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Posted:
Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:32 pmby GuruPimpi
Hi guys!
I'm going to teach my girlfriend's 8 year old daughter playing congas. I attend to do it with a help of games like (playwork), to make it funny, interesting and not boring...
Any suggestions, experiences, rhythmic games...?
Thanks a lot, now off to bed... 
Groove is ON!
Pimpi
Posted:
Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:57 amby CongaTick
Pimpi,
Keep it short and sweet. Unless she's unusual, most 8 yr olds have the attention span of a mosquito.
Posted:
Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:39 pmby GuruPimpi
:laugh:
Well, not here in Slovenija where sugar is not added to almost every food...
I agree, short and sweet. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks CongaTick!
I'll try to figure out some gameful exercises... :O
Pimpi
Posted:
Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:32 pmby GuruPimpi
Guys, what's up with the member rating? ???
Am I getting kicked out, if its low or something? 
P.
Posted:
Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:36 pmby bdrbongo
GuruPimpi wrote:Guys, what's up with the member rating? ???
Am I getting kicked out, if its low or something?
P.
Boy, I hope not, otherwise I'm in trouble.
Posted:
Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:31 amby korman
I think a good bet would be to ask what music the girl likes and teach her some pop patterns that fit well with that music!
Posted:
Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:58 amby GuruPimpi
Korman, that's a good one. It's not latin, but some sort of the cheap pop production. Very good, not for my ears, but still, I can overcome listening to that.
Thanks a lot!
Pimpi
Posted:
Tue Mar 06, 2007 1:11 pmby CongaTick
excellent suggestion korman.
Posted:
Thu Mar 08, 2007 2:24 pmby akdom
hi all
Having kids myself, I would suggest to not work any technics for a while.
Covering songs seems to be a mistake to me.
Juste let her play whatever she does in order to get familiar with the instruments.
Play with her, make her repeat very simple patterne and just make her play tones and basses at first...
Increase the difficulty over the weeks.. approach 6/8 time signature without telling her the difference.. she will learn much more by guessing at first than by trying to repeat elaborate boring stuff.
And yes, your focusing span at 8 is around 30 minutes.
B
Posted:
Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:15 pmby GuruPimpi
Ok, I can try that too. I also found some rhythmic games on LPs web site, a lot of commercial for their products of course, but some good suggestions too.
Thank You Akdom!
Primoz
Posted:
Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:53 pmby CongaTick
Primoz.
Here's a thought. Get her involved doing stuff that is percussive in nature. The link below has great ideas and may create enough "project" interest versus the focus on one instrument. Her interest in the world of percussion is what needs encouraging and exploration.
http://www.rhythmweb.com/homemade/index.html
Posted:
Fri Mar 09, 2007 2:29 pmby GuruPimpi
Very cool, I saw that page couple of years ago and forgot all about it... Thank you a lot CongaTick for that. Got my forgotten ideas back. Yihaaaa!
Congaplace RULES!
P
Posted:
Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:33 pmby CongaTick
Good luck P, and don't forget the most valuable things you can bring to the table with kids are PATIENCE and ABSOLUTE HONESTY.
Posted:
Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:19 pmby GuruPimpi
... no words to that, Abure CongaTick. :;):
Posted:
Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:55 pmby Mike
Hi GuruPimpi,
I´m also bleesed with the abundance of two kids, and my boys have always like "animal games" on the congas (buffalo galloping, frogs leap, all kinds of that animal stuff combined with a "story" I made up on the spot and involved them by singing .
Now that they´re older (6 and 9 years old, they like (firmly set) 5-10 minutes a day when we try to figure out certain patterns in the simple mode: quarter, quaver etc..
As my kids see what my (high school) students play in ceoncerts, they memorize songs (mainly the melody) and play along with them on congas and hand percussion.
To me me it seems that the more familiar you are with the musical context, the better - o rin other words: What´s good for adults, is - on a different level - good for kids, too.
You can´t play what you can´t sing....