quick and dirty 소고 만들다 for 아이들 — a tutorial

my kids love their sogo drums, and love watching groups of korean preschoolers perform onstage for their families using these user-friendly “lollipop” drums.

when we decided to run a sogo workshop for kids at the community cultural exchange on south street, our first challenge was: how can we MAKE a sogo with kids, that they can then play right away? one that is not dripping with paint?

we also wanted a low price point for materials. oh, and we wanted the drums… to not be very loud. loud enough to give the kids using them some immediate feedback, but not “UGH”-level loud. we thought everyone would appreciate that.

i think we came up with quite an excellent solution. when i made my exemplar drum, i began LITERALLY not knowing if i’d finish or not, and i had made an ENTIRE drum, without leaving my kitchen for materials, an hour later. it’s not gorgeous or elegant… but it gets the job done!

MATERIALS
an oatmeal canister (42 oz!!)
clear packing tape
masking tape
colored “duck” tape
drawing or construction paper
marker to decorate drum head
a short length of drinking straw or organic stick
disposable bamboo chopsticks
a little bit of yarn or tinsel for making a tassel

take your 42 oz oatmeal canister and cut rounds about an inch wide. you can get a lot of drum frames out of one oatmeal container!

take clear packing tape and encircle the entire drum “frame” with it. this first layer is the most difficult, and the most important; you must maintain the round shape of the frame, and not let the tape squeeze it out of shape. loose is better than tight. you can make tighter layers later.

next layer: masking tape. cover it all. both “heads”, and the edge.

after another layer of clear packing tape, you’ll want to make a small slit in what will be the “bottom” of the vertical drum head. your handle will go here and it’s easier to make that little hole now.

cut two four-inch rounds of paper — wrapping paper, coloring paper, construction paper. your child can decorate these as they see fit. affix them with a bit of tape on the backs of them, to each side of the drum. take your colored duck tape and wrap it around the edge of the drum, leaving the slit opening for your handle.

to make your handle, wrap a set of disposable bamboo chopsticks in colored duck tape.

insert handle. a little glue would not hurt.

use smaller strips of your duck tape to further attach your handle to your drum head.

now make a small hole directly opposite your handle, at the top of the drum. insert a short length of drinking straw, or even a little piece of stick, if you want a more organic look. again, a little glue is fine.

attach some tinsel or yarn to the straw/stick at the top of the drum, for a tassel. use another set of chopsticks wrapped in duck tape to make a stick for hitting your sogo.

fast, cheap, and out of control!

first walk-in korean drumming clinic at community culture exchange

oh i am happy today! it took a very long time to find an open, comfortable, accessible, free venue in town where i could get my two drumming buddies, andrew and peterson, in the same room together, so we could all play — and ALSO be in a spot where people might just hear us and walk in and join! OH, and a place that was also FULLY stocked with tons of craft supplies for the kids hanging out.

sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? it’s the community cultural exchange on south street, and we love it. totally open to us coming in and making a ton of noise? of course they were. so we packed up two kids, two sogo, two sagmo, two buk, four janggu, a bunch of handouts and coloring pages, and headed off to meet andrew and peterson, and see who else showed up!

mercedes and her kids harley and holden were already waiting for us. these were the first children to whom any of us had had to explain the mechanics of the janggu, so we were initially a little stuck, but we figured it out. obviously, we figured it out — look at this!

 

that’s a six year-old who had never heard of or seen a janggu an hour before, playing hwimori!

harley had such an affinity for the janggu that we gave her one to borrow and take home. she was going to tell her music teacher at school about her new adventure.

so that she could practice at home, peterson made her this:

 

a little later, my friend regina and her son david came by to try out some drumming. david is very young, but to see him drumming with his mom, even if they were not perfectly on beat, was pretty neat. playing poongmul with someone you care about really does give a new level to your relationship — i believe that sincerely.

we were getting some attention from passersby on the street, and some ladies even came in to watch for awhile. claudia and béla demonstrated their sangmo and sogo.

and there was art.

a few friends of andrew’s showed up and there was a big jam. we used every drum in the place, and by the end of the night, could have used one more two more!

when you plan a first-time, open-to-the-public event like this, i think you’ve got a win just in getting there. we did even better than that. if it wasn’t for the fact that i think peterson got really wet getting home, i’d call it perfect — with room for growth! we are doing it again in february and hope to see more people!

“swing wing” versus 상모

about a week ago, friends on facebook were sharing this clip around, after it had been featured in an article on cracked.com.

 

little did our friends know that the original “swing wing” — one for each kid — was in our basement, just waiting to be gifted. having seemed a little too much to handle on christmas, and having been thwarted as a kwanzaa gift when we went out of town for a few days near the end of that holiday, the sangmo were just a mysterious chapaghetti box in the basement the kids didn’t know about.

until last night. when the presence of the “swing wing” video on facebook continued to spread. we counteracted it, with this:

annnnnd this

and this!

okay. you’ve GOT to start somewhere.

we know how good it CAN look, though:

 

 

but, in our case, it was more like…

 

 

and then i found this informative video on how to put on a sangmo!

 

 

and then… oh dear.