Bamboo Tamboo
The Year 1 and 2 children have been learning to play bamboo tamboo. Bamboo tamboo means a bamboo drum. It originates from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean before steel drums. Trinidad and Tobago was a former British colony populated by people from Africa, India and South America. Drumming was used by the slaves as a form of communication but in 1884 the beating of skinned drums was banned so the slaves used bamboo instead. The music is usually made up of short rhythmic patterns repeated many times. Performers stand in a circle and stamp their feet and tap the ground to create a steady beat. They can also tap the pole with a stick to create interesting rhythms. The bamboo tamboo has three basic sounds a bounce by the tube pounding the floor, tapping the tube above the slit and also tapping the stick below the slit. They help to develop concentration teamwork and coordination as well as the musical development.
The children learnt to tap or bounce the bamboo tamboo in different rhythmic combinations. We started by keeping a steady beat and then added rhythmic word patterns to play more complicated patterns. They performed three pieces, singing and playing their bamboo tamboo, Tinga layo, Good to be me and Three little birds (Don't worry).
