Peer Review

DanceDrummer.com

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: An outstanding resource site for introduction to Atsia drumming. Includes
historical information, demonstration of performance practice, adaptation to new
instruments, and integration with traditional dance. Relevant to National
Standards for Music Education 8 (music in relation to dance) and 9 (music in
relation to world cultures).
Type of Material:: Resource/demonstration
Recommended Uses:: Use as a resource for introduction to instruments and characteristic rhythms of
Atsia drumming, adaptation of these rhythms to the standard drum kit, and dance.
Technical Requirements:: QuickTime plugin required.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Students are introduced to names, characteristic rhythms, and performance
techniques associated with a number of west African percussion instruments;
students are shown how traditional Atsia rhythms can be ported to the standard
trap set; students are introduced to the way in which dance and drumming
interact; students learn about the history of the Anlo-Ewe people of west
Africa; students associate visual elements with sounds when exploring the
"Virtual Drum Museum."
Target Student Population:: Middle school or higher; some content areas could be used with upper elementary.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Some areas provide traditional rhythmic notation.

Rating:
Strengths:: This site has high visual appeal and uses animated notation with video to
effectively demonstrate rhythmic patterns. Video clips of dancers (some video
appears to have been shot on location in Africa) help put the drumming in an
artistic and social context.
Concerns:: This site would benefit from the addition of a pronunciation guide.

Rating:
Strengths:: Site is a resource; access to content areas is non-linear. Use of animated
rhythmic notation with video connects rhythms with performance practice.

Rating:
Strengths:: Instructions are clear when provided; not all sections contain or require
instructions. The "Virtual Drum Museum" is especially interactive. The site is
well organized.

Other Issues and Comments:: Author collected information as part of a Fulbright Scholarship to study
drumming and dance in west Africa.
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