Product: Drum Fun! - Musical Games for Groups (2012)
Rating: 5.0
Drum fun not only for music education
The `Drum Fun' DVD is the most diverse and engaging collection of musical games that I've come across. When I started watching it, the first thing that struck me was that Kalani is not only an excellent musician but also a really wonderful educator. His step-by-step explanations are clear and concise and, beyond demonstrating how to play some particular game and have fun, he provides additional challenges that go a little further to develop musical quality. All the games have a clear structure. They usually start with a simple version that lays the foundation for more complex variations. Although the people that Kalani worked with for the DVD were probably musically experienced, you can play these games with groups of different skill levels and different ages - some of them even with very young children. And many of these games are not only stimulating within the framework of music education but are a bridge between music and other art forms. I'm a drama teacher, and the group of five-year-olds that I occasionally work with love to find Froggy -- and while doing so, they develop listening, articulation, and cooperation skills. They also love to tell stories about what their instruments could be if they weren't instruments ("my drum stick is a telescope, a flute, a lollipop, a spoon -- and my drum is a pot") and they love to create the sounds a ball might make when playing rumble ball. I can imagine that kids in an art class would really enjoy playing museum and building and interpreting instrument sculptures.