On Monday, we welcomed Mr Gilmore from West Sussex Music to lead African drumming workshops in Year 6.

The children participated brilliantly in the sessions and enjoyed learning how to play the djembe and doumbek drums. We learnt that music is an important part of African culture; many communities have rhythms and drumming traditions associated with their historical narratives. Different patterns and rhythms are used to represent words or phrases which are combined to convey stories with a meaning. We learnt some call and response rhythms, with opportunities for several children to take on the role of Djembefola (leader of the drum circle). Finally, we split into four groups who collaborated to form a polyrhythm, where different rhythms are performed simultaneously.

What an inspiring start to our ‘Exploring Africa’ topic for this half term!