Welcome to the Percussion Play Blog
We hope you'll be a regular visitor as we blog and share stories about the instruments we make and the people who play them. We'll share with you details of exciting new outdoor music projects and designs from around the globe. We'll share with you information about the instruments we sell and a little about the inspiration behind them. We'll also let you know about sales and events taking place.
Most importantly, this Blog is about what we love to do the most - help you create new and exciting ways to bring music to the great outdoors.
Thank you for reading, visiting, commenting and contributing - we’re excited to have you here!
Take the Music Lesson Outdoors This Winter
It may be getting chilly but that's no reason to stay indoors. With the onset of winter, December may not be the obvious month to think about purchasing outdoor musical instruments or focusing on the importance of children playing outdoors. However as the weather changes and temperatures drop it is even more important that we plan appropriate activities for children to enjoy fresh air. Studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that “exposure to cold air causes a cold,” fresh air is good and healthy. When children and adults spend a long time together in indoor spaces that are heated and poorly ventilated, germs and illnesses pass easily from one person to another. Winter is a wonderful time to be outside and as the daylight hours are shorter it is especially important that children experience creative outdoor play during their school day.
Percussion Play’s musical instruments are designed to withstand the elements and live outside all year to help create an outdoor...
Bags packed and ready to exhibit at ASLA2017
ASLA is the national professional association for landscape architects; their annual meeting and Expo is the largest gathering of landscape architecture professionals in the world. Held annually by ASLA in various cities throughout the United States. As well as education sessions, workshops and field sessions, attendees can explore new products, services, and design solutions presented by over 400 exhibitors all under one roof at the trade show.
Percussion Play will be creating a large stand to showcase our instruments and will be on hand to offer demonstrations and discuss how you can incorporate outdoor musical instruments to deliver innovative results for future landscaping projects. With the launch of our brand new app we’re sure to have plenty to talk about. We’re looking forward to a great few days of networking and sharing ideas.
We will be on Booth 1525, so be sure to stop by!
Bringing Harmony to the 2017 NRPA Annual Conference
The 2017 NRPA Annual Conference is attended by more than 7,000 park and recreation professionals along with other related professions such as; landscape architecture, aquatics, fitness, city planning, property and facility management, park advocacy, environmental education, civil engineering, sustainability and more.
Attendees are invited to listen to over 500 expert speakers and approximatley 300 education sessions are available to them over the three days. However, it's in the exhibition hall that attendees are invited to 'try before they buy' and test out some pretty amazing cutting edge playground equipment and other products from some of the top brands supplying the industry.
Percussion Play have headed to the 'big easy' to make our own noise at the conference on booth #1547 – inviting all attendees to come and join in the fun in our very own free-for-all jam session!
Outdoor Musical Instruments Arrive in Romania
The Libra Foundation takes UK students out to Romania to work in children’s residential centres, with children from Roma communities and with underprivileged Romanian children. The residential centres are home to children and young people with varying needs and abilities; from learning difficulties to specific physical needs and requirements. The children from the Roma communities are often developmentally delayed, live in extreme poverty and are socially marginalised and the underprivileged Romanian children are socially deprived and often extremely poor.
Libra aims to provide resources and experiences to these Romanian children that the centres, schools and families cannot otherwise afford and which have a significant impact on the children’s wellbeing and that of their parents and carers. This includes working with staff and carers to deliver training and workshops and encouraging local volunteering to make Libra's work sustainable.
The Alexandra Centre in Onesti is a therapeutic...
Why Build a Musical Sensory Garden?
We recently released our Guide to Building the Perfect Musical Garden with tips on planning, planting and percussion. We want everyone to enjoy music and sound in the great outdoors. It’s free to download right now!
Everyone Can Enjoy Them There’s a preconception with the word sensory – it feels loaded. It’s as if it means “only for disabled people” or “only for children”.
Yes, sensory gardens offer a wider spectrum of stimuli than the binary audiovisual content most modern humans are used to consuming, but it doesn’t mean that they’re exclusive.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Sensory gardens are among the most inclusive places in the world, where anybody – young or old, regardless of ability – can be in tune with nature and interact with each other.
The vibrations of outdoor musical instruments can be felt as well as heard, adding new dimensions for deaf people and those...
Help wake up your spring senses with our '5 Ways to Celebrate Spring with Music and Movement'
1 Go for a listening walk
There are all kinds of sounds to be discovered outside, especially in the Springtime. Listen for and talk about the spring sounds that are all around - then use your outdoor musical instruments to create melodic representations of these sounds. This will help children recognise the various sounds and pitches of nature.
2 Take advantage of springtime showers
Those brief, light spring showers do more than bring May flowers, they also leave perfectly sized puddles that are great for jumping, stomping, splashing, and giggling! Use your instruments to help develop improvisation and imaginative movement. You could create a rainstorm, recognising the steady beat of rain, and tapping rhythms while introducing dynamics. Talk about how before the rain there is silence, then it starts off softly and grows louder gradually (crescendo) then as it dies down gets softer gradually (decrescendo).
3 'Spring Clean' your Music Goals
Why not plan a spring outdoor music...