Young musicians get a lesson in drumming
If you’re a parent who is growing tired of the sound of the television blaring all day, you now have a chance to exchange that audio for something more original: drumming. Those same kids who love to bang pots and pans together and can’t resist beating their hands against every table or wall they pass, can now channel that energy into percussion classes. News Five was at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts this morning for a special course designed to tap into all that natural rhythm.
Karla Heusner, Reporting
For many of these kids, this is the first time they?ve held a drum; or at least one as big as they are. But no matter their size, or their age, the young members of Carlos Perrote?s percussion class are serious about sounds.
Carlos Perrote, musician
?The three parts of the workshop are natural instruments, African instruments, and instruments you play with sticks like drums set, cymbals.?
?What we mean when we say natural is, anything that produces sound. I knock with my hand, I get a bottle and knock, I get a fan and make some sound, scratch something; that is a natural.?
?I have different kinds of the African instruments, I have Cuban instruments, and the Garifuna part of Belize. I also have instruments for the Congo, for Senegal. That is the most drums I have right now.?
So how soon will these little drummers be ready to hit the stage? It doesn?t really matter, says their instructor.
Carlos Perrote
?The thing is not to push the children to perform; I don?t push the children. I push the children to learn. In the future, give a good performance. The idea of this workshop is to select the best of the children and the adults and bring a percussion orchestra. That is what I am starting with my school, Grace Primary, and I want to try to do it in the whole country, to make a big percussion orchestra with different kinds of instruments.?
?It is nice. The best thing is that the children come. It?s hard in Belize to group a lot of children together. I appreciate the parents and the ICA for promoting this workshop. I think it is successful right now with the amount of children I have. I never expect that, honest.?
Carlos Perrote is assisted by musician Ernesto Sagre and Juan Pablo Gomez and Chris Lewis, itinerant teachers from the Institute of Creative Arts Phoenix Performing Company. Karla Heusner reporting for News Five.
There are still spaces available in the percussion class, which runs through August fifth. The mornings are reserved for children, but high school students and adults are invited to attend afternoon sessions. The cost for the two-week course is twenty dollars.
