Bucket Drumming is a not-so-new craze many elementary music teachers have picked up as a way to affordably get their kids making music, practicing the steady beat, and expanding their rhythm skills and rhythm vocabulary.
I had never gotten into Bucket Drumming with my students until my wife started to teach it.
Then, I saw how excited they got to play the drums.
Truth be told, good buckets made a similar sound to the drums we buy for our elementary music classrooms, and you can often get buckets donated for free.
Still, there are those who don’t know where to start, which is why I decided to write this guide to bucket drumming for kids.
Read ahead for tips and helpful information.
Table of Contents
Bucket Drumming 101: What Is Bucket Drumming?
Bucket drumming is just like the name sounds.
You take a bucket (5-gallon preferably) and a pair of drum sticks or any sticks and start playing away.
This large space of the bucket drum provides a good sound, but you don’t have to worry about the kids breaking or damaging the buckets since they’re A) tough and B) dirt cheap or free.
Bucket drumming doesn’t have to use buckets.
Some people use glass bottles, pots, and pans too!
All of this creates different timbres or types of sound.
Depending on the material and size of the bucket drum, a good player can even create melodies, though most of the time, it’s a rhythmic experience.
Bucket Drumming has risen in popularity in schools in the past 5 years especially, but it’s been a staple of the city busker for years.
There has been a long history of street performers playing for money in subways and at street corners by showing off their sweet percussion skills.
Here’s a street bucket drummer showing off their stuff:
Best Buckets For Bucket Drumming
While there is no wrong or bad bucket for drumming, there is some that rise to the top in terms of quality of sound, price, and durability.
The general agreement is that 4-5 gallon buckets are the best.
If you buy ones from a hardware store (such as the ones at Home Depot), you’ll often be able to find them for a few bucks, especially if you buy them in bulk.
Sometimes, they’ll even give you them for cheaper if you mention you’re with a school.
But then again, a lot of folks will also just put out the call for buckets to their parents.
This is what my wife did, and she ended up with more than she needed for her music classes.
5 Bucket Drumming Play-Along Music Songs
I haven’t expanded into writing a lot for Bucket Drumming myself because there are so many great play-alongs already out there!
Here are a few of my favorites (with popular songs) to check out.
Warning! Simple playing along does work well, but there are some tips you’ll want to keep in mind if you want to make the most of your experience teaching Bucket Drumming.
Check out those tips in the next section.
These are good for beginning to read sheet music and practice basic rhythms.
5 Tips For How To Teach Bucket Drumming
Set Procedures Early On
Any music teacher with experience will tell that the instant you put drumsticks or an instrument in front of kids, they will go crazy playing it.
Setting up clear expectations ahead of time and telling them when they’ll be allowed to play is critical for keeping things under control.
But there are times we all forget in our own excitement to get them playing.
It’s never too late to back up and clarify what you expect.
It’s not about being controlling; it’s about keeping the people and instruments safe.
Don’t be afraid to reinforce those expectations too.
It’s fun to go “crazy,” but it’s more fun to make cool music.
Keep The Sticks Low
Right in the beginning, set your expectations for keeping the sticks low to the buckets.
As soon as they get their sticks, save yourself a headache later on by teaching them to get the height down.
The higher the sticks are, the louder they play.
We want to play under control and accurately, and high playing causes too much volume and sloppy playing.
It’s best to teach elementary music students right from the beginning that great playing requires skill on top of heart and passion.
This is where showing videos of great bucket drummers like the video at the top and talking about practice and intent are important to help your students sound great (and have real fun!).
Focus On One New Thing At A Time
We spend so much time in our music classrooms being intentional about what we teach and how we teach it.
But the temptation when we’re not sure what to do is always to just throw the buckets in front of the kids and start exploring, maybe play a video or two to help us out.
This works out just fine in the end, but I want to encourage you to keep in mind how you like to teach other instruments or skills.
If you’re a Kodaly person, you like to extract elements from folk songs to apply.
If you’re an Orff person, you may like to explore and do a lot of body percussion and speaking rhythms.
Don’t abandon the techniques you love!
Use them to help get the most out of the buckets.
Start with simple rhythms even if they know more complex ones.
Say-Air-Hands-Bucket Cycle
With the above in mind, many people use a cycle of teaching when preparing for a bucket drumming activity.
- Say – Speak and say the rhythms either with rhythm syllables or words to help remember the pattern.
- Air – Use your hands in the air while your say rhythms to mime the motions they’ll need for drumming.
- Hands – Either make the patterns with your hands on your laps or use the drums with your hands.
- Bucket – Transfer the patterns to the buckets with drum sticks or dowels, depending on what you have.
Sound Before Symbol
Here’s another picky one for me, but it really makes a difference in your teaching and the success of your students.
Don’t throw the notation in front of them right away if you want them to really understand what it is they’re looking at.
Use body percussion, syllables, call and response, and word ostinati to help you teach the patterns first.
It’ll mean more when they can connect the patterns to what they’ve actually learned.
5 Benefits Of Bucket Drumming For Kids
Why do Bucket Drumming at all?
Is it worth the effort of messing with all the weird buckets?
For many, it is!
Check out these reasons why.
Reinforces Steady Beat
I’ve often heard many a music teacher in both the secondary and elementary say that if they could have their kids do two things, they’d be ecstatic:
- Enjoy and appreciate music of all kinds.
- Keep a steady beat.
Well, playing drums, and by extension bucket drums, is a great way to do this.
Builds Coordination
With young kids, a big part of their development is in building better coordination.
Music and drumming are one of the best ways to do this.
Studies show that students with better hand-eye coordination actually do better in all areas of school and learn better.
There are fewer ways to build coordination better than with music performing, as music activates many areas of the brain all at once.
Saves Money On Real Drums
From a practical perspective, Bucket Drums save a ton of money for music teachers on a budget (and who isn’t?).
For a couple of dollars, you can get a 5-gallon bucket instead of spending $20 or more per drum.
Durable Play Surface
Buckets are designed to take a beating, maybe not from drumming per se, but they’ll stand up to hundreds of kids beating on them daily.
Saves Space By Stacking
You might think that all those buckets will take up a ton of space.
In reality, most of the buckets are designed to stack into one another, especially if they are all the same type.
Shockingly, 30 buckets can take up to two or three 3′ foot stacks and leave you plenty of room.
I should know; I share a small closet for all of my materials.