Slap Yourself Silly!

I don't know about you but in the holidays I spent a LOT of time sitting on the couch watching lots and lots of TV and movies!

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Every now and then I would need to do something to get my body moving again, and sometimes I'd need to slap myself silly to get my legs and arms moving after sitting down for so long!

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One of the ways I did this was by playing some body percussion. Body percussion is where we can make sounds and music with our bodies by either hitting, tapping, slapping, clapping, stomping or rubbing our arms, feet, legs or hands.

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Below is a body percussion challenge for you to try. There are 5 different levels from Beginner all the way up to Master.

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The aim of the challenge is to try and play the entire body percussion rhythm to the speed of 280 Beast Per Minute (280BPM) which is really, REALLY fast!

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Have a look at the video with the different levels of challenge and see how far up you can make it.

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Remember, you'll need to practice and take your time. It will be tricky at first, but with resilience you'll be able to master it in no time at all!

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Extra Challenge

If you made it to 280 BPM and were able to do that easily here are a few additional challenges for you:

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- Try and play the pattern backwards. Can you do it just as fast?

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- See if you can make up a new pattern with different sounds or by re-arranging the sounds. Remember it is 4 lots of 4 beats (4 bars of 4) or 16 even counts.

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- Record yourself playing the pattern then play it back to yourself. When you play it back see if you can star the pattern at a different spot to create a cannon (or round). You could then try and record this and add a third or fourth part to your cannon.

- Try and teach the rhythm to a relative or friend and see if they can play it with you. Challenge each other to a play off.

- Use this link to an online metronome. A metronome is a device that we use in music and dance to help us keep playing at a steady beat (it is usually the tick or count in you might here at the beginning of a song or before an activity). 
Use the metronome to see if you can play your rhythm at a different speed to what was in the video. Remember, slow doesn't always mean it is easier, and faster doesn't always mean it will be more fun. If you can play it correctly record it and share it with Mr. A for bragging rights, otherwise he might see if can do it live for him when you're back at school. 

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https://www.musicca.com/metronome