Building on the success of Percussion Plus’ Slap Djembe instrument range, percussion educator Andy Gleadhill has produced a new teaching resource designed to help young musicians explore a broad range of musical cultures. The book received ‘Outstanding Music Education Print Resource’ at this year's Music and Drama Education Awards, and I was excited to receive a copy and explore it further.
The Slap Djembe range is a relatively new but well-established line of djembes geared towards schools looking for an effective ective and low-cost route into west-African percussion music. The USP of the Slap Djembes is their printed drumhead design, which clearly demonstrates to beginner percussionists where best to achieve tone, bass and slap sounds – keys to effective djembe performance. Andy Gleadhill's Slap Djembe builds on this clear approach by incorporating the drumhead decals into an easy-to-read and highly informative education resource, which allows pupils to explore musical cultures from 12 countries covering North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Its bright and colourful layout makes it perfect for primary years, though there is no reason why it couldn't be used in secondary too.
For the majority of the book, each two-page spread explores a specific country or musical style. Each contains grid-style notation using the Slap Djembe decals along with a map and fact file. Each also features a difficulty rating, making it easy for teachers to select repertoire for their classes’ abilities. The rhythm grids are incredibly clear and can be easily interpreted by pupils and non-specialist teachers alike. The ‘core rhythm’ on each page gives a flavour of the style being explored, before two further parts are added to create a more complex three-part arrangement.
Supporting digital materials include whiteboard resources (both in PDF and PPT formats), allowing information from the printed book to be easily shared. For each country/style explored, there are also audio and video resources demonstrating clearly both the core rhythms and three-part arrangements.
In addition, there is a fantastic section of advice for leading group-playing, and a set of 10 weekly lesson plans linked to teaching musical elements. What is particularly pleasing are the realistic expectations placed on pupils throughout; it is often the case that too much is crammed into schemes of work, leading to disillusioned pupils and frustrated staff . Week three, for example, recommends developing the previous week's performance to include half-time and double-time sections – a perfectly weighted and realistic outcome for an hour-long session.
My only criticism would be that, due to the tie-in to the Percussion Plus drum range, several of the patterns end up sounding very similar. This is particularly the case when using the audio and video demonstrations, undermining the wide range of musical cultures being explored. There are positives to this, as it may lead to discussing similarities linked to musical elements. However, I could see this becoming challenging if used for an extended period.
That said, there is no reason why you should only use the Slap Djembe drums for these patterns, and, if you have access to other percussion instruments, it may be possible to produce more authentic performances. While the decals used in the book match those printed on the Slap Djembe range, pupils, with minimal exploration, would certainly be able to find similar sounds on a range of percussion instruments. Similarly, the different musical styles could be spread across the curriculum rather than delivered in one chunk.
I can absolutely see why the judges for the MDE Awards were so impressed. The book is crammed with excellent teaching ideas and expert advice suitable for seasoned percussion facilitators and newbies alike. If you've already got a class set of Slap Djembes, this book is an absolute must; but even for classrooms with less uniform percussion sets, you will take far more from the book than its minimal price tag suggests.
