Making and Playing Simple Percussion Instruments
The Arts | Available (Membership Required)
Budding percussionists of all ages (3-93) will learn how to make and play simple percussion instruments from wood and items found around the home. At the beginning of the workshop, Duane and Maureen Roen will show some percussion instruments that they have built (rain sticks, cajons, kalimbas, guiros, thunder drums, and dozens more), and they will explain their building techniques, as well as cultural origins of some of the instruments. Everyone is welcomed to try out the instruments. Following that, Duane and Maureen will help class participants make simple instruments using everyday objects. The workshop will end with a brief concert performed by all the budding percussionists! Duane and Maureen will provide materials for making simple percussion instruments—e.g., blocks of hardwood and small, hard plastic bottles. If participants can bring some small, hard plastic bottles with lids (e.g., vitamin containers), that would be helpful (but not required).
Duane Roen
Roen, Duane - has been tracing his roots since his teenage years, building a database with more than 32,000 ancestors. He and his wife, Maureen Roen, have also been recording their family history since 1978 by writing more than 19,000 daily journal entries on their children and other family members. Combining his professional and personal interests, Duane worked with colleagues to establish courses on writing and recording family history at Arizona State University. He also is founding coordinator of the Project for Writing and Recording Family History in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at ASU.