A big challenge when teaching by yourself is the jiuchi. If you play it, many students will copy you rather than playing their part; if you don’t play it, then the group as a whole will have trouble staying on the same pulse.
I’ve developed two methods for introducing the jiuchi, teaching students how to pay attention to it without copying it exactly. The method varies from K-3 to 4th/5th; here’s how I do it with the little ones.
Gradually build in more Play 4 Step 4 patterns until they can do 4-5 in a row.
Have them to do Play 4 Step 4 the whole way around (i.e., each student plays every drum and winds up back at their original drum).
Introduce bachi (covered in a later post).
Repeat steps 1-3 with bachi.
Basically, I play in unison with them for several rounds of a simple pattern they’re comfortable with, and then phase in the jiuchi. When they stop, I ask them if I was playing the same thing as them the whole time. Most of them have noticed that I wasn’t (but stayed with their pattern even when I switched).
This takes place in Week 2, and I return to it in Week 4. With those two introductions, students usually have the understanding they need to listen to and be on beat with the jiuchi without copying it exactly.
Send me an email if you have questions, and happy teaching!