Darla Hanley's Music Room
Creative Teaching for Students of Today (& Tomorrow) PK-8
Today’s Teaching Strategy: Drums In a Line
(Instrumental Improvisation)
Upper Elementary/Middle (4-8)
This teaching strategy is all about improvisation—with structure and support. It goes with Trombone Shorty’s “Shortyville” because of its solid percussive foundation and awesome horns.
The track is available on multiple streaming audio platforms. (Like many of my teaching strategies, you should feel free to find other audio tracks to anchor the learning experience using music that works in your setting or new tracks to simply “mix it up.”)
Hi! I’m Darla, an experienced PK-12 music educator, college professor, and former Berklee College of Music Dean looking to connect with teachers, parents/caregivers, and others seeking to advance creative music making for today’s students—and their teachers. In Darla Hanley’s Music Room you will find teaching strategies, advice and teaching tips, playlists, and more.
Drums In a Line
Prepare the classroom with a single line of chairs “snaking” around the room with a bucket drum and 2 drumsticks in front of each chair. Have students sit anywhere in the line when they arrive.
ProTIP: At this point, it’s essential that students are not in a circle or standing across from each other to eliminate peer influence. The more the line of chairs “snakes around” the better (lol).
ProTIP: Any type of drum (or other classroom percussion instrument) will work for this teaching strategy, so use what is available.
Today we are going to improvise rhythms with a track called “Shortyville” by Trombone Shorty. What does it mean to improvise in music? (Music made on-the-spot, usually in a way that conforms to certain stylistic norms but not prescriptive; a personal (and spontaneous) artistic expression)
This artist has a musical instrument as his name! What is the instrument? (Trombone). What instrument family does the trombone belong to? (Brass)
Everyone will play the macrobeat (quarter note pulse). When it is your time to improvise, you will create rhythms on your drum that fit the style and groove of the music. Remember to use rhythms you know, add some rests to give it phrases and space, and play what feels and sounds good to you.
You get to improvise over 4 measures. Once your improvisation time is up, you return to playing the macrobeat and the next person in the line improvises. We will keep going down the line until everyone has a turn.
ProTIP: Ask younger students (grades 4-5) to include specific rhythms they have been learning in their improvised solos to provide more guidance and structure—and encourage older students (grades 6-8) to add expressive elements such as dynamics and accents to make the difficulty level more sophisticated and developmentally appropriate.
Play the recording, direct everyone to play the macrobeat, and cue the first soloist to begin improvising.
EXTEND the Learning:
Have students form a circle and perform the macrobeat and 4-measure improvised solos in turn around the ring—with the recording.
Have students form two lines facing each other and “trade” 4-measure improvised solos down the line with the recording (i.e., all students play the macrobeat while the first student on an end improvises followed by the person across from them improvising, then back to the second person in the original line, the person across from them, etc.). All students continue to play the macrobeat when it is not their time to improvise.
Encourage students to try to match the person they are facing—but not copy them. Listen closely to the rhythms used by the person across from you and include some of those rhythms in your improvised solo.
ProTIP: Asking students to “match” improvised offerings requires them to focus on, listen to, and analyze the specific rhythms used by another soloist to be able to include some of those in their solo.
🎵 Trombone Shorty “Shortyville” Link to Track on Spotify
Materials
Bucket Drums and Drumsticks
Learning Targets
Improvise, Play, Listen*, Analyze*
Learning Outcomes
Respond to improvise rhythms that fit the style and feel of a recorded track
Create 4-measure rhythmic solos
Perform original improvised solos with percussion instruments
Assessment
Formal Observation/Summative Assessment
*These learning targets only relate to the EXTEND the Learning part of this teaching strategy.
Thanks for checking this out. If you use this teaching strategy, be sure to leave a comment to let me know how it resonates with your students!