"Knock knock, knock......" Recently, when I walked into the classroom of Luoxiong University for the Elderly, I was attracted by a burst of drums, and a group of old comrades were practicing African drums.
Nguyen Shaohuan, 57, is the president of the University for the Elderly. One day in 2022, she went to the old town of Lijiang to play. As a rhythmic drum beat came, she saw an old man dancing with gestures while beating the drum, and the colorful patterns on the drum attracted her attention. Through conversation, I learned that the drum beaten by the old man is called the African drum, which is a traditional West African instrument that is relatively easy to get started, and you can practice with the music, and the elderly will not be limited to the threshold because of too many technical requirements, and it is more easy to carry, and the physical load will not be too large for the elderly.
After learning about African drums, Ruan Shaohuan discussed with several students from the University for the Elderly, and decided to open an African drum learning class and invited Liu Xiaoxiong to be the teaching teacher. So far, there are more than 200 students in the African drum class, the oldest of whom is in his 70s and the youngest is 30 years old.
At the beginning, the team members were very unfamiliar with African drums, so Mr. Liu explained the basic skills such as drum holding posture, basic rhythm, percussion position, rhythm change, body rhythm, etc., to the guidance of music theory knowledge, so that the students' knowledge of African drums changed from writing to drum surface, and gradually improved their sense of rhythm and hand coordination. Although they started from scratch, through Mr. Liu's patient and meticulous teaching, the students improved their speed and felt very happy. I saw that in the class, some students beat African drums, and the other students danced with the cheerful drums, the drums were loud and pleasant, and the cheerful rhythm and beautiful melody were intertwined, and the scene was very lively. The students used African drums to create beautiful music together, and while feeling the unique charm of African drums, they also felt the passion and endless happiness of life, and also enhanced their feelings for each other!
Xie Hongbo, a student of the African Drum Class, said: "I like to play African drums very much, because it is easy to learn and the rhythm is warm and cheerful, which opens up a new world for us seniors, not only to exercise our bodies, but also to meet a lot of friends and enrich our lives." ”
Since the beginning of the class, the students have been able to perform more than 10 African drum programs, and in this year's Luoping Flower Sea series of events, the students cheered for the athletes with enthusiastic African drum performances, showing the demeanor and vitality of the elderly in the new era, and became a beautiful scenery in the event.
Correspondent: Qian Baiyu