Beats: five ways to get a class playing rhythm together
A class can play rhythm together long before anyone owns a drum kit
Beats is five separate units built on one idea. Take a real groove, work out what makes it that groove, and translate it onto something every student in the room already has: a chair, a voice, their own body, or a box of untuned classroom percussion.
Nothing here needs a kit, a practice room or a booking sheet. Groove Your Classroom, Chair Drumming, Styles, Beatboxing and Body Percussion each solve the same problem in a different way, and the one that fits depends on the space you teach in and the gear you actually have.
They are alternatives, not a sequence. Most teachers start with whichever needs least setting up and come back for the others later.
Choose a unit
Start from what the room gives you. Body Percussion and Beatboxing need nothing at all, Chair Drumming needs the furniture, and Styles ends with the whole class playing a song together.
Groove Your Classroom
Twelve grooves, translated off the drum kit and into parts every student can play on untuned classroom percussion.
Read moreChair Drumming
Everyone plays at their own level, on the furniture already in the room. Three levels, from 101 through to 301.
Read moreStyles
Each style starts on classroom percussion, then adds guitar, ukulele, bass and keys, until the whole class is playing the song.
Read moreBeatboxing
Steve walks a class through the vocal techniques, all written in the same grid notation as the kit. No instruments, no set-up, no volume problem.
Read moreBody Percussion
Not following along to videos. Listening to a groove, working out where it lives on the body, and building something from it.
Read moreSorted by what the room needs, not by difficulty
The quickest way to choose is to work out what you can put in students' hands on Monday.
Body Percussion and Beatboxing
No instruments, no set-up and no volume problem. These are the two that work in a room with nothing in it, and the two that survive a timetable change into a space you have never taught in.
Chair Drumming and Groove Your Classroom
Chair Drumming uses the furniture. Groove Your Classroom uses a box of untuned percussion. Both take grooves that belong on a kit and give every student a part they can actually hold down.
Styles
The one that does not stop at the groove. It starts on classroom percussion like the others, then brings in guitar, ukulele, bass and keys until the class is playing the whole song.
Teacher move: if a class has already locked in a groove through one of the others, Styles is where that work turns into a performance.
What students learn
Holding a part while everyone else holds theirs
The skill that only develops when your part is not the loudest thing in the room and stopping is obvious to everybody.
Pulse, and what sits either side of it
Feeling a steady pulse, then placing things off it deliberately, which is where groove actually lives.
Reading a rhythm grid
The same grid notation runs across the units, met as a practical need while playing rather than as a topic taught in advance.
Listening while playing
Hearing a groove, working out how it is put together, and rebuilding it with whatever the room can offer.
Common questions
Do we need a drum kit?
No, and none of the five units assumes one. Body Percussion and Beatboxing need no instruments at all. Chair Drumming uses the furniture already in the room. Groove Your Classroom uses untuned classroom percussion. Styles is the only one that brings in other instruments, and those are guitar, ukulele, bass and keyboard rather than a kit.
Which one should I start with?
Start from what your room can give you on Monday. If it can give you nothing, start with Body Percussion or Beatboxing. If there are chairs, Chair Drumming. If there is a box of untuned percussion, Groove Your Classroom. If you want the class to end up playing a whole song together, Styles.
Do the units have to be done in order?
No. They are five alternatives rather than a sequence, and each one is a complete piece of work on its own. The only loose progression is that a class which has already locked in a groove through one of the others tends to find Styles easier, because Styles is where a groove turns into a performance.
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Ready to run Beats with your classes?
Everything above is ready to go the moment you subscribe. No setup, no printing, no hunting for parts.
All five Beats units are in the Band Skills Pack and Full Access. The Starter Pack includes part of each one. The Music Tech Pack includes Groove Your Classroom and Chair Drumming.
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