I recently travelled for a day and a half all the way to Giridih, Jharkhand to work with a very cute and talented bunch of kids. I love working with kids of all ages. It keeps me on my toes and sharp. I truly feel that if you can work with kids, you can work with ANY group. Let’s go a little in depth into what promised to be one of the most unique Kids in Rhythm sessions I’ve facilitated.

The first major challenge of working so far away is procuring and transporting the instruments safely and without damage. We very quickly decided to source junk percussion from the vicinity. This would make my life very simple and I was positive that junk percussion group drumming for kids would be just as much fun as any other kids drumming class out there. 

We offered two batches. One was for ages 3-8 years and the other was for ages 9-15 years. The learning goals and method of working with these groups would be vastly different and so two batches were necessary. In fact I’d ideally make batches with closer age ranges but we had to make the best use of limited time and hence this segregation. The younger batch had songs that we’ve rhythm-ified to make learning and drumming easier. This triggers an existing association with the child and also facilitates natural multi-tasking. For the older batch we explored and went into some rhythm theory concepts along with some cool grooves for the old inverted paint buckets we used as instruments.

Check out this video with encapsulates some of the sights and sounds of the kids in rhythm workshop I led

Drumming for child development: As we all know, drumming (especially group drumming) has a lot of benefits on the physiology and psychology of a child. We work on fine and gross motor coordination, limbic independence, stimulation of multiple cortices in the brain, release of serotonin and dopamine, catharsis of subconsciously stored emotional content, self regulation, group dynamics (and etiquette) and so much more. In short, rhythm activities for kids, music and movement for children is far more effective than any medicine out there.

Get in touch with us if you’ve got or know of a group that you’d like us to work with. We could do so over one-off Kids in Rhythm Sessions or ongoing kids drumming classes where we focus on the process more than the product. Needless to say there would always be room for taking drumming up seriously once the foundation is set strongly.

What’s your reason to drum?
Come. Drum. Be One.
Varun Venkit 
Taal Inc.