{"id":6508,"date":"2022-10-27T15:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T22:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/?p=6508"},"modified":"2025-02-22T00:10:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T08:10:39","slug":"the-deafening-drums-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2022\/10\/27\/the-deafening-drums-debacle\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DEAFENING DRUMS DEBACLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

You walk through the middle school hallways and hear a \u201cthump, thump, thump.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0As you turn the corner towards the grade 5 wing, the sound starts to crescendo. You begin to follow this strange noise.<\/p>\n

Thump, clack, thumpity thump. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is this sound coming from?\u201d you wonder. Is it a jack hammer? No, too rhythmic. Is it my neighbour using the leaf blower at 6:00 am again? No, too percussive. Is it a giant walking on the roof? No, it\u2019s more of a \u201cthump, thump, click, clack\u201d than a \u201cfee-fi-fo-fum.\u201d<\/p>\n

You follow the sound out of curiosity, covering your ears as it only gets louder and louder. After turning some corners and weaving your way through the middle schoolers swarming the halls, you finally reach the source of the noise.<\/p>\n

You find yourself in front of a grade 5 classroom. When you open the door and take a step, your eyes are met with a swarm of orange buckets littering the floor, wooden drumsticks bouncing up and down atop the surface of the buckets, and bright-eyed students grasping and controlling the drumsticks with focus and thrill.<\/p>\n

The music teacher appears to be simultaneously smiling at her students while rubbing her temples.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Learning Loudly<\/h2>\n

In grade 5 music, one of our units is bucket drumming. We bring out the classic Home Depot buckets and some drumsticks and have a blast playing grooves, fills, and various rhythms.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of my favourite units to teach.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one problem: When 24 eleven-year-olds are whacking 5-gallon buckets at the same time, it gets incredibly loud. <\/em><\/p>\n

Before the new middle school music room, I travelled from classroom to classroom teaching music in the grade 5 homeroom classes. I started the year with \u201cquieter\u201d instruments to try to accommodate the neighbouring classes, but when the music room was not ready as early as we first anticipated, I had no choice but to move onto the drumming unit.<\/p>\n

So, there I was twice a week, lugging big stacks of buckets from class to class<\/strong><\/span> (thankfully there were always students eager to help!).<\/p>\n

In these non-soundproofed classrooms, the drumming was even louder than it should have been. The sound of drumming could be heard from every corner of the school; I\u2019m grateful my colleagues didn\u2019t excommunicate me at this point! <\/span><\/p>\n

Although it was loud, it was fun. The students were engaged and enthusiastic. The students learned about dynamics, tempo, and rhythm.<\/p>\n

The following year, the new middle school music room was home to our bucket drumming unit. The soundproofing helped limit the spread of the noise quite a bit, which was a huge win.<\/p>\n

However, 24 sets of wooden sticks batting against hard plastic still resulted in the drumming often drowning out the music we were trying to play along with. We took turns playing in groups, we practiced playing \u201cpianissimo\u201d (very soft), and some students wore noise cancelling headphones.<\/p>\n

Yet, nothing was working quite <\/em>enough.<\/p>\n

Two of my classes were going to be performing bucket drumming at POL Night in the \u201cechoey\u201d gym. I needed to find a way to ensure the buckets weren\u2019t too overpowering.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n