Color Drumming: A Cross-Training Rhythm Printable For Level 2 Students

You have probably heard of cross-training. It’s a regular part of any athlete’s routine where they develop their skills by performing a sport or activity other than their own.

Think… rowing and biking or yoga and running.

Our piano students can (and should) cross-train too and “color drumming”, an activity that does NOT require a drum set, is a wonderfully fun way to hyper-focus on rhythm work.

With nothing but an overturned container, a couple of pencils (drumsticks), and the Color Drumming For Piano Students printable we are sharing today, color drumming will probably work its way into your regular lesson routine.

Use Color Drumming With These Students

Color drumming is a rhythm activity that requires a little bit of coordination on the part of your piano students.

While you can give it a go with kids of any age, it is best suited to slightly older students.

Today’s Color Drumming For Piano Students printable is designed as a standalone activity but will work wonders when paired with our newly-released WunderKeys Elementary Piano Lesson Book 2A.

With a focus on dotted quarter notes and eighth rests, today’s printables will commit these tricky rhythms to memory and eliminate any stumbles when your students return to the bench.

Note: If you’re interested in WunderKeys Elementary Piano Lesson Book 2A you can check it out here.

Color Drumming For Piano Students

As mentioned earlier, the primary purpose of color drumming for piano students is to improve rhythmic accuracy.

There are so many additional benefits; the two most important are eye-hand messaging and left-hand strength training.

Eye-Hand Messaging

When children play on the grand staff, the brain is constantly processing the bass staff and treble staff imagery and communicating these messages to the left hand or right hand. Like all skills required to play piano, students can improve the speed of this messaging with practice.

With colored notes placed on a single line of rhythm, students have to use different cues to exercise their brains and speed up this processing. Rather than relying on a bass clef or a treble clef, students instead must focus on note colors. This variety leads to improvement.

Left-Hand Strength Training

For most young piano players, the left hand is weaker than the right hand. Any opportunity to strengthen the left hand should, therefore, be employed.

Rhythm practice represents one such opportunity.

In most studios, clapbacks are the most common rhythm practice tool. And while clapbacks are wonderful, they do not develop left-hand motor skills.

With color drumming, rhythms are produced with the left hand, the right hand, and both hands. It is a real brain workout that will both strengthen the left hand and improve bilateral abilities.

How To Color Drum

Your student should sit on the floor with an overturned container (ice cream bucket), the color drumming printable, and a pencil in each hand.

The Color Drumming printable contains lines of “rhythm-only” music with colored note heads.

If a note head is RED, the student should tap the rhythmic value with the pencil in her right hand, if a note head is BLUE, the student should tap the rhythmic value with the pencil in her left hand, and if a note head is black, the student should tap the rhythmic value with both pencils.

Download Our Color Drumming For Piano Students Printable

To download today’s Color Drumming printable, click on the image below. And don’t forget to check out WunderKeys Elementary Piano Lesson Book 2A.