your own accompaniment to the melody by following the chord progression notated above the melody – like a lead sheet.

Interested in additional accompaniment parts for elementary classroom instruments? Contact Paul!

Shop Jumbie Jams

Contributor

Paul Corbiere

Paul Corbière lives in Iowa City, IA, and teaches for the Clear Creek Amana School District in Tiffin, IA, where he is a 4‐5 General Music Teacher. Paul has been a member of the World Music Drumming Faculty since 2001. He is a frequent…

Discover more from Paul