The Magic of Rhythm Instruments

Many teachers struggle with trying to raise Pre-school and Kindergarten age children's musical awareness and expressiveness. This article examines the use of rhythm instruments, such as rhythm sticks, shakers sand blocks, and bells, to do this, instead of singing. While the process of singing is very complex for young children in that they must remember the words and the notes, using rhythm instruments can be made fun and simple by using a variety of techniques. Some of these techniques are explained, such as playing along with familiar tunes with different lyrics ("This is the Way We Play Our Sticks" to the tune of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"), playing games where the children repeat the teacher, telling animal stories where different instruments symbolize different animals (sand blocks hit on the floor become dinosaur footsteps), and pretending the instruments are everyday items (the tambourine becomes a steering wheel). All of these processes are exciting for the children, while at the same time they will increase the children's awareness and expressiveness of music.

This article is from the October 2006 edition of Teaching Music