Bucket Drumming FLEX Class: Music Education Beginner (Ages 7-10)

*THERE WILL BE NO LIVE MEETINGS IN THIS CLASS!*

In this 6-week flex class, students will learn and practice rhythmic notation and rhythmic patterns on a bucket drum. In this class, we will learn about hand placement on our drum sticks, how to hold your bucket, different sounds you can make, how to play with one hand and two hands, hand alternation, reading/playing rhythmic notation and reading/playing rhythmic patterns. Throughout the classes, we will build from playing one hand at a time to two hands as we learn different patterns and combinations. Students will learn about the names of the rhythmic notation and the note values as we move through each week and practice. Due to this being a flex class, students are able to practice along at their own pace. This is especially helpful as it allows students to play along without any audio/video delays or the distraction of live playing from others.

Twice a week students will be sent content in the classroom, including videos and activities or practice assignments following the videos. Students can complete the activities and send them via the classroom or show completion of the activities through the approved sites used. Assignments may be recorded responses, worksheets and more featured via the classroom or Nearpod. Students are always welcome to send their own encouraging words or videos in response to other students' video assignments in the classroom!


Week 1: The Bucket: How can we hold this thing? What kind of sounds can we make on the bucket? How do we hold our sticks correctly? Can we alternate hands while playing? We'll learn all of this and more.

Week 2: The Beat (and rhythm): What is steady beat? What is rhythm? How do we know the difference, and how can we play them? We'll learn about why steady beat is important and how to find it. We'll also learn how rhythm is different from the steady beat and we'll try out different rhythms on our buckets. We'll begin learning some rhythmic notation as well.

Week 3: Notation (Part 1): What is a quarter note? What are eighth notes? We'll review and learn what these notations look like and sound like in music. We'll use fun, interactive ways to remember these notations and we'll practice them to a steady beat while continuing practice with hand alternation.

Week 4: Notation (Part 2): What are sixteenth notes? What are sixteenth/eighth note combinations?!? Our notations will get harder to play, but will be so much fun! We'll review notation we've learned previously and continue to learn and practice new notation through playing rhythms. We will continue practice while alternating hands.

Week 5: Soda Rhythms: Let's review our rhythmic notations and learn a new way to remember them! We will practice changing the tempo between slow and fast for some extra challenges.

Week 6: The Wrap-Up: Let's review what we've learned and put everything to practice. Students will be challenged with longer rhythms. Students will use the skills they've learned through practice to play longer, faster and more accurate rhythms.

*Parental consent is required by Outschool for this resource (Nearpod).*

**Please note that students DO NOT need to have a Nearpod account to participate in the Nearpod activities. The teacher will send out a code for lessons that include Nearpod, and this code is entered into the appropriate box on the main Nearpod webpage for students to access that particular lesson. Codes for Nearpod will be posted in the classroom, so be sure to look in the classroom for codes as they are provided! Students will be prompted to fill in their name and an optional nickname, as this just helps the teacher track student progress and take note of what is completed by individual students. Students are more than welcome to create an account if they would like, but this is not a requirement! This website is free.**