Easy Rhythm For Kids Activities: Body Percussion

Easy rhythm for kids Activities: Body Percussion

What is body percussion? It is producing sounds by using your body, through
hand clapping, thigh slapping, stomping, finger snapping, inhaled and exhaled
air. Feel free to be creative in finding sounds with this rhythm for kids
activity.

Body percussion plays a role in our history through folk traditions either as a
solo performance or the accompaniment of a song.

According to Wikipedia, “The folk traditions of many countries include
the use of body percussion. Examples of these include Indonesian saman,
Ethiopian armpit music, palmas in flamenco, and the hambone from the
United States.”

Body percussion is also used in popular music and Bobby McFerrin known
for his 1988 hit song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” makes percussive effects
through his mouth and parts of his chest.
He can imitate the sound of a drum set because each part of the body imitates
a different part.

You can imitate and learn the parts of a drum set in this rhythm for kids
activity.

Hands: Clapping your hands has a higher pitch and imitates a high hat or
snare drum. Try cupping your hands and hear how the sound changes.

Chest: By cupping your hands and carefully hitting your chest, you imitate
the sound of a rack tom.

Thigh: The thigh area represents the middle tom, try cupping your hands
and play with the sound.

Bottom: The “tush” or “derriere” is a lower sounds and represents a low tom
on the drum set.

Here are a few more rhythm for kids activities to try and keep in mind to be
careful to not hurt yourself, stretch before trying any moves and stay relaxed.

The speed will come with time. Enjoy!

1. “Echo activity”: Mom creates a rhythm and the child has to repeat the

rhythm as close as possible. An added variation is to use everyday
objects to repeat that rhythm.

2. “Karaoke Percussion” You can find your favorite rhythmic song. A

suggestion is "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" is a song by
Scatman John. You and your child can clap and play along to beat on
parts or the whole song.

3. Find your favorite rhythm for kids body percussion and play to your

favorite nursery rhyme or clapping games.

Here is a rhythm for kids clapping game and the action could be changed to
stomping, thigh slapping, and slapping, or anything else.

Lemonade (clap, clap, clap)
Crunchy ice (clap, clap, clap)
Beat it once (clap, clap, clap)
Beat it twice (clap, clap, clap)
Lemonade, crunchy ice,
Beat it once, beat it twice,
Lemonade, crunchy ice,
Beat it once, beat it twice (gets faster and faster and continues until someone
misses a clap)

For more inspirational rhythm for kids ideas on the use of body percussion
and sound, please watch the “Stomp” videos. This is a very popular group that
creates music through body percussion and everyday objects.

We hope you enjoyed this rhythm for kids blog and please let us know
what you thought of this activity. Also, the Burnsville School of Rock has a great program for Early Music Education children ages 4-7.
 For information regarding the program, please call: (952) 898-
7625.
http://burnsville.schoolofrock.com/program/early-education