What is Body Percussion?

Published: March 29, 2022
What is Body Percussion

Body percussion is the practice of using your own body to create rhythm. It’s a great way to build musicality and make music without instruments.

You can use any part of your body to make music, including hands (clapping, snapping, patting), feet (stomping), or any part of your body.

If you want to know what is body percussion and how to do it, keep reading.

What’s the deal with body percussion

Body percussion is as simple as it sounds: you’re using your body to make music!

You might have done it before without even thinking about it.

Body percussion involves creating a beat or rhythm with your body instead of an instrument.

There are many different types of body percussion, but some of the most common include:

  • Clapping hands
  • Clicking fingers
  • Slapping knees
  • Stamping feet
  • Slapping thighs

You can do body percussion with almost any part of your body—your hands, arms, feet, legs, chest, back, hips—you name it!

Benefits of body percussion

While it’s a fun way to express yourself and make music, body percussion also has some important benefits.

Body percussion improves coordination.

When you use your hands or feet to make rhythmic sounds in time with other people, you’re forced to develop better hand-eye coordination, which can help you improve skills in other areas of life such as sports or even playing instruments!

Also, it’s a great way to get kids involved in making music in ways that don’t require expensive or complicated tools.

Kids can learn the basics of tempo and rhythm with their bodies while still learning other musical concepts.

There are no special skills required to perform body percussion—it is a universal language that all people can understand and enjoy.

How to practice body percussion

Now when you know what is body percussion, would you like to try it?

It’s pretty simple:

1. Start by clapping your hands together, with your palms facing each other.

You can also try clapping the back of one hand against the front of the other hand (but be careful not to clap too hard).

Clap at different speeds to see what works best for you.

2. Now it’s time to add some feet!

At first, just try tapping one foot on the ground in time with your clapping.

Then, try alternating between left and right foot taps.

Finally, try using both feet simultaneously for a really cool effect!

3. Feel like adding more?

You can also try snapping your fingers or stomping on the ground—anything goes when it comes to body percussion! 

Sum-up

Body percussion is the art of making percussive sounds with your body instead of using a musical instrument.

If you’ve ever clapped your hands, stamped your feet, or snapped your fingers, you’ve already created music with body percussion!

And once you start learning more about how it works and experimenting with different sounds and rhythms, you’ll be amazed at all of the fantastic things that can be done using only your body.

The post What is Body Percussion? appeared first on DRUM! Magazine.

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