Junkyard Percussion

Junkyard percussion is making music by drumming on things that would usually end up in the skip: bins, buckets, pots, pans, pipes, barrels and bottles. Add some body percussion, like clapping, stamping and slapping your thighs, and a group can build big, layered rhythms out of pure scrap. It's creative, sustainable and gloriously loud.

People have always made music with whatever was lying around. Street performers turn upturned plastic buckets into a full drum kit, and bucket drumming is a familiar sound in city centres. The steel pan from Trinidad and Tobago started life as old oil drums. Stage shows have since built whole routines out of bins, brooms and scrap metal, proving that almost anything can hold a beat if you hit it with enough conviction.

A big bin or water barrel gives a deep boom, a bit like a bass drum. Metal pans and lids clang and ring. Buckets are surprisingly versatile: hit the middle for a fat thud, the rim for a sharp crack, or tip them on their side for something new. Plastic pipes pop, bottles rattle and brushes swish. Swap the drumsticks for bare hands and the whole sound changes again. Your recycling will never look the same.

Your Activity Leader warms everyone up with clapping and stamping, then hands out the junk and a few drumming basics: how to hold the sticks, how to get a clean hit and how to play loud and quiet. Next comes call and response, where you copy a rhythm straight back. Then the group splits into sections, each with its own pattern, and layers them into one big groove. The moment it all locks together is pure goosebumps.

You don't need to. There's no sheet music, no scales and no expensive kit to break. Every rhythm is taught by ear and by copying, so if you can clap along to a song, you're in. Plenty of people find it a brilliant release, because it turns out that hitting a bin as hard as you like is deeply satisfying. And for once, nobody is going to complain about the noise.

You might also like STOMP Body Percussion, Junkyard Samba and Ukulele.

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