There are many benefits to drumming including the psychological and emotional effects of taking part in a drumming workshop or drumming activity. We wanted to consider what impact might have on learning and how drumming may be of use in the classroom.
Drumming fosters emotional and creative expression. It focusses on non-verbal expression and enhances creativity. It offers an emotional release, helping us to let go of physical tension, frustration and sadness and allowing us to hone in on the rhythm as a means of escape. Tension, frustration and sadness are all barriers to learning and so drumming can help our learners adjust and adapt to school life and benefit their disposition for learning.
Through drumming workshops and music participation we also develop our physical memory with many participants seeing a sharp increase in concentration and attention. Drumming relies on structured rhythms encouraging long & short-term memory skills. When we’re drumming we’re also developing our right brain hemisphere function the part of our brain that deals with emotions, creativity and intuition. Drumming is a great activity for finding our state of ‘Flow’ a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a distingushed Professor of Psychology.
Drumming is also great for those quieter students as through the act of drumming we learn to co-operate with others to make music, this leads to feeling heard, acknowledged and affirmed by the group. We acknowledge the key role we play within the group and realise the power of our actions. All this leads to an increase in energy levels as drumming releases endorphins, which energize body & mind, lifting our spirits.
Drumming is also renowned for developing our motor co-ordination as it relies ond hand-eye co-ordination, motor skill fluidity and teaches the brain to send messages to the hands in accordance with auditory signals. It also promotes time keeping as all drumming must happen in accordance with the time and pace of the rhythm, promoting mind & muscle control.
It’s for these reasons that we believe drumming is highly suited to addressing and facilitating personal growth and is an inspired, important part of helping our pupils to grow as individuals and as rounded learners.
