Ocean Drum

I have blogged before on ocean drums, effusively singing their praises. My opinion hasn't changed. This is an instrument with a real wow factor. My earlier post gives you some background information along with my thoughts on the pictorial-versus-plain argument. (Personally I find the illustrations, along with the name of the instrument, too leading. Children are quite capable of deciding for themselves what a given sound suggests. Feeding them ideas before they have a chance to develop their own does nothing to foster their originality or listening skills.)

In the earlier post I mentioned the calming effect of the drum on over-excited children and on those with a short attention span. I repeat that now because I continue to find it a very useful feature.

I have seen these drums on the internet for under £10 (pounds sterling) for a 10" (25cm) model. I don't know what the quality is like but the picture doesn't fill me with confidence - the only good thing about poor quality items is that they tend not to last very long. And I would be inclined to go bigger. Remo make excellent, physically robust, ocean drums of 12", 16" and 22" diameters. If I were buying for a school I would go for the 16" size: small enough to be manageable but big enough to get the impact of all the ball bearings rolling around inside like waves on the beach. My own drum is a 22" example, without the kitsch illustrations. The main problems with a 22" drum are cost and storage: if you can't keep it somewhere safe between use you risk throwing away a lot of money. But it is truly awesome and doubles as a prop in drama situations.

Playing techniques: The usual thing to do is hold the drum horizontally and tilt it so that the ball bearings roll around inside making the characteristic 'waves on the beach' sound. A very dramatic and thunderous effect can be created by holding the instrument firmly in front of, and parallel to, the chest and shaking it vigorously back and forth. This causes the ball bearings to beat with force against both heads of the drum.

A more serene activity is to have one person lie on the ground and two others hold the ocean drum, clear skin down, a few inches above their supine colleague's head. The effect is like lying just below the surface of the water, watching bubbles and foam on the surface. Very calming, it is particularly impressive with the 22" drum. Sadly, I once left my own drum for some time in a cold attic with, unknown to me at the time, a leaky roof. The ball bearings rusted so now my ocean resembles the North Sea rather than the Mediterranean. Store yours in a dry, reasonably ventilated place at room temperature.

The video below shows the drum played very expressively. It can also be played as a conventional hand drum or with a soft-headed beater, often supplied with the instrument and pictured above. The sound is reminiscent of a snare drum.

Seeds on stony ground?

I did two more woodwind demonstrations this week which passed without a hitch. The Pink Panther theme always goes down well, as does The Simpsons music. I hold up 8-year old Lisa as an example of someone who's done a lot of practice to reach such a high standard. (I suspect, in his time, Bleeding Gums Murphy has done a lot of something too but I don't go there.) The clarinet brought some surprising responses because a character in Sponge Bob apparently plays it. Note to self: watch more TV.

One year 7 class remains. I couldn't fit it into my schedule. When I asked about it I was told it was the special needs class: ten students, three helpers. I would be unlikely to get any takers but they would probably enjoy the experience.

Straight after that I found myself chatting with the guitar tutor about a student he had who was making little or no progress and seemed ill-equipped to grasp even the basics. What to do? So I told him of my time in a special school where for some kids even assembling a saxophone with the crook (curvy bit) pointing the right way took some weeks to crack. There were no future Galways, Charlie Parkers or Naftule Brandweins among them but there were improvements in their co-ordination, behaviour and appreciation of music. On top of that they were getting one-to-one with an adult who was neither parent nor class teacher and needy kids just love attention.
So now the guitar teacher is determined to enjoy his student on the child's own level and I'm ready to perform for kids in the bottom set and broaden their horizons in any way I can. But first it's the half term holiday and hooray for that.

The significance of the title? My memory of the Bible is poor: it was compulsory to attend church on Sundays at my old school and there were various assemblies led my well-meaning hypocrites. This 'Christianity as a tool of the Establishment' was guaranteed to foster rebellion against organised religion in all its forms. However I do remember something about the waste of scattering seeds on stony ground. That may be true for gardeners but when it comes to people no ground is so hard that you can't plant something.

What is an ocean drum?

Some years ago I helped to set up a 'music and movement' project with the grand ambition of bringing sessions to a 'culturally deprived' rural area. At least that's what it said on the funding application: one has to choose the language and buzz-phrases of the moment if one wants to get the gig. Our client base included adults with learning difficulties and Downs Syndrome and I wanted to get satisfyingly tactile and chunky instruments, both for them and for the other beneficiaries of the scheme. Amongst the kit I amassed was a 22" ocean drum made by Remo.

As a child did you ever roll marbles or pebbles around on a metal tray? There is something fascinating about the way in which the weight shifts as they roll or slide about the surface. And of course the sound. To be honest, and with apologies to Remo and other manufacturers and suppliers to the music stores of the western world, it never really said 'ocean' to me. Even now it's a name that rankles slightly - too literal and too leading.

The main problems with a tray of marbles from an educational point of view are firstly, it's not especially portable and secondly, there's a strong chance of spillage and all that entails. Enter the ocean drum, the shape of a bodhran but with a skin on both sides. There are dozens of ball bearings inside the drum and these roll around to make distinctive sound. They come in various sizes with 12", 16" and 22" being common, at least in the UK. although the 22" (About 55cm) never fails to impress primary aged children, by virtue of its size alone, they can find it rather unwieldy. Children also seem to like the ones with pictures of sea life visible inside. Personally I find them rather kitsch (Finding Nemo anyone?) and even more prejudicial to proper listening than the name.

Five interesting facts about ocean drums:

• They actually originated in Nepal, a land-locked country in the Himalaya and a long way from the sea. The intention was, however, to imitate the sound of water.
• You can hit them with a soft beater like the one in the picture. You cannot hit them hard with a drumstick without risking splitting the skin. Treading on them is also out.
  
• If you hold one in both hands and shake the ball bearings vigorously between the two skins it produces a loud sound like thunder or crashing waves.
• They can have a very calming affect on fidgety or agitated children and those with SEN (special educational needs). They have a mesmerising quality. Lying down and watching the ball bearings roll around from underneath is rather like being under water.
• Although they are given all sorts of aquatic associations, don't leave them in a cold damp place for any length of time. I did and the ball bearings went rusty. It still sounds as good but, if you lie underneath, it feels more North Sea than Mediterranean.

Conducting Tick Tock

This exercise is especially well suited to children aged between five and eight years and can be played with a large class. Ideally you will need plenty of instruments but there are perfectly good work-arounds that I'll detail at the end. I have found chime bars (I'm a bit of a fan of chime bars) to be useful in this context. I'll assume you have one for every child in the class but bear with me if you haven't; as I said, there are plenty of alternatives.

1. Arrange your group in a circle that includes you and any adult helpers you may have. It is important that your circle is 'true'. Everyone in it needs to be able to see everyone else. And they all need sufficient elbow room to play their instruments.
2. If you like, play a round or two of Quick Tick Tock. This will make sure everyone is as attentive and engaged as they are able.
3. Split the group down the middle, one side of the circle being 'ticks' and the other side 'tocks'. Don't include yourself if you are the only adult present. If you have a helper then include yourself in one group and the helper in the other. Explain which side is 'tick' and which 'tock', count 'One, Two Three and' (or One, Two, Three, Four) to begin. It may take a couple of starts to get this right but one side should tick and then be silent while the other side tocks.
4. Almost certainly some children will be ticking and tocking. This may be because they are looking across the circle at the other group. Ask all the 'ticks' to put raise their hands so they can see each other. Suggest they look at the others in their group while playing the game. Do the same with the 'tocks'.
5. When you feel the clock is running as smoothly as can be expected, hand out the chime bars. To avoid unwanted noise, place the bars on the floor 2ft (60cm) in front of each child with instructions not to pick them up or try to play them with their feet. If you are really well supplied you can give bars you can give the 'ticks' the notes of one chord and the 'tocks' the notes of another but this will need some forethought if you are not to lose the attention of the class.

6. Demonstrate the wonders of the chime bar. How to hit it so it rings, how to dampen it and the sound it makes when you strike its sound box with the beater. Now stand in the middle of the circle and demonstrate your signal for stop and instruct the children to look out for it. Ask them to pick up their chime bars and experiment. This will be noisy but hopefully enough of them will be notice when you signal an end that the rest will look up or be nudged by their neighbours.



7. If need be tell everyone to put down their instruments while you speak. Now tell the 'ticks' you will want them to play their chime bars so they ring and tell the tocks you'll want them to hit the sound box with the beater. Set the 'game' in motion again and let people voice the ticks and tocks if that helps. Once this is running smoothly you are ready for the next stage.
8. Demonstrate signals for loud (raised arms) and soft (arms down). Get everyone ticking and tocking loudly and quietly in response to your signal. Stop them tell the two groups to respond only to the arm nearest their side of the circle. Now demonstrate the art of making one side play soft, the other loud. Now swap them round. Both loud then both soft. And finally, ask for volunteers to conduct the 'clock'.
   

I have seen children with various shades of SEN (special educational needs) positively beaming when given a chance to conduct. And after seeing this, 'dancing' orchestral conductors need no explanation.

And the work-arounds? Basically, as long as the players on each side can make a sound similar to each other but different from the other group then that is good enough. Chime bars on one side, untuned percussion on the other, for example. If you can only improvise enough instruments for half the group, the other half can clap.

One size fits all?

Over recent years there has been a shift towards including more and more children in mainstream schools who, in the past, would have been lumped together in 'special' schools. They include children with a range of disabilities, some physical, some mental and some with both. The accepted label for children who learn at a slower rate than average has changed over time. SEN, standing for special educational needs, is the term at the moment.

The severity and complexity of special needs varies from child to child. Some have associated behavioural problems. For others their only issue is that English is not their first language and they have not yet had an opportunity to learn.

I know too little even to formulate an opinion as to whether or not the inclusion of children with learning difficulties is generally a good thing in general. The fulfilling of the potential of the less able must be balanced against the needs of the more able. I have seen the latter looking frustrated and switching off and their boredom in itself foments poor behaviour. I can't help thinking the bright kids are getting a raw deal. The term 'special' is loaded. Aren't all children special and their needs equally worthy of meeting? Does anyone else feel the inclusion policies are driven by a mixture of economics and planning strategy masquerading as political correctness?

So how does SEN inclusion effect the teaching of music? Well it largely depends on four factors:

• The proportion of SEN children in the group
• the acuteness of their needs
• the level of specialist support
• the way in which the group is used to being managed (class discipline)

I have led mixed ability sessions that all children a class of thirty appear to have enjoyed without bludgeoning them into compliance. (Only a cynic, and I am one, would venture that this may have been done for me before the event.)In each case there was good SEN support and the class culture was very orderly. I will give a more detailed account of the methods and activities I've used in a future post: activities that engage children who find participation in group work very difficult. However, there are limitations to what can be achieved and getting a class involved in rhythm games of any kind is challenging, to say the least, if there are children who physically can't clap unless their support worker is moving their arms. Or who are so heavily medicated, or naturally away with the fairies, that by the time it is their turn to say their name, in a circle of others doing the same, they have completely forgotten what is going on. The great thing about rhythm work is the sense of achieving something as a team, with all the social benefits of boosted self-esteem and mutual respect that come with that.

Dumbing down? There is a whole range of group activities that would be of enormous benefit to the majority of children but that they may well never experience.