What To Do With Those Djembes

If you are starting a new job in a new classroom and suddenly find yourself with access to a set of djembes you don't know what to do with, or you have had the instruments for a while and feel like you're not getting as much use out of them as you should, this post is for you! In this post you'll find tips for storage, procedures for managing their use with students, and tons of lesson ideas to use with every grade from Kindergarten up through 6th grade!

First a quick note: in this post I'm going to be talking about these Toca Freestyle Colorsound Djembes, which I have in my classroom and have seen many other elementary music teachers using. Some tips and ideas are specific to those instruments but for the most part, apply to any similar djembes you may have in your classroom.

1. Storage

My general rule of thumb with instruments is to store them where students can easily get them and put them back themselves, and for djembes like this, some type of open shelving I think works best. Unlike some other types of drums, they don't stack on top of each other very well (believe me, I've tried), so they can end up taking up a lot of real estate! One small thing I discovered last year that allowed me to fit a lot more drums on the same shelf was to alternate between right side up and upside down so they don't take up as much room- this was a game changer for me!

2. Management

The main problem you're likely to encounter from a management perspective with djembes is students wanting to drum on them when they aren't supposed to. Obviously I have the same rule for the djembes as I do for every other instrument in my classroom: If you play before I say, you'll make the instrument go away. But beyond that I find with drums, students don't realize that touching the drumhead at all can cause the instrument to sound. I always remind students not to touch the white part when they are carrying them or waiting for their turn. Pointing out the color is much more concrete and specific and helps avoid a lot of problems!

One of the reasons I love these Toca Freestyle Colorsound Djembes specifically is because they come in sets of 7 colors, and 6 of those colors are the exact colors I use to break each class into rows/ teams (read about my color teams here- I use them for everything). I love being able to tell students to use the drum that matches their color team, but even if you don't use color "teams" in your classroom, I highly recommend assigning students to a color with some type of system to avoid arguments over which color they get. 

3. Lesson Ideas

This is definitely not an exhaustive list of lessons I love to teach using djembes, but here are some of my favorite ways to use them in each grade:

Kindergarten: It wasn't until recently that I started using the djembes with Kindergarten because they usually sit in the floor and I found it was difficult for them to play while sitting on the floor without knocking the drum over. But a few years ago I figured out that if they sit "criss-cross" with the drum sitting on the floor between their legs, it works really well and of course the students think they are super cool to play! I mostly use them for playing steady beat with a track since they can be quite loud (even when they are resting on the floor)!

1st grade: Even though my 1st graders sit in chairs most of the time, I find most of them are too small to hold the djembe properly between their knees with their feet on the floor. I usually have 1st graders use the djembes to work on rhythm compositions in small groups. I give them a small dry erase board and a marker or use these DIY rhythm cards to write a 4-beat rhythm, then they practice playing it on the djembe and eventually perform for the group. The djembes are easy to manage while sitting in a circle on the floor so they work well for this activity.

2nd grade: I usually teach students how to properly hold djembes in 2nd grade but sitting up in their chairs, putting their feet on the floor, and holding the drum between their knees with the top of the drumhead level with the top of their legs. I use them most often for rhythm play-along videos because they are loud enough to hear over the track.

3rd grade: I like to show my 3rd graders how to "roll" on the djembes to play long notes, especially the whole notes they learn for the first time in 3rd grade. 

4th-6th grade: The smaller djembes I have start to get a little small for some students' hands in the upper elementary grades so I will often use tubanos instead of djembes with this age group, but for a quick rhythm reading or composition activity the djembes are much easier to pull out and put away quickly. I also used the djembes to supplement instruments for drum circle activities when I didn't have very many larger tubanos to use, and then I would just have students put down their instruments in front of their chairs and rotate every few minutes so they could take turns playing the different types of drums. You can read about my favorite drum circle activities in this post.

I hope this gives you some ideas to start using your djembes more in your lessons! If you want the fully detailed lesson plans and materials for everything I do with djembes and more, you can find them in my curriculum. They are such a great instrument to have for rhythm, composition, steady beat, and more and my students always think they are way cooler than hand drums!