Body Music!

The 5/6 graders get to start the Human Body theme early, and so have already been learning about all the different types of music that humans can make with our bodies alone. We're so versatile.

Keith Terry heads up the International Body Music Festival, and is a pioneer in performing body music in the US. He gets an amazing variety of sounds from his hands and feet, then combines them with dance and humor. We've begun learning some of his simpler body percussion patterns, which are a great way to combine math and music as well as to continue building rhythmic and ensemble skills.


Keith did an informative segment about body music on PRI's The World:

We've also looked at the African-American art of stepping, and will be looking to Nick Cave's soundsuits and Rahzel's beatboxing as further inspiration to create a performance.

The students were excited to share their budding beatboxing talents, having just learned techniques in Chris' Hip-Hop EB. One student is already able to simultaneously hum a melody and beatbox a rhythm, à la Rahzel. Impressive!

I hope to harness the students' energy and enthusiasm toward creating an effective musical performance...stay tuned!