Posture, hand position/grip and freedom of movement
- Play with ease and control of the body:
- using an appropriate and functional posture
- Play with ease and control of the hands:
- maintaining an appropriate grip when playing with sticks/mallets, with relaxed wrists, arms and shoulders
- continuing to develop instrument-specific independent movement of hands
- Develop an appropriate and functional three-/four-mallet grip for tuned percussion
Encourage learners to take some responsibility for setting up and adjusting instruments to an appropriate height where applicable.
Encourage learners to take more responsibility for their own learning.
Ask learners to evaluate each other’s posture and hand position/grip, recognising any faults and suggesting how improvements can be made.
For drum kit, demonstrate ‘stick across snare drum’ for timbale/Latin/ rim-click style, ensuring that one end of the stick is in contact with the drumhead and the other end is in contact with the rim, a third of the way down the stick.
Country and western music can be useful for developing this technique.
When playing tuned percussion, demonstrate the different three- and four-mallet grips, (e.g. Stevens, Burton). Ask learners to play simple melodies/scales using the outside sticks only. Encourage them to practise moving the sticks together and apart by sliding them on a table.
Use shorter ‘classroom’ xylophone beaters to reduce strain on the wrists and fingers. Be careful not to strike the nodal point of the bar. Some chord work may be made easier by striking the end of the bar rather than over the resonators.
Ask learners to experiment with the weak hand leading and the use of paradiddles, etc. to avoid crossing hands.
Encourage learners to make decisions around which stickings will result in a musically fluent performance.
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