A charitable drumming tuition business, working throughout Kent, Surrey and surrounding areas.
Some mentions of previous schools, groups, events and charities that we have worked with
Drumming for Drums was kindly asked back to St Ethelberts Catholic Primary School to run a whole day workshop for the entire school. It was a fantastic day filled with lots of Djembe drumming. We worked with the whole school from Infants up to year 6!
All pupils were taught Djembe techniques, music theory and an African rhythm. All pupils were able to take part in group drumming activities, resulting in some great rhythms.
Willow Bushcraft Family Camp 21
Willow Bushcraft – A hidden gem! Out in the woods in Kent is a beautiful family camping spot called Willow Bushcraft. Drumming for drums was asked to provide some workshops on the bank holiday weekend for the family campers at Willow Bushcraft. We had a lively morning session to wake up the campers! Lots of African rhythms were played in the group with some additional amazing, improvised singing from a young lady. We are looking forward to next years extended family sessions!
British Legion August 21
Sheldwhich Primary March 20/ July/September 21
We had the pleasure of running a short assembly on the last day of school before the first lockdown. What a time ago that feels like now! Since then, we have come back to run a few fun days of Djembe introduction sessions before the school start on the 8th in September. We Have come a long way since the lockdowns. Be kind to others and yourself. Tough times don’t last, only tough people. We are very excited to get back drumming with Sheldwich!
What a lovely afternoon this was. Working with the whole fundraising team of the British legion. Lots of laughs and great rhythms were played and created. This was the first workshop to bring out the largest of them all, kettle drums! Big shout out to the British legion for everything they have done for service men and women.
Fun Friends February 21
This was the first workshop back after a long break from covid! Strange times as it was still in a lockdown, but as Fun friends is a NHS group we were allowed to meet under certain guidelines. So glad we did as it was a lovely morning! Such a great way to get together after a long and tough time for everyone. We created our own rhythms, learned some traditional African rhythms and more importantly had a great time enjoying and playing instruments together!
Harcourt Primary School March 2020/21
Harcourt primary asked Drumming for drums to come in and provide a whole school and staff workshop. Both were well received. The first time entering was just before the first national lockdown and secondly after the lifting. Such a crazy time to live in. We are glad to have been asked back twice and looking forward to future rhythms! A lovely school to have worked in, always a pleasure!
Beaver Green Primary - Mega Workshops 19/20
The mega workshops! We ran a free afternoon session at Beaver Green many moons ago. In 2018 we were asked run potentially to run a workshop for the whole year group in each session. It is good to challenge yourself and that’s what we did. Feeling the pulse is key to music and drumming. That’s what we did. So proud of the whole of Beaver Green for listening well, playing in time along with 60 of their peers and for stepping up to the challenge. This was so successful we were asked to run it again the following year.
Festability 19
Festability – Festability is a Kent based festival for people with disabilities and their carers. It was such a pleasure to be asked to come and provide some workshops for the lovely crowds at Festability. I had such a lovely day working with everyone who participated. There were some truly talented people attending. Unfortunately, covid 19 put a stop to anything fun in 2020 so we weren’t able to meet. Until 2022! We are looking forward to it!
Oxford Hen Party June 21
Not only do we work in schools, but we also conduct workshops for adult groups. In this case it was for a group of creative hens celebrating the marriage of two lovely people. Unfortunately, the rain prevented us from working outside but we managed to all fit inside a large tepee. We worked through a series of rhythms, theory exercises, musical Q and A and finished with a mega jam using all knowledge from the workshop. A surprising end to a celebratory weekend!
Here is a list of most of the Schools, organisations and people that we have worked with:
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St Anselms catholic school
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Mind festival
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Wedding parties, Kent
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Children's birthday parties, Kent
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In home Private Drum Kit lessons, across East Kent.
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Boomtown Festival, Kidztown.
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Catching lives homeless centre Canterbury
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Community groups - Canterbury
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The Churchill School
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Smugglers festival Kent
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Bluebells Children's centre
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St Ethelberts Catholic Primary School
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The Wyvern school Ashford
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Downsview Infant school
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Willesborough Infant school
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Kingsnorth Primary
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Various Beaver/Cub/Scout brigades across Thanet/Kent/Surrey
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Stour Primary
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High Halden Primary
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Hen parties Oxford/Kent
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Sturry Academy
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Petham Primary
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Homestart charities ashford
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Festability
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Beaver green Primary
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Kennington Primary
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Harcourt Primary
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British Legion
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Sheldwhich Primary
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Willow Bush Craft
There is a few that we have missed over the years, we apologise and hope to see you all soon!
Petham Primary School, July 2018
Drumming for Drums was kindly invited back to Petham primary school to run a series of drumming and music making workshops for the whole school! We had such a lovely time on the day, filled with African rhythms, created and interpreted rhythms and group music making. We spent the whole day outside! Petham primary is surrounded by beautiful grounds, this makes learning and playing music outside extra special. What a lovely day! Thanks for having us.
Kingsnorth Primary School, July 2016/17/18
Drumming for Drums was invited back a third time to Kingsnorth primary school in Ashford. What a treat! This time we were solely working with the year 2. What a fantastic day spent playing djembe drums, learning drumming notation, African rhythms and best of yet, musical creation. This is something that we love to include in our workshops! We use varied percussion instruments from different cultures to create in the moment music, using the skills learnt previously in the lesson we were able to create fabulous sounding music in the moment! So lovely to be a part of!
Sturry Academy, March 2018/19
Drumming for Drums was kindly invited to come and provide an afternoon of Djembe drumming workshops. We had a lot of fun working with the pupils of Sturry Academy.
All pupils taking part learnt traditional techniques, music theory and traditional African rhythms. All pupils were able to create their own rhythms with some even being recorded. Drumming for Drums had a lovely time working with the pupils of Sturry Academy. We hope to come back soon and work with more of the school!
Stour Primary 2018
Drumming for Drums was kindly asked to come and provide a series of term based Djembe workshops and after school clubs for the pupils at East Stour Primary. We were very excited to be invited into East Stour Primary School.
Pupils learnt how sound-waves work and about basic musical theory. The year 5 group of East Stour Primary had a great time creating rhythms and learning traditional African ones too. As did the mixed aged year groups of the after-school club.
We had a lot of fun working with the year 5 year group as well as a mixed age after school club. We have fond memories and hope to come back next year.
Shepherdswell Beaver and Scout groups, January 2018
Drumming for Drums was kindly invited to come and provide some Djembe drumming workshops for the Shepherdswell Beaver and Scout Brigade. We were very excited to be back working with some Beavers and Scouts again.
Pupils were taught Djembe drumming techniques, music theory and African rhythms. All participants were able to take part in a solo and group performance resulting in both Beaver and Scout groups gaining their music stage 1 and 2 badge!! What a great way to spend the evening!
Both leaders had some lovely kind words to say about the workshops, read below!
"Thank you for running a fantastic evening for both our Beavers and Scouts at the hut. All the children, young leader and leaders had a wonderful evening. It was great to learn about the history, geography, sound, rhythm and volume of the Djembe drums. I particularly like the communal aspect of these drums and how quickly first timers can actively engage in this activity. The pace and presentation was bang on!!! We had great feed back from everyone who attended or watched at the end. Thanks again Sam". Mango Section Leader 18th Dover (Shepherdswell) Scout Group.
“Sam came to our Beaver Scout Colony to teach us about the Djembe drum. We all got a huge amount from the experience; not just the chance to experience the drums & being in a drum circle, but also gaining a wider music based knowledge and an appreciation of the history of the Djembe. Each young person was able to participate fully, because the drums were so accessible, & Sam was excellent with the Beavers, helping them all work towards their Musician Stage 1 Badge. Thank you so much Sam! We hope to see you again in the future!” Kat, Orca (Shepherdswell) Beaver Group.
Birichington Cub and Scout Brigade, May 2017
Drumming for Drums was kindly invited to come and provide some drumming workshops for the cubs and scouts of the Birchington brigade! We were more than happy to be able to work with cubs and scouts as this was a first for Drumming for Drums.
Over the course of two weeknights we were able to teach and guide the cubs and scouts into gaining their stage 1 music badge! This was a great achievement for all involved.
Pupils were taught Djembe techniques, how to play traditional African rhythms and even had the chance to create their own rhythms using the techniques and theory knowledge taught during the sessions. What a great way to earn a music badge! In just one session!
Hen Party London, February 2017
Here at Drumming for Drums, not only do we like to work with pupils in education, we like to work with anyone! Drumming for Drums was kindly asked to provide a drumming workshop for a Hen party. We all had a incredible time learning and playing Djembe drums and we created some 'in the moment' drum circle music - a great way for the group to engage and connect with each other, especially as this was the first time some of them had met! The session was split into two parts. First, we spent time learning techniques, rhythms, notation and had a play with some traditional African rhythms. Then we used what we had learnt to create some drum circle music, using Djembe drums and a wide selection of percussion instruments. This resulted in wave of music, created in the moment, interchanging with differing dynamics, tempos and rhythmic and instrumental changes. Everybody had a lot of fun, and it is always encouraging to hear the quality of music being created by people who have not had any previous drumming experience
Willesborough Infant School, Ashford. 2014-2019
Drumming for Drums was asked to come into Kingsnorth Primary School in Ashford, Kent to provide a fun, educational and engaging workshop for the whole of key stage two to enjoy as an end of year treat! What a lovely, early Christmas present!
We had an amazing time learning and playing Djembe Drums with the whole of key stage two. During our sessions, the key stage 2 group were able to learn the basic drumming techniques of bass and tone notes. Pupils were taught how to hold the drum correctly and were reminded of sound waves and how they work. We also learnt and played through four different groups of notation and their counting methods! We all learnt part of a traditional African rhythm!
This was great to see pupils learning, working and using the techniques previously learnt so quickly and effectively. We had an amazing time with the pupils of Kingsnorth Primary School.
Drumming for Drums was kindly invited to Willesborough Infant School to run some Djembe workshops for the year 2 students. This has continued for three years now, which we are all very happy about! We have had some great lessons with the pupils of Willesborough Infant School, with the addition of some dancing and cross curricular learning, which has been very successful!! We also run after-school music clubs at Willesborough which we all love and are happy to provide.
We like to incorporate lots of different instruments into our sessions. We do this because not only is it fun and interesting, it is also beneficial to know about the different playing techniques, history and origins of the instruments that we use and play. We had lots of fun as you can see in some of our photos!
We also learnt how to play various percussion instruments together as a group, resulting with some great rhythms and beats being produced from the whole year group.
Here is some feedback from teachers at Willesborough Infant school
"Children had drumming lessons with Sam for 6 weeks. Children learnt some very interesting facts e.g tempo, dynamics etc. They learnt different rhythms and how to keep up with the high and low notes. Sam is a fantastic teacher. He was very patient and taught the children very well. Also the children learnt a lot about the history behind Djembe drumming, where the drum came from and for what purpose people in Africa used drumming for. In a nutshell, it was a very valuable lesson for children. Thanks alot to Sam".
Mrs Dhaimwright, Year 2 Teaching Assistant from Willesborough Infant School:
"The Drumming for Drums workshop was a fantastic way to introduce my year 2 class into our Africa topic. My class were taught basic rhythms in an exciting way that managed to keep their attention throughout! My class thoroughly enjoyed being able to experiment with the wide variety of instruments that Drumming for Drums provided. This was a great overall experience that enabled my class to work as a team, build on their listening skills and help improve co-ordination. Would definitely recommend."
Miss Fountain, Year 2 Teacher, Willesborough Infant School.
The Wyvern School, Ashford, 2016
Downs View Infant School, Ashford. 2017 - 2018
Drumming for Drums was asked to come in to Wyvern school in September to run a series of drumming workshops for some pupils aged between 16 and 18. We had an incredible time during theses sessions. We spent some time learning and creating technical rhythms, so many great rhythms were created! We also incorporated some dancing within our sessions so that we had a true African drumming feel with the accompanying dancers. We know all of the pupils really enjoyed themselves during our time at Wyvern, we certainly did too! The progress that we all made in such a short time was encouraging and joyful for others to see, watch and take part in. We hope to come back soon!
St Ethelberts Catholic Primary School, Ramsgate 2015/18
At the start of this year, Drumming for Drums was asked to come in to teach the year 2 and year 3 students of St Ethelberts Catholic Primary School.
During our time at St Ethelberts, pupils were taught about the history and origins of the Djembe, playing techniques, traditional rhythm learning and playing together as a group.
In the sessions with Year 2 we focused on rhythm building out of sentences. We focused on using the syllables and words as the rhythm/beat. We found that not only was this fun for pupils but very informative and a good, physical way of learning rhythms and literacy!
Some of the teachers had very positive things to say:
"Children thoroughly enjoyed lessons. Thanks very much for all your hard work Sam. All children benefitted".
Mr I Branton, Year 3 Teacher
"Very enjoyable for the children"
Year 2 teacher
Photo credit, Shehnoor Ahmed
Photo credit, Scott M Salt
Photo credit, Shehnoor Ahmed.
Photo credit, Shehnoor Ahmed
Boomtown, Kidztown, August 2014 - 2019.
For the past six summers , Drumming for Drums has had the pleasure of working at one of the most magical places in the world! Boomtown Festival, the worlds first pop up city.
Boomtown is located in Winchester, Sussex and hosts hundreds of artists, bands, dj's, workshops, experiences and more! It is incredible! Boomtown is filled full of wonder, beauty, mystery, fun, joy and excitement. There is so much going on its hard to choose what to do!
We here at Drumming for Drums have had some amazing times at Boomtown, memories to last a lifetime. We would highly recommend a visit to Boomtown next year, become a fully fledged citizen!
Thanks for reading!
Drumming for Drums was kindly invited into Downs View infant school to provide some after-school clubs. We started the sessions off by learning some Djembe techniques, group drumming, rhythm learning and lots of shaking! We have already created some great rhythms, and have even included some groovy dance activities for people who would rather dance whilst playing percussion instruments. This has been a huge success, particularly with the younger infants who can make music while they dance to the beat of the drums. The club has been so popular we have been asked to come back for the 5th and 6th term.
Drumming for Drums was invited to Smugglers festival in deal this summer to help out offering with some drumming workshops for the morning festival goers. This was a lovely opportunity to play drums and percussion in the morning sun, waking up to a healing process of playing and dancing to natural music. This went down very well with all of the festival goers, we had a lot of people drumming, taking part by playing percussion instruments, people dancing along to our created/improvised music. We also had a barber quartet join in with some classic songs sang at the tempo of our drumming. Everyone involved had an amazing time, a lot of participants commented on how much better they felt after listening and taking part within the drum circle.