“I teach music to grade 1-7 students in Port McNeill, BC Canada.
This year I started a bucket drumming program, mainly due to the affordability of the “instruments”.
The students instantly loved playing along with the videos and had fairly quick success playing well known songs.
This site has an incredible amount of videos and downloads and is very well laid out.
I appreciate that Sammy uses traditional music staff and notation. I can have the students start to learn the rhythm patterns and counting and then when we progress to other instruments they already understand the rhythm concepts.
The program is also easy for me to leave notes for my substitute teachers when I’m away and even without musical knowledge the teacher can have the students carry on with playing along with Sammy.
My grade 6/7’s just performed a year-end concert, playing three of the cover songs from [Sammy’s Bucket Drumming Online School] and the whole school and parents loved it! Pompeii was an amazing finale!!!
Love this site!!! Highly recommend to any teacher trying to put some music and rhythm into their program.
Thanks again for creating this resource!
Kevin Ogren”
If you’re interested to see what’s inside the membership area… >> Click this <<
Thanks,
Sammy
P.S. Save 20% on Annual Pass before August 14th 2018.
1st Part- Play on beats 2 and 4 with sticks….
Can you guess the name of this rhythm? I name it in “5 Basic Rhythms Everyone Should Know.”
…Comment below if you figured it out.
2nd Part- First 3 beats on the center of the bucket with the right hand. Beats 2 and 4 on the rim with the left hand.
3rd Part- Alternating right, left, right, left… Right hand is on the center, left is on the side of the bucket.
4th and Last Part is the drum fill. Three right hands on the center of the bucket.
Easy schmeezy! And they’re all rights because it sets it up for the next part, which is the same except you just add your left hand playing back beats on the rim (2 & 4).
As always, leave a comment with some feedback! I love hearing from you even if it’s short.
Here’s another easy bucket drum cover video.
It’s been in the membership area for a few months now but I decided to release it today because I haven’t posted on the blog in a while. (I’m posting every week in the member’s area though! Check it out.)
4 Easy Bucket Drum Parts
We have Four different Parts. Let’s go over them, shall we?
Part A – 4 Quarter Notes on the center of the bucket with our right hand. Simple right?
Part B – This time we add our left hand to the rim on the “back beat.”
Part C – We keep our right hand on the down beat and left hand now plays the rim on the first beat of the measure.
Part D – This is the only slight challenge to this song. There are 4 measures, three of them are the same. This measure is alternating sticking (right, left, right, left) quarter notes; right hand on the center and left hand on the rim.
The third measure of this 4 measure part is the one that’s different. It plays two quarter notes (right on center, left on the rim). Then you play either a tresillo or three quarter note triplets. Explaining it sounds much more difficult than it actually is.
And I say you can play either the quarter note triplets or a tresillo pattern because this half of the measure is so fast and subtle that most people won’t even hear the difference.
And the song form is attached with the sheet music at the top under the video for you to play along to!
If you like this video, please let me know by commenting and/or joining the membership area.
With only 3 measures to learn (not including the first drum fill) you can play along to what the Rolling Stones chose as their #3 from the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
Let’s go through it.
There’s the intro fill, which can be optional if it’s too challenging,
and it starts on the upbeat of 3, playing “&A” then rest on 4 then play on “e&”.
The next 3 measure are WAY easier.
Measure A – quarter note, quarter note, two eighth notes, followed by another quarter note. Simple right?!
Notice, the sticking pattern I’m using- right, left, right, right, left. Instead of playing “alternate sticking,” which is r, l, r, l etc. I chose to do the two rights in a row on the center. This is much easier for beginner bucket drummers because they can keep their hands in the same spot.
Next Measure, B– quarter note, then three quarter rests. Super easy! Just count to four.
Last Measure, C– is the most challenging. 2 Quarter notes followed by a doted eighth note, a sixteenth note, then two eighth notes.
If you played my Top 10 Bucket Drumming Beats you’ll notice the back half of the measure is the same rhythm as the reggaeton. The voicing (orchestration) is different, but if you can play the reggaeton pattern you can play this measure. And that might be a good way to practice it if you or students are having a hard time learning that part; Just repeat the reggaeton rhythm.
And I’ve included the sheet music and song form so you can print it out and play along to the song in your time.
Let me know your thoughts!
Thanks,
Sammy
P.S. If you liked this bucket drumming tutorial and want a TON (100+) more videos, join my Online School. It’s designed specifically for teachers and students learning rhythm while using buckets.
It will also take your bucket drumming to the next level.
If you don’t believe me, I get comments almost every day from people saying how helpful my videos and instructional material are.
Here’s a recent comment.
“Sammy,
Thank you so much for posting the two most recent covers. Both of my classes were jamming away to the Adele song today. It’s great because it totally fits my unit on form, demands their attention, and it even has a crescendo in it, part of the other unit that I do on dynamics. Oh, and the tempo challenge came out the week we were covering tempi.
Yesterday, I had a newer teacher walk in to my class because he heard us working on your cover of Come Together. He stayed for the whole song and was really impressed.
We’re having a lot of fun with these videos and the sheet music is such an important component to it all.”
