IN THE CLASSROOM:Kids learn to play drums without missing a beat

At Adams Elementary School last week, music teacher Bridget Duffin led fifth-graders in a rhythmic exercise called “What’s for Dinner?” To start, Duffin pounded four beats on a drum and sang the title phrase — “WHAAAT’s-forDIN-ner?” — then had the students, in pairs, pound the same rhythm back and sing a response: spaghetti and bread, bean burritos and so on.

The object of the lesson was to get the students drumming together as a band — following the same beat, picking up one another’s cues. The exercise, however, proved another point about music: that a strong backbeat can tie together all parts of a song, even goofy lyrics.

“No pepperoni pizza,” Duffin told the class before they began. “Last time, I heard about 15 pepperoni pizzas.”

Four years ago, Duffin began teaching music classes every week at Adams. Among the instruments she’s introduced are recorders, finger cymbals, xylophones — and African Tubano drums, which she obtained through a grant from the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation.

On Tuesday, 24 students shared a dozen Tubanos, slapping them with their palms in the spacious, echoing multipurpose room.

It had to be the multipurpose room. Duffin had led her music lessons in a regular classroom for a while, but moved when students in the neighboring rooms couldn’t concentrate.

“It’s more fun than being in the books all the time,” she said. “They can get their standards through this.”

Last week marked the fifth-graders’ second encounter with the drums. Duffin started the class by doing an “orbit,” starting a rhythm herself and then having students pick it up one at a time, clockwise, without losing the beat.

Coordination, indeed, proved the toughest skill for the students to master — and Duffin came up with a few tactics to help them along.

At one point, she stood in the center of the room with a rubber ball and asked students to beat their drums along with her cues. When she dribbled the ball, they pounded slowly; when she tossed it in the air, they played a roll. As soon as the ball was in her hands, they stopped.

Karolyne Dos Santos said learning to play percussion was fun — and also a challenge, as the teacher constantly kept her guessing.

“At first it’s hard, but once you get the rhythm, it’s easy,” said Karolyne, 10. “But then she changes the rhythm.”