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!
Sansa-Rimba features in care home 'Sensory Accessibility Path'
St. Joseph’s At Fleming a long-term care home in Peterborough, Ontario have created a wonderful new sensory path which aims to enhance the quality of life for its residents. The 'Resident Sensory Accessibility Path' is a paved pathway that wraps around the building, incorporating environmentally friendly features such as gazebos, flowers, memorial gardens, sensory stations and a pond. Open to the public, the wrap-around path is a great way to get the home's 200 residents, family and onsite day care children outside in the fresh air and socialise. A Sansa-Rimba outdoor xylophone has been installed for residents, carers and visitors to play on while taking a moment to rest, stop and admire the view.
Patrick Gillespie, CEO at St. Joseph's at Fleming said the residents didn't have many safe places to walk and getting outdoors is crucial. "The path not only provides a safe and accessible route, but it also encourages more outdoor programs and gets residents to engage with others along their...
Percussion Play at International Trade Fair for Urban Green and Open Spaces - GaLaBau 2016
From 14 to 17 September 2016, the green carpet is being rolled out again at the exhibition centre in Nuremberg for the 22nd GaLaBau exhibition. Over 1300 international companies are exhibiting, all specialising in the planning, construction and maintenance of gardens, parks and green facilities. GaLaBau is considered Europe's most important meeting for the green sector with over 67,000 landscape gardeners, architects and clients from cities and local authorities expected to attend.
Percussion Play and Percussion Play Denmark have teamed up to exhibit together on Stand 1-333 in Hall 1.
galabau2016 #percussionplay #outdoormusicforall
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Percussion Play were delighted to be announced the GaLaBau 'Stand of the Day' with so many visitors coming to talk to us and play on the musical instruments!
Kids' Brains on Music [Infographic]
We all know that playing music is fun but have you ever considered how much it affects children's brains? Music has the potential to unlock a huge variety of skills in children without them even realising it. This infographic looks at the most important things that music can teach kids.
Music secretly develops language and communication, memory, numeracy and social skills. All the while, the children playing music are doing just that: playing and having fun. This double hit of fun and learning makes music one of the greatest learning experiences there is.
Let's take a deeper look at the positive impact of music.
Kids Brains on music Music is hugely important for children. Not just because it's fun, but because it encourages a very special kind of learning. Just like language, music is learned by participating. It's a social experience that offers so much more than meets the...
Leave the text books inside for Empty Classroom Day
Let’s hope that the sun will be shining for 'Empty Classroom Day' on Friday 17th June.
An annual celebration of learning outside, Empty Classroom Day is a chance to inspire schools to take to their playgrounds, fields and gardens and find creative ways to enjoy taking at least one class outdoors during the school day.
The aim of the campaign is that in every school in the world there will be an empty classroom and pupils will be leaving the text books inside and experimenting and learning in a whole range of subjects in the great outdoors. Sounds right up our street!
Learning outside the classroom can be fun, memorable and healthy and the outdoor classroom presents an array of opportunities for pupils to take part in both independent and collaborative experimental learning.
Some things just work better outdoors and music for young children is one of them
A great music program is one that uses your whole environment, indoors and outdoors. Musical instruments in your outdoor...
New Music Garden Honours Famed Children's Trio Sharon, Lois and Bram
Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison — two-thirds of the famed children’s trio Sharon, Lois and Bram known for songs like 'Little Rabbit Foo Foo', 'One Elephant Went Out to Play' and, of course, 'Skinnamarink' — treated kids and adults alike to a sing-a-long in June Rowlands Park, Toronto earlier this month to celebrate the opening of a music garden created in their honour. It's fitting that the trio, who won three Juno Awards, sold millions of CDs in North America and performed at the White House, have been honoured in this way – through music. Their friend and fellow member, Lois Lilienstein, sadly died of cancer in April 2015.
The Sharon, Lois and Bram Playground inside June Rowlands Park has a variety of areas and activities named after their favourite songs. The 'Itsy Bitsy Spider Music Garden' complete with outdoor musical instruments and climbable elephant sculpture also features a small theatre-of-the-round where kids can go up and sing and perform.
For this music garden,...
Celebrating The Music - 'Shakespeare 400'
“Shakespeare 400” is a year-long, worldwide celebration of the life of William Shakespeare and marking the 400th anniversary of his death in 1616. Music is central to the work of Shakespeare. The majority of his plays could be divided into one of three categories - comedy, tragedy and history with each genre requiring different emotions to be reflected in the music, to set the mood and add to the entertainment of the performance. Instrumental music, performed at the Globe by professional musicians, was an integral part of the drama of Shakespeare's plays: music evoked sleep, magic, madness, love, death, the passing of time. Music is capable of indicating to an audience a change of tone within the drama and Shakespeare realised this more than any other dramatist of his day.
Music generally played an important role in the lives of the people who lived during the Elizabethan era and it was the major form of entertainment. The popularity of stringed and keyboard instruments grew tremendously...