Last time I talked about introducing older students to improvisation. I created a new game for the 4th and 5th graders I’m working with now to help them practice their budding improv skills. Most of these students had zero music education prior to my residency, and I followed the steps outlined in this post about teaching improvisation to get them ready for the activity below.
Echo teach the following poem (see video for cadence):
“I play taiko, you play taiko, we don’t take a rest/I play taiko, you play taiko, put us to the test!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8”
Have students say the poem. When they get to the 8-count, one student improvises for the first 4 beats. A different student improvises for the second 4 beats.
Repeat until everyone has had a chance to improvise.
As you can see in the video, I had the kids put the drums in a circle, and I kept a simple straight jiuchi the whole time. These students are true beginners so their solos are simple; they are also on beat and the correct length, which is an excellent result for total newbies (go kids!). For intermediate students, pick up the tempo and/or change to a horse ji. You can also extend the 8-count into a 16-count, doubling each improvisation to 8 beats instead of 4, and encourage students to use a wider variety of beats.
Although I did this with kids, playful adults will enjoy it too. I created an extension of this activity for advanced students, and I’ll post about that next time. Until then, happy teaching!
P.S. It was great to see so many of you at HERbeat last weekend! A huge congratulations to Jen Weir for pulling off such an incredible project, and to all of the Taiko All Stars who were in the show. It was a privilege to be in the audience!