As part of St. Franics’ Junior School’s International School Curriculum, we were thrilled to have African Drumming lessons from Fanuel. All classes got the opportunity to learn about the culture that they derive from, putting our geographical learning into practice.
We learnt that there are different rhythms, dependent on the different occasions, for weather, to send messages in the past times and praising God. Through playing the Jamba (the style of African drums used within Zimbabwe) we started to understand how they are made, how different hand patterns, different elements of the drum skin and how the instrument creates the volume, the vibration and the pitch.
We worked on changing the rhythm with our hands and realised that ANY song can be played using the Jamba. We instantly created music, enjoyed singing alongside and found that working as a collaboration within classes made our music sound fantastic!
Thank you so much to Fanuel, for teaching us and sharing his love for this instrument and music.