Bangin’ on a trash can, a wheel

A trash can and a plastic bucket became melodic Monday at Killybrooke Elementary School, where the percussion group Street Beat turned everyday objects into instant instruments.

Street Beat has performed for Larry King, and has a unit in Denmark. They visit area schools through a collaboration with the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Arts Teach program.

Some kids at the assembly covered their ears at first, as band members Ryan Krieger and Abe Lagrimas composed blistering rhythms out of water bottles, car wheels and cast-iron pots.

But soon the children were giggling, clapping and pounding the multipurpose room floor at the Costa Mesa school, while members of the group — which also has worked with Stomp, Blue Man Group and in “Drumline” — held them enraptured.

“The definition of ‘percussion’ is to take any object and strike it with your hand or a stick, to create sounds to make music,” Lagrimas told the kids.

They learned that pianos are percussion instruments, and that for $4, they can make their own drum set with a plastic 5-gallon bucket and a pair of drumsticks.

They also learned what “repurposed” means, as the Street Beat members performed on a rain barrel donated by a previous school. The rain barrel had a hole in it, rendering it useless for its primary function, so it was offered to Street Beat.

The car wheel entered the instrument pool when Los Angeles-based Street Beat was en route to a performance in San Diego. The wheel fell off the vehicle the bandmates were driving, so Krieger tried to put it back on with a wrench.

“When the wrench hit it, it sounded like a bell,” Krieger said about the wheel.

Pots and pans from his grandmother’s estate also became repurposed instruments, he said.

All kids present learned a basic drumming pattern, the paradiddle.

“With that simple paradiddle, you can all become drummers. You can all be musicians,” Krieger said.

After the show, a group of kindergartners turned their sand pit into an impromptu drum circle, using plastic shovels to bang on sandcastle molds. And teachers prayed they wouldn’t get phone calls from unhappy, sleepless parents.

Kids Talk Back

What was the best part of the Street Beat assembly?

“I liked it when he said he was going to sing.”

Ruben Delgadillo, 5

“My favorite part was the very last song.”

Adam Stanley, 5

“I liked all the music.”

Emelin Diaz, 6

“I liked the ‘We Will Rock You’ part.”

Melissa Luna, 5

“I liked the trash-can one.”

Andrew Bernal, 5