Fayette Middle School - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Pedagogy - Instrumental Rhythm
High school marching bands used bass and snare drums. Neither was a melodic instrument. [1] Both had one head that was struck and another that was vibrated by the sound waves from the first that amplified the sound. Bass drums were muffled by placing a hand on the vibrating surface. Snare drums had wire strings across the bottom that give them their characteristic sound. When the snares were disengaged, the drums sounded more like tom-toms. Both types of drums were beaten on the rims by marching bands when they were not playing.

Since school drums were not melodic, young percussionists did not need to learn tones. Instead, they learned standardized beating patterns called rudiments. The band method books showed the beats or rudiment patterns on five-line staves without clef symbols.

The melodies for "Kumbaya" included in five method books had the same intervals and durations, but were in different key and tempos. The bass drum part was similar in all and congruent with the expectation that it set the beat. For the first full measure in the three lines that supported "yah my Lord," Band Folio [2] and Yamaha Advantage mirrored the melody’s dotted-quarter-eighth-note pattern. Essential Elements and Standard of Excellence began with a half note.

Elements and Evans echoed the melody’s use of a half note. Standard and Yamaha finished the measure with two quarter notes. Standard’s tympani part was like Yamaha

Elements, Standard and Yamaha used nearly identical patterns for the snare drums, but Elements and Standard had the wires released. They began with an eighth and two sixteenths, followed by two eight notes. Yamaha continued the eighth notes on the third and fourth beats, while Standard specified two quarter notes. Elements concluded with four sixteenth notes and two quarters.

Band Folio’s arrangement for the first phrase was more challenging. The first three beats were single eighth notes followed by two sixteenth notes. The last beat reversed the pattern with two sixteenths and an eighth note. [3]

Accent on Achievement was more inventive. John O’Reilly used a wooden block instead of a bass drum and had the snares off. The block sounded on the first, third, and fourth beats. The snare/tom-tom began with a dotted-quarter and an eighth that sounded when the block was silent. The third beat was a quarter note and the last a nine-stroke roll. [4] The last had been defined a few pages earlier as using "alternate single strokes, beginning with either hand" to play sixteenth notes rapidly. [5]

Some used other methods to accent the beat. Elements specified a triangle on the first and third beats. Yamaha had the snare drummer emphasize the taps that coincided with the beginning of syllables in the melody.

Several of the band books that included "Kumbaya" also included directions on how to play instruments struck by mallets like marimbas or bells, but none showed the glockenspiel held upright as was done by marching bands. The directions for playing drums were on the left hand page and the melodic ones on the right, so young musicians were exposed to the same information.

The only editors to go beyond those two instrument classes were Standard, which had a separate book for tympani and "auxiliary percussion," [6] and Accent. O’Reilly included triangles, tambourines, suspended cymbals, and crash cymbals. The photographs of mallet instruments included a vibraphone, xylophone, and chimes. Accent suggested these other instruments at strategic points in the book, like the use of the block with "Kumbaya."

Elements only provided instructions on how to play the snare drum, although it used the bass drum from the beginning. In the opening pages it had a list of percussion instruments that it included for specific songs without comment. [7] Keyboard percussion was introduced at the very end.

Few schools had many of the more exotic instruments, and their teachers were probably like David Wright at Hilltop Christian who was trained on flute, not drums. [8] Jason Currin was the exception at Fayette Middle School, located less than twenty-five miles from downtown Atlanta. [9] He’d studied percussion at Berklee College, [10] and had several adults or older students help him when the middle school’s world percussion ensemble played "Kumbaya" in 2007.

Currin’s arrangement began with a cowbell playing a rhythm. He was joined by a man playing a floor drum, then by one playing a goblet drum with paddles. The three adults set a three-layered rhythm for the students who joined them with a djembé, floor drums, and shakers.

After twenty seconds of percussion, the marimbas begin alternating between two notes. The multiple rhythms continued for a full minute. Then, the marimbas played the melody of "Kumbaya."

Shakers took over after the verse was completed. The man with the goblet drum had a solo with a small drum held under his arm and played with both a hammer and a hand that was accompanied by only the drums. They stop while the marimbas played the melody alone. The piece concluded with the drums joining the melodic instruments.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none

Instrumental Solo: marimba family, [11] small drum held under the arm

Rhythm Accompaniment: floor drums, djembé, shakers, cowbell

Credits
Traditional, arr. Currin

Notes on Lyrics
There were none.

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: alternated rhythm sections with solo or melodic ones

Rhythm Style: African, with layers of repeating, but offset patterns of strong and weak beats that were kept together by one instrument that set the cadence.

Notes on Performance
Occasion: concert, 21 April 2007

Location: stage; Jason Currin’s Ultra Terrific Udu Xylorimba Tom Tom Gong-a-Thon

Microphones: one on the small drum held under the arm
Clothing: casual clothes

Notes on Movement
The drummers were seated in a semicircle in front. The marimbas were arrayed behind with shakers and possibly other percussion instruments behind them. The second and third rows stood. Currin stood behind the drummers and played the cowbell.

Notes on Audience
Some in the audience started to applaud when the music got soft before the final section. They all clapped at the end.

Audience Perceptions
One boy wrote: "I got to that school and we’re know for it!" [12]

Notes on Performers
Fayette County grew cotton before the Civil War. Its schools served both the town of Fayetteville and the county. [13] Fayette Middle School was closed in 2014. It had served about 720 students in grades 6 to 8. [14]

Availability
Band Books
Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 30 in Accent on Achievement. Book 1 Combined Percussion. Edited by John O’Reilly and Mark Williams. Van Nuys, California: Alfred Publishing Company, 1998.

Book: "Kum Bah Yah." 19-B in Essential Elements. Book 1. Percussion. Edited by Tom C. Rhodes, Donald Bierschenk, and Tim Lautzenheiser. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1991.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 35 in Standard of Excellence. Book 1. Drums and Mallet Percussion. Edited by Bruce Pearson. San Diego: Neil A. Kjos Company, 1993.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 35 in Standard of Excellence. Book 1. Timpani and Auxiliary Percussion. Edited by Bruce Pearson. San Diego: Neil A. Kjos Company, 1993.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah." 32 in The Yamaha Advantage. Book 1. Combined Percussion. Edited by Sandy Feldstein and Larry Clark. Paoli, Pennsylvania: Sandy Feldstein Music, 2001.

Fayette Middle School World Percussion Ensemble
YouTube: uploaded by Jason Currin on 17 October 2007.

End Notes
1. The lack of tonality in snare drums is a cultural value. When Haskell W. Harr wrote his manual on drumming in 1937, calf skin was used for the head that was "very susceptible to weather conditions." [page 4] A drummer had to adjust his heads accordingly. [page 5] He or she also had to strike the drum near the center, because "the pitch of the drumhead varies. The tone in the center of the head is dead, due to the strain applied by the tension rods pulling from all sides. The farther away from the center you play the higher the pitch of the tone. [. . .] By playing with each stick an equal distance from the center of the head you will have an even tone." [page 12] (Drum Method. Book 1. Chicago: Cole Publishing Company, 1937.)

Since he wrote, synthetic materials have been adapted for heads and method books have been written for younger musicians. Only one of the modern books I reviewed mentioned striking in the center (Elements, 2) and only one mentioned the need to tune. (Yamaha, 2) They assumed the band teacher would correct errors. It also was possible beginners did not, in fact, play on drums, but learned by using sticks on table tops. This was how drumming was taught when I was in elementary school in 1956.

2. For more on Evans’ Band Folio, see the post for band 27 June 2018.

3. This was the pattern reversal mentioned was for "Skip to My Lou" in the post for 26 August 2018.

4. Accent introduced the nine-stroke roll on page 27 as "a double bounce roll based on sticking for sixteenth notes." Harr told young snare drum players: "The NINE STROKE ROLL is played from hand to hand, the same as the five stroke. This roll has five primary strokes, the first four are bounced, the fifth stroke is single." [page 34] When he introduced rolls on page 31, he said "each stick strikes the drumhead and rebounces once." He also noted that the roll did not vary with tempo; when the pace changed, the number of strokes changed to fill the time.

5. Accent. 27.

6. The tympani part was like the bass drum of Yamaha Advantage. The auxiliary percussion included: crash and suspended cymbals, temple and wood blocks, triangle, tambourine, sleigh bells, maracas, and claves. It provided instructions when the instruments first were used.

7. These included: crash and suspended cymbals, wood block, triangle, tambourine, sleigh and cow bells, maracas and claves.

8. For more on Wright and Hilltop Christian, see the post for 1 July 2018.
9. Wikipedia. "Fayetteville, Georgia."
10. "About Jason Currin." Facebook.
11. I couldn’t see details of the instruments on the video.
12. Bob Marlin. YouTube comment, 2011.
13. Wikipedia. "Fayetteville, Georgia."
14. "Fayette Middle School." Public School Review website.