Drumming up fun, building confidence: Canon-McMillan intermediate students take part in drum circle
The melodic beat of drumming filled the music room on the bottom floor of Cecil Intermediate School on Tuesday. Nearly two dozen drums – djembes and colorful tubanos – were set up in a large circle, as a group of fifth-graders beat their drums in unison, wide smiles breaking out across their faces.
Sitting in the drum circle among the students in the class, music teacher Deanna Grandstaff smiled too as she looked around the classroom and saw the students striking the drums joyfully as the circle’s facilitator led them through the 40-minute session.
“My goal of (the drum circle workshop) is to address emotional well-being in children through music, said Grandstaff. “I’ve seen the way that children respond to drum circles.”
For Grandstaff, it’s less about technique and more about building confidence and nurturing life skills, including emotional expression, collaboration, communication, empathy, and cultural awareness.
“There are so many additional skills they learn from drum circles, like communication, especially nonverbal communication with their eyes. They also learn how their “voice” fits in with the group. Are they enhancing the group’s overall sound or taking away from it? They are learning how their voice matters and is important, but also learning that if they are too forward, it doesn’t work with the team dynamic.”
Drum circles, which have been a part of cultures around the world for thousands of years, have emerged as a powerful tool for promoting character development and mental well-being in children.
Tuesday’s drum circle workshop was one of several Grandstaff coordinated for Cecil Intermediate fifth- and sixth-graders over a three-day period.
The workshop was made possible by a $2,500 grant that Grandstaff was awarded after she was honored in Nashville, Tenn., in September as a Music Teacher of Excellence by the CMA Foundation, the national music education nonprofit and philanthropic arm of the Country
Music Association. She is the first-ever honoree from Pennsylvania.
“I thought I could use the grant to buy an instrument, like a bass clarinet, and that would impact the life of one child, but I wanted to use the grant to impact as many students as possible,” said Grandstaff. “I wanted to bring in something unique, something the kids don’t necessarily have access to.”
Altar’d State, a fashion boutique in South Hills Village Mall, matched the CMA Foundation’s funding, allowing Grandstaff to expand the program to North Strabane Intermediate School. Students at NSIS will participate in workshops, led by Matt Price, founder of DrumNexus, the week of March 10.
During the session, the energetic Price led students through a variety of drum beats. At one point, the room rumbled like a stampede, as students enthusiastically pounded on traditional djembe and tubanos drums and tapped or shook other percussion instruments like tambourines and rhythm sticks. Later, Price stood in the circle conducting, bringing the intensities of beats up and down, and doling out encouragement and humor.
“Good, work together, you got this,” he said as the drum circle broke into two groups, drumming to different beats. “This side, repeat after me. Hear this? Can we cheer for them? Yay!”
Fifth-grader Wyatt Saut, a member of the school band who plays trombone, said he enjoyed the workshop and “I’d want to do it again.”
“There were students who went home and told their parents it was the best day of school ever,” said Grandstaff. “As a music teacher at CIS, It is the most fulfilling experience, to watch students that I love dearly exuding joy while making music.”