Reply To: Secondary Life Skills Music Class

[nafmeadmin]

I had a colleague a few years ago who had the Life Skills kids in general music class, though for middle school. I remember her using Will Schmid’s World Drumming curriculum with them and doing the easy drumming ensemble. They loved it! I’ve used that with high school classes since, though not Life Skills kids. I imagine it would work well with the high school Life Skills kids too. I can tell you my high school music appreciation kids loved it! There is a bit of a cost to get the equipment, but if you can swing it, it would be great. I like it because they learn by listening to the drum leader, and the patterns are short an easy to remember. Plus, you don’t have to use all the parts in the ensemble (the first ensemble has 7 separate parts). It would work fine even with the two main drum parts and the cowbell. We purchased the world drum kit for 40 students at my last school a few years ago and I want to say it was around $3000. They have smaller kits available, or you can even buy the drums ala carte. The curriculum book comes with a dvd…I had no experience with drums before trying it, but the materials made it easy to learn.