Drumming campers strike a chord with audiences
You can’t help but tap your toes and move your hands to the beats of the buckets in Heather DiPasquale’s Drumming class. Students sit in a circle, each with a giant bucket turned upside down and sticks in hand as they watch the designated student start off the piece they have been working on since the early days of SCATS.
After observing the first week and again in the final couple of days, there has been an amazing transformation in the level of competence in their abilities. DiPasquale said the students all come from varying degrees of experience. “Most have had some type of music background, some more recent than others,” she said. From a bystander’s perspective, their skill level is quite impressive.
The classes have prepared a number to perform at the dinner banquet for Thursday night and they will also be doing a number with both classes combined.
After working on the class selection, students broke up into smaller groups and were charged with making up a four-measure arrangement. She gave them seven minutes to create a piece, and another five to practice it. Students used all parts of the bucket to create their music. In addition to their rhythms, they note on their papers R for “rim,” St for “stick,” B for “bottom” which is ironically the “top” of the bucket, S for “side,” and F for “foot” which is a move with the foot to prop the bucket up slightly for a unique sound.
Once the alarm went off, DiPasquale called the students back to listen to each other’s new compositions. “I love how they all sounded vastly different and that is the beauty of music,” said DiPasquale.
Another exercise included listening to a music video with two guys making music with an upright piano, and a keyboard and synthesizer. She prepared the class by explaining it is more of an electronic sound; noting it is heavily based on the piano. After observing and listening a few minutes, DiPasquale prompted discussion. “How long were their phrases?” she asked. One student said, “they were a lot longer (than ours).” DiPasquale agreed explaining, “they were twice as long.” She continued to ask, “why did they have earpieces?” Jackson jumped in questioning, “Is it the metronome?” She nodded in agreement stating they need to know where the beat is, so the earpieces assist.
The class completed their time together with the larger piece that both classes will be performing at the banquet. Their final projects will consist of individual 16-measure drum cadences they will have created.
Great lessons are being learned in collaborative composition, independent creativity, and in generating beautiful art. Bravo!