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This smartly designed and effective book, written by a teacher for teachers, provides a simple easy-to-use method for teaching students of any ability level how to understand and become part of a real African drumming ensemble.

Author Calla Isaak, an accomplished music educator and pedagogian from Winnipeg, Canada, developed this curriculum. It offers a step-by-step approach that ultimately allows students of all ability levels to participate in an authentic African drumming ensemble by the end of this four-stage course. This innovative curriculum is a direct result of her own combined passions for African drumming and music education, and her enthusiasm for both subjects is evident in the book.

By starting out with simple techniques and rhythmic exercises before gradually moving on through a series of progressively more challenging stages, students get a strong understanding of the principles of ensemble playing before they become a part of one.

Ms. Isaak, a K-8 music teacher at the Julie-Riel School in Winnipeg, incorporates the principles of the Orff Schulwerk teaching method into the book, a strategy meant to help bridge the gap between the conventions of a traditional Western music education program and the very foreign language that is African rhythm.

Equally effective as it is fun, "African Rhythms & Beats" will be as much of a hit with you as it is with your students! Students of any age from kindergarten to grade school to high school will enjoy and be challenged by this stimulating curriculum.

This book also covers basic hand drum technique; provides information on traditional African rhythmic instruments like the gankogui, axatse, kenkeni, dununba, sangban, and balafons; and includes authentic, traditional African songs and rhythms from Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, and Nigeria. As a special bonus, "African Rhythms & Beats" also includes the children's mixed choir arrangement of Brian Rodford's modern holiday masterpiece "African Christmas."