Welcome to the Percussion Play Blog
We hope you'll be a regular visitor as we share stories about the instruments we make and the people who play them.
This is where we share our passion for music in the great outdoors! 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
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!
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 recognize the various sounds and pitches of nature.
2 Take advantage of springtime showers
Those brief, light spring showers do more than bring spring 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, recognizing 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...
Outdoor Musical Activity - Dynamics (With Easter Eggs!)
Introducing dynamics to young children is an invitation to make some noise and is the perfect subject to take outside and make good use of your outdoor musical instruments.
This music activity is great fun to play at Easter time, introducing the children to dynamics whilst enjoying an chocolate egg hunt. However, you don’t need to use Easter Eggs, other prizes suitable to whatever time of year it is can of course be used.
Dynamics refer to how loud or soft a musical passage should be played. Instead of just explaining what dynamics are and teaching the different symbols and abbreviations, going outside with a hands-on activity that demonstrates how dynamics can be used and achieved in music, can only help enhance their knowledge and appreciation (the choccy helps of course!)
Explain how Dynamic levels are a natural indicator for emotional mood. Loud dynamics are associated with turmoil, conflict. Marches, fanfares and triumphal music all tend to be loud. Soft dynamics are associated...